Copy of original thread post:
Title: Has anyone tried Riseup VPN?
I’ve been experimenting with some free VPNs, and it looks like Riseup is legit. I’m able to torrent on it without issue and the speeds are acceptable for my connection.
How come we don’t recommend this more? Everyone is always saying “no free vpns,” but how many of you have actually tried them? I feel like I’ve been wasting money on my VPN ever since I found Riseup.
Are we just being hustled by the viral marketers and their useful idiots?
[end of original post]
Why did this post get removed for spam, but the post about a paid VPN stays up?
Are the mods just removing posts that get reported, regardless of if rules are being broken? If so, they should consider how most people paying for a product will get very defensive whenever someone mentions they could be getting that product for free.
Edit: We have confirmation. Mods will delete posts that aren’t breaking rules just because they’re downvoted too much. Great censorship by proud consumers. Enjoy wasting your money.
He also tried to spread lies about Riseup requiring an invite code, which it does not. He also tried to spread lies about it not being for torrenting. Sharing information freely is activism and you don’t get to decide it’s not.
He then tried to make the discussion private, which I refuse to do because there is no reason to do so and it only serves to aid in censorship.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
Can’t speak to this incident, but i do agree that in general, free VPNs are not safe because usually they are funded by selling your personal information and web traffic data or performing MITM attacks to inject ads and thus compromising security, even if that’s not the intention.
That being said, Rise Up is a donation funded organization and is specifically run by a nonprofit promoting activism, so really it all comes down to your trust that org. The cost of bandwidth required to run a VPN is high, their site mentions it costs them about $60/person/year. So that money has to come from somewhere. If you’re paying, and it’s a reasonably trustworthy company, then it’s unlikely they will be willing to risk selling your data. But if you’re not paying, then the incentive to not sell your data just isn’t there, thus it requires more trust, IMHO.
Also, if they are a legit org and I take their product without paying, I’m taking that money from activists in places that truly need VPNs to stay safe from arrest or murder, so I generally don’t feel it’s moral to use it just to save money, but that’s me.
Yeah, it sounds similar to “I feel like I’ve been wasting money on groceries ever since I found food banks.”
Thanks for the reasonable and informative response.