What is reddit's opinion of
ProtonVPN?
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ProtonVPN has good anti-logging policies and ok security practices. It based is in Switzerland, which has a great internet privacy record.Popularity trend
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Just tried it using ProtonVPN and it is not working for me either. They've apparently got a way to detect and stop it from working if you use a VPN. source
From their website:
We believe privacy and security are fundamental human rights, so we also provide a free version of ProtonVPN to the public. Unlike other free VPNs, there are no catches. We don't serve ads or secretly sell your browsing history. ProtonVPN Free is subsidized by ProtonVPN paid users. If you would like to support online privacy, please consider upgrading to a paid plan for faster speeds and more features.
;utm_campaign=1302&bestdeal
They claim
> ProtonVPN for Android is the world’s only Android VPN app that is completely free and doesn’t have bandwidth limits. Unlike other “free” Android VPNs, ProtonVPN has no ads and does not secretly sell your browsing data.
Read the article dude,
>Free services these days are rightfully regarded with a bit of suspicion. After all, Google and Facebook, which are “free,” are actually charging you by compromising your privacy to advertisers. But ProtonVPN is different. We are the only free VPN with no bandwidth limits, data caps, or privacy invading ads. We do not install malware on your device or sell your data to third parties (we have a strict no-logs policy). Instead our free VPN service is supported by paid plans, which come with advanced security features and higher speeds.
Furthermore, it got audited by Mozilla, and they are the same devs behind ProtonMail — they’re more than reliable.
Relay Pro for reddit
Spotify / SoundCloud / Phonograph for music
Evernote for note-taking
Snapseed + VSCO for photo editing
Action Launcher for Launcher
SwiftKey for Keyboard
Firefox + Addons for Internet
Youtube Vanced for PiP Youtube
ProtonVPN for VPN use.
Some will likely don't like that this essentially is Mozilla advertising an external service.
But to me, at least, that is outweighed by the fact that for Mozilla this is an additional revenue stream which means they are less reliant on their deal with Google.
And for users this means that a VPN service, in a sea of questionable options, has now been scrutinized and recommended by Mozilla. Which means that ProtonVPN gains an even greater level of trust as well as the promotion Mozilla provides.
So a good VPN will grow while being closely monitored by Mozilla for any possible, albeit unlikely, future shenanigans.
So users can be fairly confident that it's a good, and safe, choice if one wants to use a VPN service.
Partnership with ProtonVPN. Good company, fast speeds. I use it at hotels when I travel to prevent snooping on open WiFi.
EDIT: Don’t buy through Firefox though, they charge $10 for the same thing that Proton sells for $8.
Andy here, I literally just had a call with Jason Donenfeld this afternoon about this. Yes, it is planned, most likely sometime next year. ProtonVPN's infra and user base has grown a lot in the past 12 months, we just released the iOS app, and we're working on preparing to make all the apps open source (as that's one of our firm goals we have outlined for 2019), so we've got a lot of plates spinning at the same time on the VPN side (and this is without getting into all the projects happening on the Mail side). We need a couple months to stabilize things and then we will start working in this direction.
Hi, ProtonMail team here. We have responded previously to this, it's a smear campaign being run against us by Private Internet Access since ProtonVPN is competing with them.
You can find our response here: _and_tesonet/
I used a throwaway Pi image and connected through ProtonVPN. I then asked for the english version of the page and proceeded to click on pre-sale. First of all, the page switched back to spanish as it is the only option. Then it asked for my name, e-mail and verification for which I selected Passport. I entered a made up name, one of my my fake spam addresses and some random numbers for passport. It accepted all of it! No picture of my passport was requested, just a field to type in. It then proceeded to throw up all over itself.
I've seen some sketchy shit in my day and this one stinks to high heaven.
EDIT: Oh. MY. God. It worked on the second try. It says it is sending a verification e-mail. I USED GIBBERISH AS VERIFICATION!! For the love of all that is holy, do not give these people your banking information or any information.
I doubt your friends ISP will notice unless hes downloading hundreds of GB to TB of stuff. My friend got a letter from his after getting tons of movies, but it was just a cease and desist letter first. I wouldn’t worry about it. Fuck how expensive text books are.
But if he wantsa good free VPN, just download ProtonVPN. It’s free and it’ll probably give him some peace of mind.
Later versions of ProtonVPN have resolved this issue and an update was rolled out to all users starting about a month ago. It is important to note that an attacker needs to already have access to your computer for this exploit to work, and it only impacts Windows users.
