grubbylarry

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Is this VPN comparison breakdown trustworthy? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They seem to recommend AirVPN pretty heavily. This comment points out some potential issues with that recommendation.

I just posted a thread on that sub inquiring about it, because I haven't really seen it addressed by that sub yet. I guess we'll see what the response is.

Is this VPN comparison breakdown trustworthy? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

Good point. This sounds like a vote against going the vps route, am I correct?

Is this VPN comparison breakdown trustworthy? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this comment: https://lemmy.ml/comment/5989977

It seems that he's recommending against Privacy Guides (I assume it's the same one you're recommending?)

Is this VPN comparison breakdown trustworthy? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

General consensus seems to be that it should be ignored. Your point is well received too. Thank you!

Is this VPN comparison breakdown trustworthy? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Thank you! This is extremely helpful!

Is this VPN comparison breakdown trustworthy? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the recommendations. Regarding it being easy and me making it difficult, I respectfully disagree, and would like to provide a bit perspective. If you're here replying I suspect you're at least a minor hobbyist, and I'm sure that privacy and security solution selections seems quite simple to you. I assure you, it isn't easy for everyone.

This particular market is literally overrun with intentionally deceptive and often very outdated information, which make it an absolute minefield for the uninitiated. I'm thankful I dove deep enough that I realized I needed to ask a question, because I may have ended up with one of the many much worse choices had I not asked.

Is this VPN comparison breakdown trustworthy? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Is that July 20th, 2019, or July 19th, 2020? Regardless, I'm under the impression that the VPN world (or really the tech world in general) evolves waaay too quickly to rely on information that's either 3 or 4 years old. Also, as I'm typing this, I also think I saw info that That One Privacy was acquired by a company that sells multiple VPN services, a few of which are included in that sheet if I'm remembering correctly.

EDIT: Confirmed.

Is this VPN comparison breakdown trustworthy? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

NGL doing something like that is WAY above my pay grade anyway, but I still am interested in the answer to this question, because I've seen the advice to take the 'self-operated' approach before.

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Is this VPN comparison breakdown trustworthy? (lemmy.ml)
 

I'm shopping for a VPN providers, and really struggling to find a detailed and non-biased breakdown of the various options. A number of years ago, I recall finding an extremely detailed VPN comparison spreadsheet that had 30+ columns, which were contained criteria by which the VPNs were judged both quantitatively and qualitatively. I can no longer find that table, so I suspect it has been removed, but I did find the less-comprehensive table, below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ijfqfLrJWLUVBfJZ_YalVpstWsjw-JGzkvMd6u2jqEk/edit?usp=sharing

In the thread posted by the owner of this sheet, a few commenters pointed out that the highest rated VPN providers in this table just happen to be the ones that advertise most aggressively and are well-known for buying positive reviews from tech blogs, which are pretty clearly designed to be misleading. I too am suspicious that this table can't be trusted, however I really am not knowledgeable about VPNs, so before passing judgement, I figured I should consult those who know more about it. I also recognize that a strong marketing team and an excellent product aren't mutually exclusive, however I think that generally applies more in markets where economies of scale play a significant role, as does mass-adoption, which fuels loads of well-informed, independent research (ex: the car market and phone market.) That obviously isn't the case with the VPN markets... but I'm still sorta holding out hope.

If I end up excluding this table, I'm not sure where to turn at that point. Shilling is extremely pervasive in the VPN market, so it's tough to trust any one person or any one thread. It's also well established that a few of the large VPNs actually own a number of review blogs, so I can't really trust blogs either.

I guess I'm here hoping to be told that my suspicions about this table are unfounded, and / or that another excellent, unbiased resource for comparative VPN info exists. Any help would be appreciated!