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Comment by chefandy | Hacker News Reader

Anybody expecting to get enough privacy to commit crimes using a VPN is definitely naive. I think most people doing important privacy stuff like being whistle blowers in authoritarian regimes knows that well enough. As part of a multi-pronged strategy to reduce the surface area exposed to creepy data brokers, though? Works fine for me.

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Exactly the point. It's a security measure for regular people, who don't commit crimes and aren't a high value target for government agencies.

With a VPN your employee can't track what websites you're visiting over the WiFi in the break room (looking for a new job, visiting the union website for legal advice).

The hotel can't track what you're doing on their WiFi.

While traveling to not really democratic countries the government can't spy on you (in many muslim countries the typical US/European browsing behavior is probably illegal).

Right. A lot of folks sacrifice the good because it’s not unattainably perfect in tech, especially with security. I think the pressure to improve, on a whole, is a positive thing, but it often makes terrible practical advice.

> regular people, who don't commit crimes and aren't a high value target for government agencies.

> While traveling to not really democratic countries the government can't spy on you (in many muslim countries the typical US/European browsing behavior is probably illegal).

Aren’t these two threat models already completely different?

IMHO if an authoritarian government considers what you’re doing to be a crime, you should not be doing it over a VPN you saw advertised on a billboard

I think they’re mostly referring to bypassing countrywide web filters.

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