ProtonVPN. Based in Switzerland and no logging. They have a free version with reduced speeds and no torrenting that’s subsidized by the paid users, not paid for with your personal data because they’re not a data company. Their email client is end to end encrypted by default.
Also the vpn client is open source and has passed security audits.
I of course recommend checking out ProtonVPN :)
But more importantly, I recommend understanding what a VPN can or can't defend you against. As with any tool, understanding the threat model is the most important part:
I’ll put in a plug for ProtonVPN and ProtonMail.
If you don’t have a ProtonMail account, get one. Stop allowing your ISP, Yahoo, Google, or Microsoft to read your mail. ProtonMail is based in Switzerland and must follow Swiss privacy laws. Their entry level accounts are free.
Protonmail it's becoming the trendy and secure alternative to Gmail, at the moment they have a super secure e-mail services compatible with PGP and a great VPN service called ProtonVPN, however they are also creating a whole world of services like calendar, agenda, and so on... Soon they will completely replace Google services.
I'm using it and I'm happy with.
Andy, how are you able to operate protonmail within mainland China without blocking from censors? Every single encrypted email service like tutanota is blocked in China but Protonmail works! Even ProtonVPN is blocked, but works like a charm. (Hopefully not a CCP sponsored charm.)
Do you have mainland Chinese servers that handle protonmail email and do you cooperate with Chinese authorities in any way?
ProtonVPN does not. It is owned by Proton Technologies AG, who also make ProtonMail, and E2E Encrypted Email with a 3FA. In addition, there are many paid options for ProtonVPN. The free version of ProtonVPN is more or less an endless trial that you have until you wish to upgrade.
The sheer number of affiliated Nord VPN links on each and every VPN review has always made me very cautious about NordVPN. Can't say I'm surprised.
Edit : just noticed ProtonVPN is in the picture too. That was spoken on the hacker news a few weeks ago. I have to say, this one surprised me quite a bit. The one who accused them were competitors (PIA).
EDIT : Protonmail has responded but their response is being downvoted. Which is strange. Here it is in full :
"Hi, ProtonMail team here. We have responded previously to this, it's a smear campaign being run against us by Private Internet Access since ProtonVPN is competing with them.
You can find our response here: "
I don't believe for one second that any of these apps' no-log policy is true. I read that no VPN with a single lifetime purchase should be trusted, and that makes sense to me (unless it's something like ProtonVPN which has been extensively reviewed, I guess).
I am subscribed to ProtonMail Plus and ProtonVPN Plus. I am really disappointed by what I pay for and what I get. Having lots of problems with the clients, ProtonVPN Speed often is horrible and/or doesn’t work so I have to use Windscribe. The development of ProtonMail is extremely slow considering the amount they charge for it. It does not even have a real iPad App with Columns!
If everything would work at least... but for now I just wish I could get my money back :(
Pretty accurate tbh. I use ProtonMail and ProtonVPN (when I'm at school just for bypassing site blocking) and it works fantastic. I've read through their privacy policies and it's very straight forward.
Mozilla recently announced they're partnering with ProtonVPN
I'm guessing these other VPNs are pushing their services now before ProtonVPN corners the market with a boost from Mozilla.
They are all actually in the country we claim that they are in, and you can actually verify that by checking the ping times and running traceroutes.
For example, our servers in Iceland actually are in Iceland, they are physical servers we own, on a network we control, running our own IP addresses, and our own dedicated connection to the underwater fiber operators.
This is part of the reason why ProtonVPN tends to be more expensive than other VPN services. We have significantly higher fixed costs from the way that we run our infrastructure (in top of the costs of supporting free users).
I use ProtonVPN and I'm pretty satisfied. They do have an app for android but you can also download OpenVPN configs and use them. It's also free if you can't/don't want to pay for their service. Check out /r/ProtonVPN for more information.
Yet ProtonMail has an eerily close relationship (formerly shared offices; formerly shared staff) with a major data mining organization (Tesonet). They even used Tesonet signing keys for one of their android apps.
To be fair - the ProtonMail and Tesonet people responded to such claims on reddit, and their recruiting pages emphasize machine learning.
But in any case, you probably want some privacy protecting anonymization layer (tor, and cash payments) between you and Proton*.
So how's this going to compare to ProtonVPN? I've seen people say that Proton is trustworthy despite being free because their free tier is supported by the paid tier and other paid products they have.
