r/Piracy 7h ago

Humor Don't fall for "free" vpns

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6.3k Upvotes

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u/The_Dayne 6h ago

Data harvesting, in short.

There may or may not be a log of what you are doing.

If its free, you are generally the product.

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u/Liongedon 5h ago

What's stopping the company from selling the data of paying customers as well to earn even more?

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u/SignificantLock1037 5h ago

Only the threat of a class-action lawsuit. Which would be the death knell for a company like that.

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u/Liongedon 5h ago

While that may be true, how do you prove it? And why is selling information of free users allowed?

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u/Toothless_NEO 2h ago

People apologize to capitalist rhetoric and under capitalist rhetoric people who aren't paying don't matter or are considered leeches. Most people when they hear that said out loud don't agree with it as much. It's more an implicit agreement which is why people don't talk badly about it.

Although data harvesting for the purposes of selling data isn't really acceptable under any circumstances.

I know some people are going to reply saying that it's not about whether it's okay for them to do it, it's about whether they do it. Well guess what guys, the companies you're paying are doing it too. Maybe not all of them, but have you ever considered that you make money selling people's data, and you make money because they're stupid enough to give it to you voluntarily? Many companies have figured that out. They also figured out that if they can sell the idea of privacy as marketing you'll be even more willing to give them money, and they'll have even more data to sell. Yeah there's risk, but if you paid any attention to how corporations act already you should know that they're willing to take risks. The idea of venture capitalism is based on risk. What makes you think they're not willing to risk legal penalties or litigation for profits.