Topic: List of VPN Service Providers - 2023 - page 2. (Read 2817 times)

In order to combat gambling addiction there are better ways to do it other than using a VPN to block certain websites (after all a user doesn't even need a VPN for that when you can create a list for blocked websites in uBlock Origin for example.). I easily see opposite happen - gambling addicts instead using VPN services to access gambling websites that may have been blocked on their country.

Also, as a note, every licensed casino/gambling company has to offer a self exclusion procedure[1] that can be used by any client (see for example this[2] one from bet365) in order to prevent them from using the service.

---

[1]https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-and-players/page/self-exclusion
[2]https://responsiblegambling.bet365.com/stay-in-control/self-exclusion

Windscribe is open-sourced but R.O.B.E.R.T list is not. Mullvad's dns-blocklists is public: https://github.com/mullvad/dns-blocklists. Show me the one from Windscribe and I'll stop.
I have nothing against Windscribe too, their free plan is good for those who want to test VPN or rarely waste bandwidth and only visit text-only websites.

Just wondering, how will VPN that you can turn off with one click, will exclude you from gambling? The most effective tool in this case is to ask casino to ban you from gambling and they won't unban you even if you request it.
By the way, I don't say that R.O.B.E.R.T. is an useless tool, it has its place but I don't understand why their blocklist is not public.

Dude I don't know what you are talking about  
First of all I am not defending windscribe but they are open source, and this robert is DNS based tool... most other VPN providers have this, included Mullvad that is in your list.
Do your own research, and don't mix privacy with censorship, and I will repeat again, all VPN's have (optional) self ''censorship'' according to you  
https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls

You obviously don't understand this so I won't continue this discussion anymore.
Best of luck.

Not true.
There are many gambling addicts who want self-exclusion, and parents who want to restrict some access to their kids.

I also don't like the idea of using an icon representing a pile of feces when referring to other competitors product / services. From my perspective it's just a bad business practice and we shouldn't support these kind of companies. Like LoyceV said, the claim s completely void of any arguments/facts that they can present to proof their stance. They just want to grab the attention of unaware/uninformed users ...

No. It's impossible to prove, which makes their claims about others even more ridiculous.

I am not removing Windscribe from my VPN list, I am just removing them from the list of Privacy focused cheap monthly VPNs and will move it into Non-Privacy Focused Mainstream VPNs because their business doesn't seem to be valuing privacy and freedom, instead, they put their own censorship. Windscribe's R.O.B.E.R.T's blocklist is not open-source, it's closed.

This is what they say about their competitors:
Block them all, is this a fair game? They say most VPN companies track you, that means, some of them don't track you, why should we block all of them? Is also there any evidence that Windscribe is the best privacy tool out there?

Yes. Any VPN that's afraid of competitors doesn't deserve to be promoted.

Re: Windscribe

You are supposed to use these kinds of VPNs to circumvent censorship, not to censor yourself!  

They are only optionally blocking and it's mostly for malicious crypto mining crap, not everything related with bitcoin and crypto.
This ROBERT feature is not bad at all if used correctly, especially if you have kids and you want to hide from them adult content, gambling, etc.
Important thing is they gave customers option to hide, it's not mandatory, and other VPN providers are doing something similar with custom DNS settings, for example Mullvad VPN.
I think you can pay everything on this vpn website with Bitcoin, so they are not anti-bitcoin or anything like that.

Those filters are optional and not enabled by default but it is still stupid that it is something which they are offering as a suggestion. What is even more concerning is their fake news filter. There aren't any details explaining how it works but the icon for the filter seems to be a reference to Donald Trump's hair. Is this implying they will censor right wing websites when you turn this filter on? While I do not like Trump or the alt-right, VPN's shouldn't be censoring information which they find objectionable — bypassing censorship is one of the primary reasons for needing a VPN to begin with.

There is nothing wrong with exchanges and crypto news websites ofc. I suspect windscribe is trying to widen their target audience or create more variety for this since I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people who wants to abstain from anything crypto due to stigma/disinterest.

I do wonder if they list scam websites too cause the blocklist seems customizable. For instance, one could whitelist their go-to exchanges and the rest together with scams are blocked in return -- not that I need it in determining scams but it could be another use for some folks. Speaking of, I'm surprised they don't have a category for general scams.