Is this similar?
why not just use a 3rd party like PIA or ProtonVPN? What reason would it need to be bundled with your browser. Unless you want a free VPN. You dont get a free VPN and privacy, you have to pick one. VPN servers are expensive so you cant expect them to provide it out of the kindness of their own heart. The only way 'free' VPN's make money is by using your data for profit. ProtonVPN has free servers but those dont allow torrents/tor and are essentially a trial, although they dont limit your time.
I like how transparent ProtonVPN is. Proton took a step forward and explained the situation, not to mention that they always communicate a lot with their users - they did not ignore the claims, they took them head on. I suggest checking out what Proton themselves have to say about the whole situation before pointing fingers and making more false claims -
Hi, I’m someone who is deep in the privacy topic and I can recommend NordVPN or ProtonVPN to you. You SHOULD NOT use ExpressVPN, because it is based in the 14 Eyes.
The 14 Eyes are a Alliance of Countries that share data and if your VPN Provider is based there, it’s not safe to use and there need to keep logs, protocols, and all the stuff you initially didn’t want someone to have!
So, even if you have to pay for the service, please use one of these two or an Open Source Alternative NOT based in the 14 Eyes.
If you are not careful this can be a double edged sword. VPN providers can see your traffic just as easily as the patrons sitting next to you while using the cafe wireless. You need to trust your VPN provider - do your research before going for something cheap and easy just because it came up first in your search results.
For any who ask, I use ProtonVPN. I've also heard good things about Nord VPN. And there is always Tor for the perpetually paranoid.
^^ This is the best advice ^^. Don't waste the resources you have with unnecessary bloat... unless you want to!
Ok, now disregarding everything I just said, here is my list: 1password
2Do
Affinity Photo
App Cleaner
Be Focused Pro (college student)
DaisyDisk
Day One
Fantastical 2 (just release calendars 5 already!)
Firefox nightly
galaxy client
keka
lighting (for LifX Bulbs)
MS Office (nothing beats it, shit)
OmniOutliner
Onyx
PDF Expert
Plex
Relisten (connects to )
Spark (replaced mail but totally didn't need to)
Steam
Taurine
Transmission
Tunnelblick (for use with ProtonVPN)
Ulysses (redundant, i know, but i love it!)
Vox (because fuck itunes)
xACT (because .flac files)
Xld (because .flac files)
None are necessary, most are redundant, but all do a better and worse job than the stock apps. Its all about finding whatever works for you.
edit Haazah!
As a person living in India under an oppressive government, both Protonmail and ProtonVPN are useful but regrettably extremely expensive services for us. I would love to pay for a lower tier with enhanced services than their free versions, but it's quite impossible at their current rates, thereby excluding an entire continent of customers.
ProtonVPN stood out to me for their in-depth Reddit posts. This comment in particular made me feel like they were a good choice.
Cloudflare's app does not protect all of your traffic - it only intercepts DNS queries and then sends them (encrypted) to their own DNS servers (i.e.: 1.1.1.1). This would be like comparing apples to oranges. ProtonVPN encrypts all traffic (protecting it from wireless snoopers, ISP, mobile network provider), while Cloudflare only encrypts DNS queries and sends everything else (HTTP, SNI requests, etc.) in the clear.
This is one of the dumbest things I’ve read in awhile, although there seems to have been an influx of shit posts here recently.
Of course ProtonVPN has a rough idea of how much load their servers are under and no, that has no privacy implications whatsoever.
edit: Looks like OP ninja-edited this post to phrase it more like an honest question instead of a false accusation, however I’m confused by the clickbait FUD title if this was just an honest misunderstanding.
ProtonVPN has a shady history in that they used to work together / share infrastructure with TesoNet, a Lithuanian data mining company. TesoNet even had the signing keys to ProtonVPNs Android app for a while. And the guy who runs TesoNet also runs NordVPN. Shady as fuck. I recommend sticking to either Mulvad, TorGuard or Private Internet Access and avoiding anything connected to TesoNet/NordVPN.
This article is a bunch of fake news, misinformation and guess without any clues that only lead people to believe about a situation that is not at all as they described.
Fake news include Nord/Tesonet being the true owner of ProtonVPN (which has been denied by Proton and clarified one the how and why there is a link between Proton and Tesonet, which has nothing to do with the later owning the former but only a pure service-contract between both companies).
