That IT guy
New Member
I am looking for a small VPS in a privacy oriented country that will run OpenVPN. I do not need much RAM or storage and only need a stable connection on a good network. What is available?
Looking for VPS in privacy oriented country.
- Thread starter That IT guy
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telephone
New Member
Exactly. To top it off, even if said country is "privacy oriented", the company could be the opposite. E.g. The company/owner could be US based.
Privacy is an illusion created by the men in black to lull people into a false sense of security. That being said what type of privacy exactly? If your communicating with the Taliban than there is no safe haven. If you are simply using torrents and want that type of privacy than Spain or Egypt may be worth a shot.
drmike
100% Tier-1 Gogent
Well, folks are being a tad on the futile of even trying side 
Privacy is an illusion like freedom. It's attainable, but you have to be on your toes and ever vigilant. It's a fight.
There is no point of purchase rule of thumb for online privacy, but there are some things you should be doing conceptually to try:
1. Crypto up - use crypto that is complex and believed to be still be secure.
2. Purchase in countries where freedom and privacy still seem to be a priority. Clearly countries that imprison and exile whistleblowers and lock up journalists aren't spots you should be considering. Why? Because freedom and privacy are in decay in such places.
3. Purchase from company where ownership gives a crap and actually has experience with government inquiries. Most small hobby hosting companies have no experience dealing with such and wholesale hand anything over to anyone posing as an authority for any reason.
4. Purchase with cash, store cards, or e-coin payments. Why? Just a layer of distance away from you and yours.
5. Double up. Nest two secure and ideally anonymous connections together. A single connect is going to leak an IP attached directly to your ISP, phone, etc.
All of that won't do much if you are engaged in terrorism or porn of the child variety. 97% of the world would agree both should get you a proper ass kicking for such conduct. But, all other use, research, online posting, etc. should be rather safe.
You still even on VPN are going to be leaking private or identifiable printable details - like browser unique IDs, cookies from logins, etc. You should run with javascript off, heavy block lists, etc. Plus you should have a clean terminal for things like this and only for this. A virtual machine can work.
A "better" approach is to just get the machine off of your LAN and run a remote desktop. Something like x2go does well and is in an SSH connection. So flow wise:
REAL COMPUTER ---> { VPN to freer location } ---> REMOTE x2go desktop in other 'freer location
You need (1) VPN account + (1) VPS
Spec wise, a 1GB VPS should suffice, I run such myself. VPN has lots of options and companies who are acceptable for this use.
One company comes to mind for the VPS side as being proven and they have a recent location where privacy is better than in most countries: BuyVM, Luxembourg.
Privacy is an illusion like freedom. It's attainable, but you have to be on your toes and ever vigilant. It's a fight.
There is no point of purchase rule of thumb for online privacy, but there are some things you should be doing conceptually to try:
1. Crypto up - use crypto that is complex and believed to be still be secure.
2. Purchase in countries where freedom and privacy still seem to be a priority. Clearly countries that imprison and exile whistleblowers and lock up journalists aren't spots you should be considering. Why? Because freedom and privacy are in decay in such places.
3. Purchase from company where ownership gives a crap and actually has experience with government inquiries. Most small hobby hosting companies have no experience dealing with such and wholesale hand anything over to anyone posing as an authority for any reason.
4. Purchase with cash, store cards, or e-coin payments. Why? Just a layer of distance away from you and yours.
5. Double up. Nest two secure and ideally anonymous connections together. A single connect is going to leak an IP attached directly to your ISP, phone, etc.
All of that won't do much if you are engaged in terrorism or porn of the child variety. 97% of the world would agree both should get you a proper ass kicking for such conduct. But, all other use, research, online posting, etc. should be rather safe.
You still even on VPN are going to be leaking private or identifiable printable details - like browser unique IDs, cookies from logins, etc. You should run with javascript off, heavy block lists, etc. Plus you should have a clean terminal for things like this and only for this. A virtual machine can work.
