More thoughts about VPN services

While watching YouTube videos, I’ve been noticing more paid mentions of NordVPN or other similar services lately.

I was just about to start writing an article about it, when a blog search shows me that I already did that in April:

I have never been a big fan of VPN services. I think that many users have a wrong expectation about it, they think the VPN service would provide them anonymity and protect their data.

But a VPN does not provide anonymity. You never know if the service, despite promises of the contrary, keeps logs and then can assign users accordingly.

Meanwhile, the ads seem to focus less on the point of anonymity and more on the fact that you could use streaming providers from other countries or with a different location so that you can watch other country-restricted content.

What is often not mentioned is that this is often a violation of the terms and conditions of the respective streaming service and thus the account can be blocked.

Another phenomenon is that VPN providers are increasingly advertising multi-year subscriptions. Better to sign up for the 3-year subscription right away with the discount code and save 90%! Or something like that…

When such discounts are advertised, that tells me: 1. the service is usually way too overpriced or 2. that these are unsustainable dumping prices and the service probably finances itself in other ways. Selling the surfing history for instance? Or a Ponzi scheme where more and more new users are sold long subscriptions again that cost a large initial price first.

In April I decided to use Mullvad. They don’t do such dubious advertising and don’t offer discounts. Accounts can be created and paid for completely anonymously and are based on a simple prepaid system with no minimum subscription period.

I don’t really use the VPN very often, mostly only when my ISP’s connection to a certain website is not fast enough, but the Mullvad servers’ connection is faster. Or when I don’t want content to be suggested to me based on my IP address on a website.

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