Another is the idea that Mozilla might buy Proton, which is a pure assumption based on no facts and which goes totally against the communication and values of Proton Technologies as well as the real situation of both entities (there is only a partnership between both companies as they both defends privacy).
I did not read everything but I am sure there are more fake news in this article.
It seems quite probable that you work for PIA (Private Internet Access) who is responsible for this smear campaign. All your posts are attacking ProtonVPN and only about this issue. These shady business practices really say a lot more about PIA than it does about Proton.
To be absolutely clear, ProtonVPN does not use any servers from Tesonet, and has never used any servers from Tesonet. It may have been previously offered or considered, but it never happened. There is no contradiction in what we have stated.
You can in fact confirm this yourself, as this is publicly verifiable. Just go through the list of ProtonVPN servers and check who the providers are.
We don't view Tesonet as really different from any other vendor such as Radix or LeaseWeb, in the sense that it is not possible to achieve full trust. That's precisely why we have Secure Core VPN:
Hhahahaha nice joke, great root backdoor, great security.
L77
How do we know you or github doesn't change the script that you install as root without even checking a hash of the file?
No.
Get a dedicated VPN. VPN "addons" are pretty much always super shady.
Mozilla is partnering with ProtonVPN (which also have a free option with limited server selection but no other restrictions, possibly the only non-shady free VPN offering) so if you are looking for something it might be a good starting point.
Disclaimer: I am personally a ProtonVPN customer, my mention of it is not supposed to be a recommendation based on their actual service but rather due to their partnership with Mozilla. I am not being paid or otherwise rewarded by ProtonVPN for mentioning them here, always do your own research before trusting your traffic to any internet service provider.
We do these sales in order to accumulate the resources to build new services. For example, something like ProtonVPN requires a lot of capital investment (e.g. losses) for many months, before we can start to generate revenue from it and fill in the hole it created in our balance sheet.
When more people pre-pay for services (whether it's 2-year plans, or Lifetime plans), this gives us a cash surplus to absorb many bruising months of losses in the runup to a new product launch, in the period before the new product can pay for itself. In this case, we are using the proceeds from this promotion to partially cover the "hole" ProtonDrive will create in our balance sheet.
We believe it's good for the community too. Long time users can benefit from discounts/savings, while simultaneously enabling us to make the product they have invested in better.
Basically don't be a tard. As long as you don't visit .tor sites that are normally hidden that you would never casually just stumble across, you won't encounter viruses any more than normal browsing.
Download TOR, download a good VPN (you will have to pay, but remember, if it's free, you lay with your data. I recommend ProtonMail as well as ProtonVPN but do your research), and go from there. There are more steps you can do to ensure your privacy but I'm not gonna do that here.
If you wanna visit sketchy parts of the internet, look up how to, plenty of youtube videos in how to do it and be safe.
Also, lie when you post shit online people. You aren't hurting anyone and it's a pretty easy step to take. I'm probably 3 different races, 5 sexualities, have 20 different animals and live in 6 locations. The one time you should lie is online to keep yourself safe.
I think it would be great if someone compiled a list of Free and Paid VPNs for people here. I know of only Nord and ProtonVPN, is it okay to take the free plan or would you guys recommend the paid plan?
Why do you seem reluctant to just use ProtonMail? I’ve been using ProtonMail for two years and am not going back! It’s a great service.
I pay $9.60/month for ProtonMail Professional with 10 addresses and ProtonVPN. They give you 1 extra GB and 1 extra VPN connection for every year you have been a paid subscriber and occasionally they gift extra storage.
I often hear the phrase “that’s steep just for e-mail”... well, your e-mail contains very personal details lf your life. Your purchase receipts, services you use, contacts, etc. I can tell a lot about who you are as a person if I had access to your inbox.
Basically I'm following the thread "Cutting Google out of your life (2019)" So til now: - Firefox with duckduckgo + privacy modules - Protonmail and tutanota (still keeping the gmail one for my current work unfortunately) - Using ProtonVPN - On my android phone:using Netguard, Blokada, Duckduckgo - Deleted my main Instagram account. Still have another one for my photography business.. Not sure how to proceed with that And I'm actively looking for an alternative to google maps, I use it quite a lot :(
I'm currently on an internship abroad but when I'm back in my country, I'll switch to Linux and try to find something else for my phone
One dude in a dolphin onesie? Rest assured, there’s a whole team of us. u/atomlib_com
_demand_protonvpn_team_or_at_least_one_member_of/
George Duke-Cohan wasn't arrested because he used ProtonVPN. He was arrested because he was a criminal and because he left clues that were easily uncovered by infosec professionals. Even if we had it (we don't), IP data wouldn't have been necessary to find him.
