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StavrosK

Can I ask VPN users here what you use it for? I've personally never found a good use case...

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Avoid the legal problems that come with torrenting.

Spoof my location.

Avoid giving trackers my IP address.

Avoid ISP throttling.

Hopefully my VPN doesn't log. At least my ISP can't log. I'm not concerned about state-level actors, just commercial ones.

In the past I used it for torrenting. Nowadays because it adds a layer of privacy from companies and governments. I trust my government now but I don't have to trust my future government. I am pretty sure I don't do anything illegally, but a future government might not think so.

Like in the UK when they wanted to ban porn (I think?). Something harmless today (legally speaking) can become an issue in the future.

The UK's Age Verification changes (not 'porn ban') has been delayed by another 6 months following some admin screw-up related to informing the EU. It's not really a very good example since it won't be illegal (for the consumer).

Yeah I wasn't sure as I'm not from the UK. So I added the "I think" :P

Are we sure VPNs don't log / turn logs over to federal authority figures if pressed?

Empirically, PIA has no logs to give (per multiple warrants now).

no, though that may constitute fraud depending on the jurisdiction. this is why some VPNs are based in certain countries, such as ProtonVPN in Switzerland. obviously they have to comply with a valid legal request, but depending on the data retention laws in the jurisdiction, there may be nothing to give over.

some VPNs definitely lie about logging, maybe most of them. ProtonVPN is one of the least likely ones to do so given their transparency relative to other VPN companies, their ProtonMail service, their infrastructure, and their founder.

upstream logging is still possible, and protonvpn is the only VPN service I know of with any of its own infrastructure. it has one datacenter in switzerland and you can use it as a proxy to some of its third party operated endpoints in other countries.

I was in France in May for the next to the last episode of Game of Thrones. Even though I pay for an HBO subscription, they still wouldn't let me watch it until I VPN'd into my nyc based server.

Primarily to avoid snooping when using various wifi hotspots out and about in the world and when using roaming data.

In addition to that, I don't trust my current or any of the previous governments, and I likely won't trust any future governments. I also don't trust any ISP in my country further than I can throw them, due to government-mandated logging. My workplace does mandatory MITM proxying and logs everything, I'm working on getting around that.

Avoiding throttling is huge. Is streaming video mysteriously garbage despite having 100 Mb/s? Connect to a VPN and watch the issues disappear.

Protecting my privacy while browsing at work and on unsecured networks like coffeehouse wifi and when traveling. I have a gigabit connection at home so I just run wireguard locally. Works great.

Also many mobile plans throttle video to 480p, a VPN bypasses that.

To complement the list above, use a private vpn, hosted at home, to access devices and services which are only accessable from home, while being on a remote location. I use it to access my server environment.

We build our own WireGuard VPN servers to SSH to other servers. Aside from that, I personally use it to avoid ISP throttling and spoof my location, as @RandomBacon said.

I use protonmail so VPN comes as part of the package. I use it at all times with my phone and when I'm away from home with my notebook.

I installed pi hole on my algo VPN, so that I could remove ads from my Android phone without needing to root it.

You can also use the DNS66 Android app for that without root.

Public wifi access.

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