Being free always raises the question of what they are getting out of you using it. I wouldn't be entirely comfortable using it.
this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Hi there, as someone who is writing his master thesis on the privacy of fee vpns. I cannot recommend a single one. By that I mean the ones that advertise themselves as being a mainly free vpn. I have not had a look at privado in specific, but would highly recommend sticking to Proton. Their vpn is also fairly priced if you ask me.
Addtionally, if you want to quickly check out an app to see if they use excessive amounts of permissions(based on manifest file), and the implemented trackers they have you can use Exodus Privacy Tool; https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/io.privado.android/latest/
To be fair, proton has an OK free tier.
Tho, you might know more about the topic, you know anything about riseup VPN and/or calyx VPN?
Have sadly not checked these out in detail, however they do seem more promosing that the general free vpn one find by looking up "free vpn" on Google Play Store. Neither of them use excessive amounts of permissions, and the permssions they do ask for seem to fair to ask for. Neither of them have trackers implemented too which is nice. I would trust these more than other 'completelty free VPNs' atleast. However I'm only judging of first impressions and a quick look at their permissions. I'm assuming they lack features, speed etc..
If you want trust and transparency then options like Mullvad, Proton and IVPN would be my suggestions.
Look into fdroid vpns, there are some free ones too.
Personally I like mullvad
Shit
I have about 80 days left. Gotta pay up
And yes. Calyx and riseup and super slow and suck on all fronts
Protonvpn has a free tier
But no p2p on free. Honestly, OP, for this one you may just have to drop some cash on a reputable VPN
Just Proton VPN isn't expensive at all
$10/month, right? Not terrible but expensive nonetheless
I looked it up, it's 10 euro a month.
120 a year
200 Australian.
Expensive but cheap if tormenting
If you want just the vpn without any of the very common discounts its 5€ for 2 years plan
Its the cheapest good torrenting option with good bandwidth and great privacy.
Definitely 100 times cheaper than torrenting without vpn and getting caught.
Just get mullvad then. It’s 5€, every month, no special offers, just 5 bucks. Also it’s one of the best if not the best vpn provider you can get.
They don't have port forwarding wich is a problem for torrenting.
Proton is one of the best, Mullvad is behind only because of the port forwarding. But both are above everything else.
Damn I didn’t know they discontinued port forwarding support. Personally I moved to Premiumize for torrenting or generally pirating but still that’s a bummer.
And yeah its a bummer, before that I've given Mullvad and proton as great options, but currently i can only advertise for Proton in good faith. Its a little more expensive (unless you have a business plan regardless...) but its great for everything else.
Oeck vpn is a better deal than that if you need port forwading. At full price they are expensive but there is a 50% off deal on whirlpool.net.au at the moment. https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/9n1jvqwk US$83 per year, works out to about AU$125 per year.
Oeck vpn allows each user to forward 10 ports and the port number stays the same even if the vpn is reset.
No 5€ for the 2 years plan
Can't talk for the free tier, but my Usenet account comes bundled with a paid Privado account, and that's working ok so far. The connections have been reliable, fast, and low latency.
My main issue has been that it doesn't support port forwarding. Also, some GeoIP services locate many of their servers in the Netherlands, instead of where Privado says they are. Idk who's right, but it's definitely a problem if you want to pick a specific location.
It appears to have a 10 GB limit per month, which is so low that it would essentially be useless for most common torrenting purposes I can think of.
Ebooks, audiobooks, music, could all work in that realm
How often would you be forced into torrenting those mediums and how great is the risk? E-books do not need to be torrented as there are plenty of alternative ways to access them (including legal methods such as libraries). Audiobooks potentially do, but AFAIK are not prosecuted to the same extent as films and TV or video games. It can definitely be convenient to torrent music and it is a riskier medium than e-books or audiobooks, but similar to e-books there are plenty of alternatives to torrenting. I just don't see why you would bother signing up for a free VPN if that's the stuff you're after.
you could look into other ways of pirating, that don't necessarily require a vpn, instead. in may country it's mainly problematic to use torrents, because you automatically are sharing stuff as well. IRC is something that I never had a problem with, for example. you're only downloading and it doesn't cost you anything. there are xdcc search engines out there. The downsides are that it's a bit nerdy (is it a downside. though?) and you'll mostly find current mainstream content.
With no cash your only way to torrent for free safely is i2p and it’s slower speeds