Copy of original thread post:
Title: Has anyone tried Riseup VPN?
I’ve been experimenting with some free VPNs, and it looks like Riseup is legit. I’m able to torrent on it without issue and the speeds are acceptable for my connection.
How come we don’t recommend this more? Everyone is always saying “no free vpns,” but how many of you have actually tried them? I feel like I’ve been wasting money on my VPN ever since I found Riseup.
Are we just being hustled by the viral marketers and their useful idiots?
[end of original post]
Why did this post get removed for spam, but the post about a paid VPN stays up?
Are the mods just removing posts that get reported, regardless of if rules are being broken? If so, they should consider how most people paying for a product will get very defensive whenever someone mentions they could be getting that product for free.
short answer: because nobody flagged that other one. (it is deleted now too.)
re: riseup, is it even possible to use their VPN without an invite code? (i don’t think it is?)
in any case, riseup says clearly that their purpose is “to provide digital self-determination for social movements” - it is not intended for torrenting, even if it might work for it.
feel free to PM me if you want to discuss this further; i am deleting this post too. (at the time of deletion it has 8 upvotes and 33 downvotes, btw.)
I would be interested to know why you are pushing this product across multiple places on Lemmy. Your post, despite disparaging “viral marketers”, has a viral marketing tone with statements such as “I feel like I’ve been wasting money on my VPN ever since I found Riseup”.
Additionally, while I do believe a free VPN using an autonomous collective, resource pooling approach is a great idea, in practice this VPN has had… not a great history from my point of view. A quick search shows that in 2017 they were forced to comply with US Law Enforcement https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riseup, see the Warrant Canary section. VPNs based in the US are known to be at risk, and this is another good example.
When choosing a VPN provider, server location is important, as well as company location. You are repeatedly encouraging people to Torrent from a VPN based in one of the most zealous countries opposing file sharing worldwide, and one that has already worked with Law Enforcement.
Don’t leave moms basement. You can’t handle the world as it is.
Can’t speak to this incident, but i do agree that in general, free VPNs are not safe because usually they are funded by selling your personal information and web traffic data or performing MITM attacks to inject ads and thus compromising security, even if that’s not the intention.
That being said, Rise Up is a donation funded organization and is specifically run by a nonprofit promoting activism, so really it all comes down to your trust that org. The cost of bandwidth required to run a VPN is high, their site mentions it costs them about $60/person/year. So that money has to come from somewhere. If you’re paying, and it’s a reasonably trustworthy company, then it’s unlikely they will be willing to risk selling your data. But if you’re not paying, then the incentive to not sell your data just isn’t there, thus it requires more trust, IMHO.
Also, if they are a legit org and I take their product without paying, I’m taking that money from activists in places that truly need VPNs to stay safe from arrest or murder, so I generally don’t feel it’s moral to use it just to save money, but that’s me.
I generally don’t feel it’s moral to use it just to save money, but that’s me.
Yeah, it sounds similar to “I feel like I’ve been wasting money on groceries ever since I found food banks.”
Thanks for the reasonable and informative response.
Free VPNs are simply a bad idea.
What are they getting from you that allows them to pay for the ‘free’ service? It certainly isn’t a monthly sub, and there is only one other thing you are sending them…your data.
For some people it’s not always about the money.
The powers that be want to make sure that us workers never see value in those people.
This is FUD that’s peddled to consumers so you don’t feel bad about spending money on something you could be getting for free.
Try to see things from a practical perspective, instead of parroting “sayings” as though they are absolute fact.
You could save some money for it!
How do they pay for the service?
Grannyporn.
On their website it’s said they’re funded by donations.
You would be wise to, you know, at least check out their website before making up your own nonsense.
Perhaps you should ask the moderator of the community from where that post was removed.
I would, but it’s better to make discussions of censorship public.
I don’t trust anyone who abuses their power, so I’m not going to try and reason with them personally.
At this point, it’s becoming clearer that there is a concerted effort to stifle any discussion of free VPNs on the internet.
I encourage anyone with a brain to try for themselves instead of letting others make decisions for them. Theory is no substitute for experience, and you could be wasting a lot of money just to fit in with suckers on the internet.
You are mistaking a “concerted effort” with a general consensus that free VPNs are not a great idea. “If a service is free, you are not the customer, you are the product” is a pretty good rule of thumb. Your downvotes aren’t necessarily a conspiracy here.
I disagree with the statement now a days. There are so many paid services that still sell your data. I use almost entirely all FOSS programs which are also monetarily free and none turn me into their product.
“If a service is free, you are not the customer, you are the product”
There it is, he regurgitated it!
No, the real issue is that people don’t want to admit when they’ve been taken for a ride. I see it all the time and don’t expect more from consumers at this point.
Anything to avoid admitting you spent money on something you could’ve gotten for free.
“It’s easier to fool a man than to convince him he’d been fooled.” - Mark Twain
No, the real issue is that people don’t want to admit when they’ve been taken for a ride.
How ironic…
How so? I’ve admitted in my post that I wasted money by paying for a VPN for years.
I encourage anyone with a brain to try for themselves instead of letting others make decisions for them.
May I ask how do one try the trustworthiness of a VPN?
I mean, if the question is to decide if it works or not, well, chances are it does work but that’s not saying much. As much as I appreciate your suggestion to make up our own mind, well, in such a situation we can hardly decide by ourselves and we need independent audits. So, my question would be: are there any for that VPN you mentioned (I don’t know anything about it myself, never heard about it, never used it, which means I have nothing against or for it).