If anything, the fact that he felt comfortable using ProtonVPN while DDoS'ing ProtonMail probably attests to our reputation of always sticking with our principles. We could have logged his IP, but we didn't. If the US decides to indict him, the indictment will contain information about how he was discovered, and it would show conclusively that it wasn't because of ProtonVPN logging his IP. If we did log his IP, it would have taken a day instead of a month to find him.
Proton team here. If you saw the other thread, you have probably also seen our previous comments about this topic:
_is_protonvpn_on_the_vpn_comparison_chart_of/djdqvrp/
The choice presented to us by TOPG comes down to the following.
- Lie - this is what most VPN providers on there have chosen to do
- Look bad in comparison
It's not a good choice. But given this choice, we prefer to be transparent and honest, so we picked the second option.
I think it’s just local network filters like Little Snitch.
According to this post from ProtonVPN, they are NOT impacted.
> Given the potential impact this could have on our users’ privacy, we immediately examined the ProtonVPN app’s performance on macOS. We found that ProtonVPN’s network control is not impacted by Big Sur. Our macOS app works on a system level and prevents these Apple apps from bypassing our VPN’s firewall. However, we advise everyone using our macOS app to enable Kill Switch to maintain optimal security.
My assumption (and this is solely based on my opinion) would be that a couple factors might have been involved:
They at one recent point added several trackers to their website. Once called out about it, they chimed in saying they were just to track the success of a social media promotion of their services. Basically, it was a "sorry we got caught" type situation.
PIA went on a very public smear campaign against ProtonVPN, NordVPN, and possibly others in order to promote themselves.
They're based in the US
> None of the competitors have ever reached out to us to seek an explanation and none have made a single official comment on the way we operate. That is neither activism nor social responsibility – this is the desperation of someone failing to compete with a company that is a relative newcomer to the market.
This is probably due to the fact that they're busy ignoring all these stupid allegations themselves.
According to the insane amount of similar posts on /r/ProtonVPN I can confidently say that these allegations come from PIA. Even their CEO have done posts in the past, which Proton have felt the need to respond to. (Sorry, can't link to any of them as I'm on my cell and it would take too long)
Not always the case, if there is upgradable tier, with very limited free service, it can pay of for the cases where users actually upgrade to premium tier. (Like in ProtonVPN case mentioned by someone else)
>It turns out that due to the natural growth of ProtonVPN's userbase, the number of requests from the ProtonVPN authentication servers hitting our core network, has begun to look remarkably similar to a constant DDoS attack.
That's kind of amazing!
We confirm that there was a brief 5-minute interruption to our services where users may have experienced difficulties accessing ProtonMail and ProtonVPN. All services are back online. We apologize for the disruption.
Later versions of ProtonVPN have resolved this issue and an update was rolled out to all users starting about a month ago. It is important to note that an attacker needs to already have access to your computer for this exploit to work, and it only impacts Windows users.
Direct link to blogpost
In summary: > At ProtonVPN we’re big fans of Linux operating system, and most of our team uses Linux- or Unix-based systems on a daily basis.
> Because we are strong supporters of open source software (and we intend to eventually open source all ProtonVPN clients), our Linux VPN command-line tool is open source and can be found at the following Github repository:
I've been a paid user of Proton since it was a crowdfunded project, and I think the ProtonMail Plus package is a fantastic value for security-conscious users. If you consider that you'll have unlimited usage of ProtonVPN and all its servers for multiple devices, and the extended features of ProtonMail, including more storage, higher daily message limits, private domain access, and access to ProtonCalendar and ProtonDrive, the $8/month price is a no-brainer.
>even the Hola browser extension
Don't use Hola.
If you need a VPN, get ProtonVPN. You get the premium for 1 week on new accounts without any payment details.
>I've seen success but haven't verified that it works myself.
JD2 works just fine.
It's probably using some scripting which the Tor browser blocks. have you considered a VPN? You could try ProtonVPN. It has some limits for free accounts but that's mostly for P2P traffic and a lot less endpoints to choose from.
You could also setup Tor as a proxy I think but that may be making things needlessly difficult.
Anyway, good luck with what you're going through and don't do anything stupid. And there are also some subreddits you could go to to get something off your chest. Reddit works fine with the Tor browser. You probably won't find psychologists in training there but a kind word and someone that listens (well, reads) may help..
