Daily Deal: VPNGhost

from the good-deals-on-cool-stuff dept

Thu, Apr 21st 2016 10:34am — Daily Deal

We discuss privacy a lot around here at Techdirt, so you should know that it's important to use a VPN to help keep your information protected online. For $25, you can get a lifetime subscription to VPNGhost and help yourself stay anonymous online. VPNGhost does not keep logs and has multiple servers worldwide. You can connect to 2 devices with the service, and it works across multiple platforms.

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8 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2016 @ 11:48am

meh.
There's only a handful of vpn's worthy of consideration, this isn't one of them...
Here's a very useful comprehensive vpn comparison chart:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FJTvWT5RHFSYuEoFVpAeQjuQPU4BVzbOigT0xebxTOw/htmlview?u sp=sharing&sle=true

-only thing I'd note; the chart lists IPV6 as a positive thing- it's not, IPV6 has security issues and can betray your real IP under some circumstances.
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 21 Apr 2016 @ 12:30pm

In Other News ...
... the next Opera browser developer preview is including a free, unlimited VPN client.
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Nok, 21 Apr 2016 @ 12:49pm

I don't understand the business model of this VPN. How can it offer a lifetime subscription at a one time cost when its expenses are recurring and without limit?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2016 @ 2:01pm

https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-review-160220/

Torrentfreak does a yearly article covering which VPNs respect your privacy the most. I don't see these guys on the list at ll.
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Aaron Toponce, 22 Apr 2016 @ 9:35am

Be careful when recommending and using VPN service providers please
VPN providers aren't a security panacea. There are very real concerns that should taken into account:
- The VPN provider keeps logs, account, payment, and other metadata about you.
- If the VPN provider does not keep logs, the government can force them to if they have probable cause and a judge-signed warrant.
- While the VPN connection between your client and the provider is encrypted, HTTP traffic is HTTP. The packet snooping shifts from your ISP to the VPN provider.
- Many VPN providers do not have IP randomization for exiting the VPN, unlike Tor. As such, you're not as pseudoanonymous as you might think.
- Your DNS requests might not be tunneled through the VPN.
- Your VPN provider isn't going to go to jail for you.
Basically, VPNs give a false sense of security and privacy. Users think they're secure and anonymous through the VPN provider, when it's usually far from the truth. Of course, if you trust your VPN provider, that's one thing. But offering generic VPN service providers, because they offer a discount, or say they don't log packets, or some other marketing claim, is risky.

If people really need some sort of VPN, either they should install their own in a trusted datacenter behind a trusted network, or they should use Tor. Even then, they need to be aware of the security risks of using their own VPN or Tor.
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Aaron Toponce, 22 Apr 2016 @ 9:46am

Re: In Other News ...
the next Opera browser developer preview is including a free, unlimited VPN client.

Actually, this isn't true. It turns out that the "VPN" is just an HTTP/S proxy without any transparent encryption. See https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/04/22/opera-browser-vpn-proxy/ (I review it from a security and privacy perspective at https://pthree.org/2016/04/22/opera-vpns-and-security/).

Further, Opera Software was acquired by a Chinese consortium for $1.2 billion. I know this is considered tinfoil-hat speculation, but I don't know that I would trust using a proxy that runs through China. Maybe that's just me, but if I were to pick a proxy, it would need to be one I trust, and one coming from China likely wouldn't be on the list, given their online legal entanglements.
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Ninja (profile), 25 Apr 2016 @ 8:24am

Re: Re: In Other News ...
Considering Chinese browsers were caught pants down sending more info than they should back to Chine it's hardly tinfoil...
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Disrespected, 23 May 2016 @ 4:47am

VPNGhost
Their customer service is rubbish, it never seems to be their fault that something goes wrong. If they took responsibility when its theirs to take I would respect them more. When a specific server went down for several days I told them that everything else was working, that I could connect via all other servers. Their response was to instruct me to download some software without explaining what it was. I checked it out and found it was remote access software. they had decided that it was my computer at fault and that they needed access to it to fix things. I refused and pointed out that it was MY computer. they ignore this and many other points I made. They censored (refused to allow) a post about this that I wanted to put on their forum, there was nothing defamatory in it, merely a record of our communications. Several days later they announced that the server I had told them was not working, was not working! No acknowledgement that they had failed, not for the first time.

It is a two person operation, if things go down and you are in a very different time zone, don't expect any rapid help. Even if you contact them during their working day, it might take 48 hrs or so for a response, they don't work 7 days a week every week.

The only good thing I can say about them is that they don't charge much, for a rubbish service no one would want to pay a cent more.

Their website is currently down, it has been since last Thursday. They post occasionally on twitter and facebook, but the posts are not very informative. It appears that they have had problems with their ISP which they said they were moving from on 20th May. They're not particularly bothered with providing their customers with up to date information. Their server keys have changed several times in the last 6 weeks or so, some new ones were promised before May 22nd, that didn't happen. Unless you stay signed into their homepage you won't know that a server is down or another problem exists until you try to use something. The info provided by them is minimalist, their responses are minimalist and generally it is somebody else's fault, not Phantom's or Casper's, the latter especially could do with a basic customer service course, it would improve his service no end.
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