i do have a Mozilla account already so this isn't a dealbreaker, if the VPN was available in my country
this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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I'm yet to see a reputable and reliable VPN where you don't have to sign in
Are wireguard configs personal to each user?
I got a nice bundle of usenet provider and PrivadoVPN that uses Wireguard configs in order to connect. Not even sure if they have their own app. Both indexer and VPN provider generate usernames.
host your own
Mullvad generates you a unique account number for your "login" that you're only told once (if you pay them in crypto or other privacy friendly payment methods)
PIA did/does something similar but they've lost my trust
PIA was bought by an Israeli private equity firm Kape Technologies that also has a bunch of other VPN brands they operate. Even if they pass an audit I wouldn't trust them not to be doing something shady with the data.
I'm torn about PIA. Kape is scetchy (and based out of an apartheid state), but PIA itself is court-tested.
based out of an apartheid state
This is badly understating the situation. Israel has horrific goals and works tirelessly to implement them. Cannot be trusted in any way, unless your goals align, and even then not really.
As soon as they are seen to be involved, privacy is entirely off the table, that's the exact opposite of what that place does (and they do it well). Unraveling privacy is critically important to Israel and their genocide.
The evidence is substantial. But if I were a certain tyrant waging an information war, and I were interested in spying on dissidents, I would be looking for ways to spy on and manipulate companies like Kape in ways that aren't publicly visible, because their reputation of independence is valuable. That alone makes PIA not worth the risk for me.
Wait, really? When did this happen? I've been using PIA all along.
2019 per wikipedia But I too used them for a while after that but before I found out. PIA used to be pretty regularly recommended as a VPN and then it kinda fell off, but I never really knew why.
Its probably the "no logging" policy.
Mullvad
Mullvad
Right?
The Firefox VPN is just a different name for Mullvad.
There's 2 different "Firefox VPNs." Mozilla VPN is a paid VPN that uses Mullvad, and Firefox VPN is a "free" VPN (it sells your data)
Proton?
Proton requires registration.
The free tier does not.
Onion etc
Tor net isn't really a vpn though it offers an enhanced set of features in some regards, and downgraded features in others. you have to understand what each is for and use them accordingly
login with google
What do you even do with 50gb of tracked data?
Edit: i should clarify that i mean regular people, not corpos
Put it in an unsecured aws s3 bucket
Categorize/profile it and sell it to the highest bidder. The more corps. know your every detail, actions and reactions, the better chances there are of said person(s) to eventually cave and buy their stuff or pay for services.
Simple example: If you know that someone is in a curtain age group (say 25-35), has paid for car insurance before and what state they currently live in, then car insurance companies/corps. will target you with their ad(s).
No no i meant what do regular people use all of it for?
Good thought out answer though
Metadata is often more interesting/useful than the data itself
Opera's VPN doesn't require registration and has no limits, So it's a free VPN, don't use it for anything important, but at least it's not an obvious scam.
VPN is just a virtual wire to someone else's computer. Somrone has to pay that. Also, you have to trust the owner with your browsing data.
It's more like a DNS as far as I know. They also had a service for opera mini j2me and Symbian to mirror webapps from a server (so it might be that technology). With how the tech works, I wouldn't really trust it's privacy (but it still was the only decent option in 2018, when I actually used it).
I don't use it for privacy, I would never use a free VPN for that and even less one without a paid version (where do they get the money for the service?) I use it to bypass regional blocks or blocked pages in my country (due to piracy in most cases) and for that it works quite decently.
Last I knew, Opera was owned by a Chinese company. I don't have a problem with the Chinese people, but their onerous government gives me pause. I don't want to contribute to them financially any more than I absolutely have to (considering it's virtually impossible to buy much of anything nowadays that doesn't have their hooks in it outside of food - and there's probably even something I'm missing there).
their onerous government gives me pause
Tell me more, fellow human.
"It's a trap!" Admiral Ackbar
I'm not interested in debate of this topic, as virtually every time I have engaged in such in the past it's quickly become obvious that the other person was not engaging in good faith with an open mind.
There is plenty of information to be found from all sides on the topic on the net, and if you're truly interested you should invest the time to look it over with a skeptical eye while knowing there's a good amount of propaganda from both sides. You'll have to figure out which sources are most trustworthy, and factual in their reporting - although even the more biased sources often make good points to be considered. Then compare and contrast stories to find the essential facts that are most likely to actually be true and go from there.
Good luck.
The Chinese people? Eh their fine. People all suck tho so they probably suck too.
Chinese government? Eh they suck. But all governments suck.
Governments are made up of the people of the country. So all people and all governments suck.
Thus it can be concluded humanity sucks me included.
A very human response from a human, indeed.
Yes, I think that at least part of the property is owned by a Chinese consortium (I think not 100% of the company) it also uses Chormium with everything it implies and as I said the VPN is free which itself should make anyone suspicious. I didn't mean to say that opera is perfect as a browser, but this specific service provides it better than firefox and despite its problems, for me, the work boards function is what makes me use it by default
Even if you're not concerned about China but some other bad actors, they might still be able to easily purchase the data from the Chinese government...
That is kind of an issue with almost any vpn service however...
Hunh. Seems like someone's been studying the ol' Nigerian Prince gambit (insofar as dumbing down the hook to fish for idiots). Don't worry, though! I'm sure they'll only get better at it! 😶🤌🏼