Using a throwaway account and the Tor browser will ensure your privacy there.
PIA is based in the U.S.
It doesn't matter if it is proven in the court. NSA or other government agency could go right now to PIA and force them to start logging without customers knowing about it!
Also PIA used fake Twitter accounts and other social media accounts to spread claims about ProtonVPN and NordVPN. That wasn't great move.
Also PIA has some very odd ideas of what security means. PIA finds itself incapable of writing an app that comports with best practices.
Avoid free VPNs, they are usually very limited in server numbers or data. I have tried a few, did not like it, also, the logging policies are very shady as well :/ Get a VPN that is no logs, for example, FSecure, NordVPN or ProtonVPN, these are unlimited if I remember correctly. Better get a paid VPN because having a free is like not having one at all
This causes me physical pain. If you dont know what changed, it is fine. But please do not insult the developers.
Important changes:
using SRP for login into ProtonVPN instead of openvpn credentials
dbus support with an actual daemon, which among other things will allow for proper GUI support down the line.
using nmcli for most things, which integrates this into network manager, allowing better reliability, especially on the killswitch end of things.
support for automatic reconnect when connection is interrupted (such as when a laptop wakes fron sleep), which was something really annoying with the old CLI.
netshield support
While it is lacking in features right now (it is a beta), it paves the way for a much better CLI experience than the old one. I am waiting for it to get on github so I can start contributing code again :)
I feel like with Proton's products right now you're paying ten times the real cost, and you do so for a promise of a product. Their beta email client is dope, but you shouldn't have to migrate to beta to get great UX. They are also finishing the Contacts & Calendar, and Drive is underway. I would happily pay for a stack of tools that would just work (hint-hint I hate myself for sticking with ProtonVPN), but right now... Idk I'm still paying 8 EUR per month for mail & vpn but I am this close to just going "fuck it, this is a waste of money".
One should never pay for a promise of a product, yet here I am doing exactly that. F
Please note that the ProtonVPN plans are renewed automatically unless the subscription is canceled before the renewal date, as clearly stated in our Terms and Conditions: If a user wants to stop using the paid service, the subscription needs to be canceled.
Our support team has replied to your ticket, so please check your inbox and proceed accordingly.
It's a real VPN (to allow for things like WebRTC). From their blog post it looks like you download and install the full VPN client from ProtonVPN itself.
I’m curious to hear from a ProtonVPN employee, but here’s my guess...
Pretty good chance the Australian servers will go bye bye.
The app may get region blocked in the app stores.
I doubt there will be much they can do about either of those things. Maybe increase servers near Australia. People in Australia could still connect via OpenVPN using open source clients.
Wouldn't that have just created yet another option in the VPN market, something like MozillaVPN? It's probably better that they throw their support behind an established provider to increase ProtonVPN's credibility without adding yet another choice to an already saturated market.
You don't understand what happened here. It's not like the developer used tesonet's certificate, he generated a new cert and simply put tesonet as company name and not ProtonVPN, because that's the company he legally worked for. Sure, that's a mistake, but it's not like Tesonet even has access to that cert.
> ProtonVPN is free, that's easy
If you're opting to use a VPN instead of Tor, there are a number of things you should research about the VPN:
Has the VPN had regular third-party security and privacy audits?
Are the results of these audits publicly published?
Are the audits performed by an independent third party, or by some consulting firm that's run by the brother-in-law of the VPN founder?
Has the VPN been in the news for any security vulnerabilities or information leaks (like maintaining logs despite claiming they do not)?
How has the VPN responded to security incidents? Have they shown contrition, or have they attempted to downplay the incident?
Which jurisdictions does the VPN have hardware in? What are the information sharing agreements like between those jurisdictions and the one you are in?
Does the VPN publish a transparency report?
Does the VPN publish a warrant canary?
ProtonVPN is a virtual private network (VPN) service provider operated by the Swiss company ProtonVPN AG. The company is a subsidiary of Proton Technologies AG, the company behind the email service ProtonMail. According to ProtonVPN's official website, ProtonVPN and ProtonMail share the same management team, offices, and technical resources, but ProtonVPN is operated under ProtonVPN AG for legal liability and security reasons.
I signed up for ProtonVPN when they had their Black Friday sale last year and cancelled the account within 2 weeks. Network speeds were ok, but I was faced with frequent disconnections to the many UK servers I tried. Their iOS app was also a huge battery drain for me (battery down to 50% by midday most days). Their support were unable to suggest a reason.
