bitmonster
Senior Member
Relying on a local signature file is no longer a reliable solution, the window of opportunity for a malware to slip in is too large.
Fair point I guess.
Tor is nothing special. Who would freely give up their bandwidth for a tor node/relay? The dark web didn't exactly keep the US government from tracking down people. Do you know which relays your traffic is going through?
And most vpn companies are some nameless entity with no real person or entity behind it (and as a result no accountability). The best it can do is move the data beyond the jurisdiction of your locality. Pia was shut down in Russia because they did not keep history and when their servers were taken over in Russia they had to change all of their encryption keys globally as a result. But who exactly is London Trust Media?
Secrecy and security are not the same thing. The same way being anti war and being for peace are not the same thing. The difference seems subtle, but they are very different.
Totally agree. But TOR at least encrypts across nodes within the network, and I understand the 'breaches' were not on the TOR network itself but on the client side, and TAILS OS would go a long way to eliminating that risk.
And it's free.
If someone from IP 1.2.3.4 accessed website www.smut.tld, do you really think anyone will care?
Ask people in nearly any Muslim country. Yes they care. And yes going to 'gaysmut.tld' could spell death. A Saudi Arabian journalist was recently executed. Turkey is going along the same route (and they are supposed to be secular). An atheist activist was executed last year in Pakistan. Malaysia routinely rounds up and punishes anyone even suspected of being 'atheist' - using guess what - browsing history and social media. The Indonesian defence minister declared that gay people are more of a threat than nuclear war - and wants them tracked. Indonesia (in Aceh) routinely publicly whips gay people or at least sends them to 're-education camps' - and even women caught in the company of any man she is not related to (they get whipped too). And they use - guess what - browsing history, chat logs, social media etc. Here in Australia we target them for other reasons (high spending tourists) - but not all countries are free. And even Australia is now going backwards in many ways - because people are asking less questions and protesting less.
So it relates to this. Just because we live in countries where we are no longer executed for such things, doesn't mean this is the norm across the world. And these countries are getting worse not better.
Stop being "offended" because a company is trying to lower the price of their service by using data that will never have any direct impact on your personal life.
It's not about being offended. It's about asking legitimate questions. It's no reflection on your and others hard work or the services provided in the product. I think it's healthy to ask questions.
It's just a forum - people are free to unsubscribe or ignore if they wish too - as long as we are not being rude or offensive?
One of my main reasons for using a VPN is also security, is there no point to using a VPN to stop things like a MiM attacks?
VPN offers no additional security unless you're talking about privacy and bypassing these "religiously enlightened" regimes mentioned above.
Fingerprinting, uniquely provided information
Good point too... There again TAILS is the only way around this if one is concerned (and in countries like above they should be).
So if your goal is to hide from the authorities (for whatever reason), a VPN provider is not going to protect you there.
Yep - agreed.
You're completely correct about lack of knowledge leading to paranoia.
Can do. But remember Hitler sailed in to power on the back of apathy and look how that wound up. When the economy was growing again few bothered to look in to what he was actually up to.
His reason was "because electricity and water don't mix".
Well in the days before improve electrical standards i.e. RCD current breakers - he had a point. Old fuses stopped overloading, not electrocution. Did anyone ask if he ever saw or heard of someone being electrocuted so had genuine fear? Rather than belittling his 'outdated views'. A modern RCD fuse would reduce that risk of course though (which all houses should now have).
I would rather have trend micro specifically call out what data they collect, why, and what they use it for.
^^^^^ This ^^^^^
This is all we're asking for. If it's legit that's fine - it's when companies don't really explain it or bury it in ten pages of dense legal text that it becomes an issue. Some companies explain things well and simply, and then have ten pages of legal text for those who care.
When i find some application like es file explorer that i've used for years and have paid for is collecting information even when not in use and sending it to servers in china that is a cause for concern. What is it collecting? Who is receiving the information? Did i give it root access?
>> Chinese phones have been found to have ad / spyware baked in to the firmware <<
Now while this firm 'claimed' it was only for 'advertising' and quality control purposes - it is worth remembering that Chinese law requires their companies to support intelligence gathering.
At the end of the day I agree with Merlin - unhealthy paranoia and mis-information does not help - but apathy certainly does not help either.
Just asking questions is not a reflection or automatic indictment on any company or the hard work of volunteers and other supporters. It's just about asking questions... No harm from that is there?
Just remember that it is the minority of the world that is actually free (and less so by the day) - while the majority of the world's population live either under Islamic theocracies or totalitarian regimes like China where any 'difference' or even 'divergent opinion' can spell death without even a basic trial.
What we all enjoy here is the exception, not the norm. So I am happy if people continue asking questions to keep it that way.
And yes all those Islamic and totalitarian regimes above would absolutely use the information discussed here if they could. Go to 'gaysmut.tld' in Saudi Arabia and you would expect the door to be kicked in within 24 hours.
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