this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/35967051

Most people turn to a VPN for one reason: privacy. And with its verified badge, featured placement, and 100k+ installs, FreeVPN.One looked like a safe choice. But once it’s in your browser, it’s not working to keep you safe, it’s continuously watching you.

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[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 2 points 13 minutes ago

There's no such thing as free vpn. Any idiot who falls for this quite frankly deserves it.

[–] firepenny@lemmy.world 1 points 9 minutes ago

You can't trust extensions these days. Granted if you are using a "free" vpn, you are the product.

[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 16 points 10 hours ago

Sure THIS will protect the children!

/s

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 12 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

There are things on the internet that are free and fine to use. VPNs are not one of them. They have ongoing hosting and bandwidth costs. They are not eating those costs without recouping them somehow.

[–] TheMinister@sh.itjust.works 17 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

How the fuck else do you think a for profit company is offering free tech?

[–] Amir@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Free trial with limitations is a classic method that has worked well

[–] TheMinister@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago

I’m saying it’s literally a free VPN. But they’re q company. If they’re offering you free shit, you’re the product.

[–] TheGreenWizard@lemmy.zip 33 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

God that ai image the article uses is such shit

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 12 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

The dingy color scheme gives it away immediately. AI thinks comics should look dingy. Are all LLMs trained on comics printed on old newspaper or something?

[–] TheGreenWizard@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 hours ago

It's similar to something we'd do on purpose in the mid 2010's, deep frying, when people made satirical MLG compilations they would throw memes in as many filters as possible, making a piss yellow slowly cover the meme the more filters you used.

[–] moseschrute@lemmy.ml 6 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (5 children)

Ubiquiti router with all traffic (excluding streaming sites and video games) encrypted via Mulvad. Checkmate atheists.

Also PS, if you’re not paying for the product you’re the product. Checks notes: I’m not paying for Lemmy?

PPS reminder to donate to Lemmy/PieFed

[–] just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

Whats more is that, anyone who creates a server can scrape all the data on fediverse. It's every AI company's wet dream.

And any comment you delete will still be visible to server admin.

Lemmy currently does have these privacy issues

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 8 hours ago

OMG! They will know all of Hue Manne's secrets!!!

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[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] moseschrute@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
  • Minecraft, to keep my ping down
  • Streaming, because Netflix and others will aggressively block VPNs
[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Didn't netflix encourage vpn's for like a decade?

I havent paid for streaming in forever, because i dont want to give art-mangling archive-destroyers my money, but that's amazing.

[–] moseschrute@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

No idea tbh. All I know is most streaming services block them now since they often have different content in different regions.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

That seems so fuckkng tedious. Why are you paying them for that sevurity compromising bullshit? They're absolutely selling your juicy juicy data.

Valid on the Minecraft.

[–] moseschrute@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly I’m mostly leeching off my friends lol. And my cell provider bundles Netflix.

It’s not super tedious. Every time something doesn’t work, I just add it to my VPN exclusion list. I don’t really care if my ISP snoops on Netflix tbh.

The VPN blocking doesn’t really bother me. It’s the enshitification of streaming services that bothers me. E.g. why does every paid service now trying to show me ads.

Btw, a lot of Lemmy instances also don’t play nice with a VPN. Probably to block bots. PieFed is likely the same.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

if my isp

Oh honey it's so much worse than that.

And fuck those lemmy instances? Might consider blocking communities hosted on them.

[–] moseschrute@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Enlighten me. What damage do you thinking they are doing by snooping in my streaming traffic? Aside from profiling me and predicting my every move lol. But even with a VPN they are still finding ways to profile me.

As far as Lemmy instances, they are likely in a tough spot. You can’t build an enjoyable platform if it’s crawling with bots.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

lemmy

Ours allow vpn's, aren't shit holes.

enlighten me

Media consumption and ad responsiveness are really good data.

Then they can connect this to your other shit (phone model browser data etc).

Violate you with medium certainty everywhere.

Edit: Wouldn't be shocked if that's why the fingerprinting on you works so well. Assuming you arent slipping too bad anywhere else.

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[–] rozodru@lemmy.world 8 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

use either Mullvad (yes, I know, the GUI sucks) or set up your own VPN.

the mullvad cli is very quick and easy. it's a lot faster than what it was. OR set up your own wireguard VPN on your server, again very easy to set up.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

Those two are for pretty different use cases, no? First is for general internet access - for semi-anonymity or to skip Geo blocks. Second is when you want to access specific services you host yourself.

[–] sandbag@lemmy.zip 3 points 14 hours ago

What about proton?

[–] medem@lemmy.wtf 2 points 12 hours ago

This is the reason I've always been skeptical of all those Video Download Non Plus Ultra Pro 9000 extensions, also in Firefox. I'm like yea right. Next thing I know I'll be getting copyright infringement and piracy notices plus cease-and-desist letters.

[–] turdburglar@sh.itjust.works 33 points 22 hours ago

pay an illustrator, ai slophorse.

[–] ComradeRachel@lemmy.blahaj.zone 61 points 1 day ago (13 children)
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