​
I've now switched to Mullvad and couldn't be happier. Network speeds are great, stability is great and the OpenVPN client for iOS works flawlessly.
They log your data. While you can be embarrassed by your browsing activity, we have seen the first bank account closed due to political agenda. They figured their political leaning via data collection. Don't just hide it from your room-mate, stay safe in general. If you're going with a free vpn don't get anyrhing other then either ProtonVPN or Tunnelbear. Also, browse using Tor. They scramble and quickly change your IP address, your room mate will know your using Tor but won't know what you're doing. (Heads up, Tor is incredibly slow due to the changing of IP addresses, it'll take roughly 20 seconds normally to load a website.)
Also, human right 13: The right to privacy Assuming your in any of the countries that have to obey human rights, this is illegal.
I’m a big ProtonMail and ProtonVPN fan but all the variations in pricing are a bit much guys.
Instead of -33%, -45%, -50% and -60% off deals that apply to this plan but not that plan, let’s just have the lowest available price of $6 per month (converted for whatever currency) for ProtonMail Plus and ProtonVPN Plus when you pay for 2 years up front. The entire feel of ProtonMail and ProtonVPN is that of an aesthetically pleasing, clean, uncluttered, simple, functional and beautiful design. The Black Friday promotion should follow this design doctrine.
The marketing genius on this one needs to be reined in or switched to decaf.��
It's best if you go through their website really quickly:
Basically, an encrypted Email provider that seemlessly incorporates the encryption using PGP. Mails within the Proton Network are always end-to-end encrypted and mails from/to outside are stored with zero-access encryption.
ProtonVPN is their VPN Service.
>So premium users are forced to pay for free users. Interesting.
I wouldn't say 'forced'. We willingly opt into paying for this particular service and could as easily have chosen to stay on the free tier or just taken our business somewhere else where they do things differently.
Edit: To add, I hope you do find what you need in ProtonVPN though. It's a really good service.
I'd like to see Proton sponsor some organizations with free VPN and or email, since the marginal cost to Proton would be low compared to the value to society if they donate their services to the right NGOs.
Dear diary, today OP delivered.
For reference:
/r/ProtonVPN/comments/axw0tu/i_demand_protonvpn_team_or_at_least_one_member_of/
The free VPN is definitely the best out there.
However, in my opinion, the subscription tiers don't provide any value compared to other subscription VPNs from a features standpoint. The price needs to be lowered or advanced features like port forwarding need to be implemented.
The reason I keep my subscription to ProtonVPN is because I want to do my part to subsidize the free VPN and I trust Proton more than say, PIA or Nord. That has a monetary value to me, but it's still a tough pill to swallow when I know other VPNs cost 3x-4x less and offer more features.
Currently, we are working on PGP integration, Linux bridge, import/export tool, an auditable append-only public key log, (almost done, but needs support on all clients before we can release it), MacOS and iOS for ProtonVPN, and a still secret hardware project. We are also doing some things with blockchain/cryptocurrencies, better anti-abuse/anti-spam, and search. At least two other projects are also moving in parallel, but we will say more about them later when they get a bit more mature.
Honestly, if Firefox still has any money left or is willing to fundraise, I think acquiring ProtonMail/ProtonVPN would be a huge win. Everything they were trying to do is being done well by them, and Firefox could be able to keep generating money and further name rec from a well established VPN service
Personally use ProtonVPN. I like it. Paid version offers P2P support, although I find it usually caps out around 2.4mbit depending on load. Definitely saw the server load spike up heavily every time a GOT episode came out lol.
To be fair, they are not trying to give to you a free VPN and nothing more, they are interested in convert free users into paid customers.
> We believe privacy and security are fundamental human rights, so we also provide a free version of ProtonVPN to the public. Unlike other free VPNs, there are no catches. We don't serve ads or secretly sell your browsing history. ProtonVPN Free is subsidized by ProtonVPN paid users. If you would like to support online privacy, please consider upgrading to a paid plan for faster speeds and more features.
Not in this case.
> We believe privacy and security are fundamental human rights, so we also provide a free version of ProtonVPN to the public. Unlike other free VPNs, there are no catches. We don’t serve ads or secretly sell your browsing history. ProtonVPN Free is subsidized by ProtonVPN paid users. If you would like to support online privacy, please consider upgrading to a paid plan for faster speeds and more features.
