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Comment by wglb | Hacker News Reader

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wglb·

So what protection does a foreign VPN provider have from the NSA? The answer: None.

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If your threat model includes NSA you need to reconsider lot more than just a VPN

Windows Defender oughta do it /s

Disk encryption, firmware lockdown, home security with notifications, burner phones, Tails and Tor (via VPN), IRC, fleet of hacked Windows machines to route through, 10 online identities.

I always recommend users to pick a VPN service in a country not on friendly terms with domestic agencies. Sure, that country gets your data but have a harder time correlating it with anything.

In my circle, VPN use starts to be requested by non-technical users that just want to minimize their digital footprint.

Seems amazing to me, since people spend 200$+ on a service for a year, so it seems rather important to them.

No reason not to use globalization to your own advantage.

A foreign provide surely has more, in the legal realm, than a domestic one?

What legal protection from the NSA does a foreign (to the USA) provider have? Signals intelligence from foreign sources is the NSA's exact mission.

At least the NSA has a purported requirement not to do domestic spying, even if Snowden proved that's not being followed.

I was thinking that a domestic entity has no protections from the NSA, they have to open up if NSA says so "for national security reasons"? Whilst a foreign entity has not requirements to do so. Both domestic and foreign entities are subject to the same practical abilities; ergo a foreign entity is safer?

As for "no domestic spying", I thought the five-eyes group spied on each other to order so as to circumvent those requirements in domestic law??

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