I see people say that NordVPN is a bad choice all the time, but I’ve never seen any credible evidence that they’re not trustworthy. Can anyone provide any sources with valid reasons to avoid their service? I only know that they had some servers hacked in 2018, but it seems as though they took that very seriously and upgraded their hardware and encryption accordingly. I’m just trying to decide if I want to start looking at alternatives, but honestly I’m pretty satisfied with my experience so far.
Also, how often do you want to watch a Netflix movie/show that is not available in your country?
American living in Japan: a lot (though other services, not Netflix). Even before moving to Japan, certain BBC content, etc.
This is the thing I don’t mind VPN companies advertising about, because yeah, they can work to get around region restrictions, and that’s a totally valid use for them that some people will appreciate. If you have a specific use case like this, by all means pay for a VPN… But if you’re just using it as a magic internet condom… I don’t think it’s worth your money.
In general the claims about security at a coffee shop or whatever are kind of bunk, and any privacy benefits are kind of overstated (especially if you don’t think you have a reason to trust the VPN provider more than your ISP). There isn’t a complete lack of truth to these claims, but I don’t think they’re true in a way that’s meaningful to the average person who isn’t tech savvy, and I think there’s often a lack of transparency about certain aspects such as the fact that technically the VPN provider can log everything anybody else would, and you have no way of knowing.