A secret program called "Project Ghostbusters" saw Facebook devise a way to intercept and decrypt the encrypted network traffic of Snapchat users to study their behavior.
This is the problem with using VPN services in general, you have to have complete trust in the service provider.
Another option, if you have technical skills, is to just run your own VPN which tends to be pretty easy to setup on a VPS nowadays. You can find a VPS provider in a jurisdiction you want, and you control what gets logged.
The only thing that actually matters is the jurisdiction. If your hosting provider is in a place that the country you live in can’t legally force to hand the data over then you’re much better off than using a service that may be sharing data with your government.
The topic in question here is not about government abuse of data, it’s corporate abuses, but okay, let’s set that aside.
You’ve said that it’s safer to roll your own VPN using a VPS service precisely because you can’t trust any VPN providers, or auditing organizations.
But you’re now saying that you can trust a hosting provider based solely on which jurisdiction they reside in.
You’re just arbitrarily picking which companies to trust with your connection traffic, but with added complexity, and significantly reduced egress locations for your traffic, which itself dramatically impacts any privacy benefits you were looking to achieve.
First of all, nowhere did I say anything about trusting any hosting provider. The point once again was about jurisdiction of the provider. Meanwhile, there’s nothing more arbitrary about picking a hosting provider than a VPN.
How do you trust anyone? At some point you either do or don’t, because it’s just not possible to verify everything in your life.
The alternative would be not using an VPN and for me personally I trust my VPN provider a lot more than my luck of not getting chaught by chance.
Another option, if you have technical skills, is to just run your own VPN which tends to be pretty easy to setup on a VPS nowadays. You can find a VPS provider in a jurisdiction you want, and you control what gets logged.
…so, trust the hosting provider to not log…and that you won’t screw up any config or update, and make sure to use anonymous payments, and…and…etc.
The only thing that actually matters is the jurisdiction. If your hosting provider is in a place that the country you live in can’t legally force to hand the data over then you’re much better off than using a service that may be sharing data with your government.
The topic in question here is not about government abuse of data, it’s corporate abuses, but okay, let’s set that aside.
You’ve said that it’s safer to roll your own VPN using a VPS service precisely because you can’t trust any VPN providers, or auditing organizations.
But you’re now saying that you can trust a hosting provider based solely on which jurisdiction they reside in.
You’re just arbitrarily picking which companies to trust with your connection traffic, but with added complexity, and significantly reduced egress locations for your traffic, which itself dramatically impacts any privacy benefits you were looking to achieve.
First of all, nowhere did I say anything about trusting any hosting provider. The point once again was about jurisdiction of the provider. Meanwhile, there’s nothing more arbitrary about picking a hosting provider than a VPN.