49
VPNs Promised Privacy. Here's How Several Got Caught Lying
(thecybersecguru.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
49 points (94.5% liked)
Privacy
10069 readers
158 users here now
A community for Lemmy users interested in privacy
Rules:
- Be civil
- No spam posting
- Keep posts on-topic
- No trolling
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
FYI, AirVPN is slow as hell. That being said, they don't require an email to sign up and allow you to pay in Monero, unlike Proton
Proton requiring you to doxx yourself via phone numbers and email addresses is such crap. Can't sign up via Tor either, they limit crypto they accept and when. They log your payment methods, and just suck so bad compared to Mullvad. I know expecting privacy for email is a non-starter, but they pretend like their email is private when there is so much logging they do there alone.
Thanks for the heads-up with AirVPN, I was told they had good customer support but ¯\(ツ)/¯ I would not know.
Just to clarify: you don't need a phone number for proton, and you can use a burner email as your backup. I agree with you though, I'd prefer not to give either, put back at the emails are standard, so there is someplace to send a recovery code.
I did skip some details, I should have also added that proton uses phone numbers to verify you are not a bot when you attempt to be anonymous. It is possible to use a burner email from disroot (or non-proton) but that was such a headache I never want to attempt again since even tuta locked my account. I used disroot because the normal burner email I use wasn't getting their code. They lock your account immediately if you use Tor or ironically their own vpn service when you sign up. You can use burner codes like smspool or juicysms at least. You can't use crypto as your first payment method either (if that's important to you). You should also never enter an actual recovery email because that will be handed over in a raid.
Which is why I recommend most people use Mullvad instead of this headache and offer AirVPN as a different alternative if you must torrent with port forwarding. My usage of proton has turned me anti-proton lmao. Their linux support kinda sucks too. If I had to do it again, I would have avoided proton's vpn.
Huh? I did a speed test with Air and it was relatively the same before and after connecting. Tbh it was just one test, I wasn't really checking super hard. But I had it running in gluetun for my Qbittorrent and it works like a dream. Way easier to port forward too, I fucking hated Proton for swapping it every docker reload.