A "better" approach is to just get the machine off of your LAN and run a remote desktop. Something like x2go does well and is in an SSH connection. So flow wise:
REAL COMPUTER ---> { VPN to freer location } ---> REMOTE x2go desktop in other 'freer location
You need (1) VPN account + (1) VPS
Spec wise, a 1GB VPS should suffice, I run such myself. VPN has lots of options and companies who are acceptable for this use.
One company comes to mind for the VPS side as being proven and they have a recent location where privacy is better than in most countries: BuyVM, Luxembourg.
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DomainBop
Dormant VPSB Pathogen
...and after you purchase A VPS in a privacy friendly country or from a privacy friendly provider, go take a look at the submarine cable map and then spend the next few hours crying because the odds are to get from point A (you, your visitors) to point B (your new privacy friendly VPS) most communications are going to be passing through either the UK or US (and while the governments of the US and UK rank near the top of the prying eyes list, most countries aren't far behind so the odds are that somewhere between A and B some government will be trying to vacuum up all passing data).
http://submarinecablemap.com/
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Nyr
Active Member
Liechtenstein is actually privacy oriented and has good connectivity, although not cheap or readily available.
Connectivity in Egypt is not exactly great... and Spain is just like any other European country.
If he simply wanted to download TV shows, nearly any country in the world will do.
Connectivity in Egypt is not exactly great... and Spain is just like any other European country.
If he simply wanted to download TV shows, nearly any country in the world will do.
drmike
100% Tier-1 Gogent
No doubt, absolutely true. Like with idiotic ancient and should be extinct plaintext things like oh, HTTP, email, etc. the question is why be out in the open? Crypto isn't today where it should be, but it's way better than plaintext free submitting your data to "authorities" just cause people are either stupid or just don't care. { only bad people go out of their way to disguise their online activities position that has become the lazy f'rs approach to computing }.
As I'm fond of saying, VPN is crypto'd. Throw some more tunnels with crypto inside there, different crypts and different tech. I mean what else are all these computing resources for
? Especially on desktops.... and where people are computer nerds.... You have as a lazy person and non complex, a VPN you can create at your edge behind your modem/ISP interface, you have another within on that desktop you can create.Make the goobermint earn their take. Crypto all the way just cause.
That IT guy
New Member
Maybe I should have been clearer but I was just looking for a VPS in a country that has better privacy laws than the US. I thought places like Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands and other places were what people used for such things...
Yes, that's what they use it for, but it is largely misguided. It's a lot of hype, very little substance. For starters, laws are just words - with increasing evidence that governments around the world are basically ignoring laws, it doesn't really matter how good the laws are, you're going to be screwed anyway.
For the Netherlands specifically: sorry to burst your bubble, but it's awful here from a privacy perspective. The Dutch government is one of the most invasive and privacy-violating ones in Europe, right along with that of the UK. The whole idea of the Netherlands being some kind of super liberal offshore haven is pretty much a myth. It hasn't been like that for at least 10-15 years, if not longer.
So you want privacy and cheap?
Well, those two don't work together.
You can have relatively good privacy, or cheap. Pick one.
Well, those two don't work together.
You can have relatively good privacy, or cheap. Pick one.
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That times are over.
I agree with this outlook in general. Privacy is an ongoing experiment in theory and practice. Just because NSA et al. have set a disgraceful precedent when it comes to the observer effect, doesn't mean everyone behaves that way.Well, folks are being a tad on the futile of even trying side
Privacy is an illusion like freedom. It's attainable, but you have to be on your toes and ever vigilant. It's a fight.
There is no point of purchase rule of thumb for online privacy, but there are some things you should be doing conceptually to try...
Not totally true, the ether is free for grab for intelligence agencies with a mandate by the government, yet these agencies have no jurisdiction on wired connections (like UTP, fiber or even COAX). If intelligence agencies want to tap a land line they have to get a court order to do this or the company cooperates on basis of "free will" with the intelligence agency in matter of national interest.
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