This proofs that you miss a big part of the use of VPN. But if you are happy, no problem. Even on ET people try to find the location (or identity) of some members. And as I insist on my privacy I use VPN. I know somebody on ET who was more or less tracked but did not like it, so it really happens even on ET.
To use your analogy then, I should wear my flak vest and Kevlar helmet whenever I leave the house to walk around my safe neighborhood or my local University. There is such a thing as being a paranoid fool. Relax and enjoy life. And don't flatter yourself, the rest of the world could give fuck all about what you're looking at on your browser.
Yep. Some hacker isn’t sitting there waiting for me to remote access trading software from Starbucks.
No, you should leave your house unlocked, leave the keys of your car in your car, don't install alarm systems at home, and throw away all your guns as there is nobody who is interested in you. Nobody will ever harm you. Millions of Americans have guns to protect themselves but never used it, speaking of paranoaia. And don't flatter yourself, the rest of the world could give fuck all about what you're doing or have in your house. There are paranoic fools, they do the shootings. The paranoic fools are not those who defend themselves. A bit of paranoia is healthier then being naive. I don't even have to do anthing. When I start my computer he automatically opens VPN, so I don't even notice it. Computer experts always advice to never go on internet without VPN.
Reality is that they try to hack everybody as they don't know who will be interesting. After they hacked they will see if they can find anything interesting. That's how it works. Goes much faster and delivers better results then first try to find out who is interesting. Especially if the hackers live thousands of mails away from you. I receive dozens of emails with hidden links or with viruses, or to take over my computer every year.
Because you have problems trying to follow the discussion. My reaction was directed to people think that there is no danger at all and that nobody is interested in them. If that is true, why are there so many emails with hidden links or with viruses send to every email adress they can catch? If they are not interested they would not send emails. Why try hackers to hack Yahoo, creditcard companies or banks? http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/worlds-biggest-data-breaches-hacks/
There will always be people having sex with strangers without protection. There will always be people falling for Nigerian email scams. There will always be people leaving their front doors unlocked. There will always be people leaving their car doors unlocked. And there will always be people that connect to unsecured wifi without protection. So many claim to understand risk/reward, but don't. I don't have the time, nor the desire to convince any of these folks to change their free will. But I do wish them all, the best--bless their hearts. I could have reduced this whole post down to one quote. There's a saying an old man told me many years ago, "What you eat, don't make me shit."
Well I run a software firm. Does that make me a "computer expert" or someone who blindly follows such "experts" without actually understand how networks and security work while self righteously lecturing others? Here's the thing about VPNs, you're giving yourself an illusion of protection in an area where it's almost entirely unneeded while unknowingly remaining almost entirely vulnerable in other areas. You are your own best example of that with your drivel about how we all need to use VPNs because hidden virus emails and credit card hacks, which VPN does nothing to protect against. In fact the vast majority if not all the major hacks in recent years couldn't have been prevented with the use of a VPN nor are they the fault of someone not using a VPN. The vast majority of all web sites and every reputable site that handles sensitive information uses SSL. It protects you against the mythical Starbucks wi-fi hacker with exactly the same effectiveness as a VPN unless you're a moron and accept fake certificates in which case nothing is going to protect you. SSL encryption is equally difficult to crack as IPsec encryption, and in fact for what you're calling a VPN is probably actually using SSL, so double encrypting doesn't get you more cowbell. VPN gains you nothing except latency and a false sense of security. If you're worried about "14 eyes countries" then a. you are a paranoid conspiracy crackpot with a greatly inflated sense of self-importance, and b. your VPN isn't going to help you. First, it's widely accepted that NSA can crack both IPsec and SSL encryption. Ironically by routing your traffic outside the U.S. you open it up to NSA interception without a warrant, if you left it all in the U.S. you're legally much more protected. Second, they don't even need to crack your traffic to figure out who you are. Let me tell you a short true story to illustrate. In 2013 Harvard student Eldo Kim wanted to get out of a test so he brilliantly decided to email a bomb threat but use Tor to protect himself from discovery. Authorities could see the threat came from the Tor network, but because it's Tor obviously not who sent it. However it turns out only 2 people were using Tor on the Harvard network and one named Eldo Kim happened to send some unknown data into Tor a microsecond before the bomb threat popped out of Tor. As you can see, if you conduct more than one transaction, or in poor Eldo's case even one transaction, it's trivial to match trafffic into an anonymizer with traffic out and figure out exactly who you are. So yes, the NSA knows who @schweiz is on ET, despite his religious use of VPN. You unknowingly made a great analogy. If I don't have valuables in my car I don't lock it. Like most modern cars it's got an encrypted link between the key and the ignition and the entertainment system is built in and useless in another car, so it's worthless to a potential thief. It's far more likely they'll put a screwdriver in my lock ($500 min repair) or break a window (same) if I lock it, than do anything that I care about if I don't. If they're sophisticated enough to spoof my key or tow me away, locking the doors accomplishes nothing. If they're not sophisticated enough, locking my doors accomplishes nothing. Just because the majority of Americans have an ill-thought out and outdated concept of "security" around their cars and AAA "experts" advise them to always lock their doors doesn't mean it actually accomplishes anything but providing a false sense of security. So again, spare us all the smug self-righteousness and over inflated sense of how valuable a "target" you are, and watch out you don't pull a muscle patting yourself on the back for how "secure" you are. In fact some people in hackers circles would see your behaviour as deserving of a lesson, so ironically you're unwittingly making yourself more of a target right here on this thread with your security lectures!