They're a great company. I pay for their email services. There's absolutely no chance they'd sell any data because it would destroy their security-based business.
> $10/mth, are you kidding? That's more than you'd pay if you bought the VPN through ProtonVPN directly!
No. Toggle that Monthly-Annually button
The "facts" are not undeniable, they have explanations. Those given by ProtonVPN are believable.
I have no idea where you saw ProtonVPN contradict itself. Can you please provide some examples ?
Edit: Also, saying that VPNs is a shady business is not an ad hominem attack. You simply have to learn a bit about that industry to know that 99% of it is a pile of filth.
Edit 2: Also, nice new account specifically made to attack ProtonVPN you've got there, /u/common_sense7.
Here's another review from a well-known VPN reviewer.
> Final thoughts: ProtonVPN got a lukewarm reaction from me. Certain aspects of their website felt incomplete or ill-thought out (the sign up process). Some others felt more thorough (the user dashboard and download portal). While the process to sign up for service was a bit rocky, things smoothed out a bit once this step was completed. The service and configs were easy to set up and connect with quickly, but the speeds I experienced were not great. Support was one of the better aspects of the service, as they were quick and helpful. ProtonVPN’s Terms of Service were also down the middle: some eyebrow-raisers, but no deal-breakers. In the end, (especially given its high asking price), I believe there are better services available on the market.
Release notes
New Features
Encrypted Contacts
Download all attachments as a .zip file
Plain Text composing and sending
Advanced composer
Show auto-save time/notification
New translations (added support for Portuguese)
Bug Fixes
Trim input value for email autocomplete
Better support for UK zip codes
Add delete action in Spam folder
Load embedded inside a draft if user has already loaded them
Fix translations on the dashboard
Fix several French translations
Fix how missing embedded images are displayed in the composer
Improvements
- Improvements in the ProtonMail Dashboard for selecting ProtonVPN plans
- Upgrade favicon
- Allow url images in an Autoreply
- Add confirmation popup before unsubscribing to mailing lists
>Why do they require you to make an account with them?
Manage your orders easier etc
>Is there any way to delete this account after the order goes through?
Calm down lmao
>It makes me a little nervous having that up there, despite the fact that I'm using the paid ProtonVPN on public wifi.
Calm down dude the cops aren't already on their way
> I was able to login with just my username and password, no 2FA needed. Is this intentional? Has it always been this way and I haven’t noticed?
This is intentional. Since there's very little risk involved with someone being able to log into your VPN account (they cannot access sensitive data, like with ProtonMail), the less information you put into the app, the better (as it lowers your risk of getting phished with a fake app). The combination of these two factors resulted in only your username and password being required for all ProtonVPN apps.
> How many paid for services do respect your privacy?
Protonmail and ProtonVPN, for one.
Actually, plenty of privacy friendly services charge money because they obviously can't profit from your usage data.
I am not familiar with RiseUpVPN at all.
But just in general, unless you're European, ProtonVPN will typically be slower than competing services. They have fewer servers, there's no getting around that.
On the flip side, Proton has an incredible reputation, and in my opinion is the most trustworthy company in the sphere.
So it's a bit of a personal choice.
MulVad or ProtonVPN
Malewarebytes
I personally wouldn't trust NordVPN as they collect connection and traffic data. Yes you are "invisible" to your isp, but not to Nord, they can see your traffic, as a bonus all VPNs have your real IP address.
Edit: I forgot to mention Mulvad does not track your information, proton says they don't but when you read the terms and conditions it says they do. The reason I recommend proton VPN is that you have a end to end encryption email with your own SMTP server if you wish to go that route with emails. As an added bonus with ProtonVPN if you and you have a mobile app.
Per the CEO: > just released the [ProtonVPN] iOS app, and we're working on preparing to make all the apps open source (as that's one of our firm goals we have outlined for 2019...)
ProtonVPN, à fond dans la sécu et la confidentialité, fonctionne avec Netflix US, et est très rapide !
I'm not sure how Tor would be affected but I'd say get it and run a bridge relay so it would be harder for ISP's to see you are connected to Tor.
Also get a VPN that is based out of the United States, in a country that still has Net Neutrality. You can go to for a great selection of VPN's (I personally use the free version of ProtonVPN as I am still a Teen. It's the best I can do) as well as a lot of privacy-friendly alternatives to a lot of things.
But my best bet would get Tor and run a bridge or a good VPN.