In any case, I think the whole thing depends on one's risk appetite. A middle ground approach could be adding a list of things people should take note and let them decide if they're ok or nah.

Yes, it's optional to block other VPN service providers but is it normal that that service is called block Competitors (Other VPNs)? And the description of that service is that you are using the best VPN called Windscribe and there is no need of seeing other VPNs. To my mind, that's censorship and false statement. If windscribe thinks that they are the best, then they shouldn't include an option that blocks other VPNs.
I understand that they block cryptomining services but I don't understand what's wrong with exchanges and crypto news websites. It's probably okay to block CEX but I think they include DEX too. It's irony that they accept crypto payments but block cryptocurrencies.

I just read how it works on https://windscribe.com/features/robert and it seems you can choose not to block competitor VPN. I believe few people would use such feature, such as not allowing their WiFi users to bypass blockade to certain content. So IMO it's still fair game if it's disabled by default. Although i'm also concerned that they offer option to block crypto.

Personally I would never use a service that censures my internet browsing in any way and in this specific case it just doesn't make sense (to me at least). This is just plain censoring - they are pretty much blocking you in seeing other providers offers because "supposedly" they are the best one. The fact that they claim they are the best privacy tool after suffering this breach[1] in the past is amusing to say the least. I would also like to point out that despise promising to release their full node audit in 2023, they still haven't done it[2].

---

[1]https://restoreprivacy.com/windscribe-vpn-security-breach-servers-seized/
[2]https://rus.windscribe.com/knowledge-base/articles/has-windscribe-been-audited

I haven't updated this thread and VPN service provider prices for a long time but it looks like there is no change in prices, they all remain the same, I just checked recently all of them.

---

By the way, I checked Windscribe's R.O.B.E.R.T page and discovered that along many features that includes block list, they also have one that I don't like: Competitors (Other VPNs). When you enable R.O.B.E.R.T on windscribe, they block all competitor VPNs and this is their explanation:

How fair is that? Should I remove them from the list of Privacy focused cheap monthly VPNs?

That article just covers basic differences, at the same time it mentions that VPN can enhance your anonymity if configured correctly and your VPN provider has zero logs but doesn't talk about how to configure it correctly, which is the main part of this subject.

Tor Bridges are avaiable for free for people who really need it. When you use Tor Bridge, you are consuming part of bandwidth that's meant for people who really need it.
Long story short, my advice is to use Tor Bridge if you live in a country where Tor is blocked. If Tor is not blocked and you still want to hide your Tor usage from your ISP,

Short version:

Longer version: see TorPlusVPN.

We all know that VPN is not the best solution when it comes to privacy and there are better alternatives like Tor but what do you think about combining VPN and Tor? I.E. is it good to use Tor with VPN or not? We can write a good guide about it.

Personally, I think that everyone should hide Tor usage from their ISP because normally it's considered that you use Tor to hide something from government. At least we should assume so to maximize our privacy.
So, there are two options to protect Tor usage from your ISP:
1. Use Tor Bridges
2. Use VPN service providers with no-log policy.

1. Tor Bridges - It's considered unethical if you live in a country where Tor is legal and use Tor Bridge because they are usually meant for people where Tor is illegal, i.e. for people from China, Iran, etc. But Tor Bridges hide it from your ISP that you use Tor. If Tor gets compromised, you are getting exposed too.
2. VPNs - When you connect to VPN and then open Tor browser, your ISP only sees that you are connected to VPN, it can't see that you are using Tor but your VPN provider can see that you are using Tor. If it happens that your VPN provider doesn't really log you, then you can feel safe even if Tor gets compromised.

Personally, I would use Tor over VPN, i.e. would run Qubes OS with tails and route Tails traffic through VPN. Safe VPNs to my mind are Mullvad and probably IVPN too.

No, from what I understood from Telegram post is available in Russia right now and not blocked. I read thatthey're actively fighting with VPN services and trying to censor internet. But probably it's worth adding to the list only these services that someone from forum users have tried and can vouch for it.

How about VPS access? If you can access them, you can run your own VPN software starting from about $10 per year.