Oddbean new post about login | logout Maybe a small moment for nostr, a bigger moment for vpn usage.
VPN must be the best lie ever to be told. A centralised service, used by everyone who doesn't want to be seen all in one convenient log for the CIA to read. Oh, and you pay for it!
What would you say about Tor? Also, would you say Mullvad is different?
I don't know.... Do you know how tor works? I don't. I trust that millions of other people use it and seems to not have been reports, but in actually I can't trust it if I can't really verify? It seems that I get different IPS and that kinda makes me happy for some uses. I don't know anything about mullvad.
I don't know how exactly it works but @Ava probably does.
I do know how Tor works, and only an organization like the CIA could deploy enough routing nodes to spy on anyone through it... And they won't get everyone they cast their net for. So it's mostly kosher... Just don't do anything very illegal there, because they may be casting a net for you if you do.
How do I know you are not CIA?
If you just want to go around a censor, vpn, free vpn even, will do the job. CIA may read your traffic, but for many the point is to get around the censor not to gain more privacy. (I'm not advocating for this as the perfect solution, just *expecting* this is what the majority chooses to do)
I thought about this and you have a point. There is THAT use where you just want to trick netflix or watch youtube from china. But ultimately you are placing "url + ip + location + datetime + associated address + date of birth .. " in the hands of a VPN you know nothing about.
I never said there is a good privacy with VPNs, one can be quite sure selling detailed user data is a part of the biz. But many don't care or don't think about it much. The only thing that matters to them is if it gets them the content they want. That might change if there are arrests based on the VPN data, but first people will just use the easiest thing to go around the obstacle. Of course I'm CIA, you should know, because you're CIA as well 🤣. (My imperfect english is just a "camouflage" 😉)
VPN is a temporary solution. China's experience shows that govs can quickly block it too. People should learn to use Nostr.
Agreed, but (in the near future, sadly) most of them will learn how to use VPNs and never learn about nostr.
VPNs are the only thing harder to use than Nostr.
I hope everyone switches to nostr. It's a great opportunity, please take advantage of the situation and purplepill as much brazilians as is humanly possible this round.