Hello, fellow privacy enthusiasts!
I’ve been on a journey to find a VPN provider that aligns with my privacy values, and I wanted to share my experiences and concerns here, hoping for some insights and recommendations.
Primary Criteria:
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Outside of the 14 Eyes: Ideally, I’d prefer a provider outside of the 14 Eyes intelligence-sharing countries.
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Accepts Monero: Given its the only real privacy coin there is, I’m keen on providers that accept Monero as a payment method.
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I need port forwarding for the services I host.
Current Options: I’ve considered Mullvad and IVPN, both of which I trust for their privacy focus. However, they recently disabled their port forwarding support, which I need since I host services from home. SPN by Safing sounds really interesting too but they also do not offer port forwarding sadly.
ProtonVPN seemed like a close alternative, but I’ve come across several red flags:
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Logging Concerns: ProtonMail, under the same parent company, provided IP logs in response to a Swiss court order. This contradicts ProtonVPN’s claim on their website that “we can’t be obligated to start logging” under Swiss law.
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Use of Google Analytics: Despite being a privacy-focused service, ProtonMail has used Google Analytics on their website, raising questions about their commitment to user privacy.
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No Monero Support: Proton has not added Monero as a payment option, despite numerous requests from the community over the years.
Seeking Recommendations: Given the above, I’m reaching out for advice. Are there any VPN providers you’d recommend that fit my primary criteria? Or any insights into the concerns I’ve raised about ProtonVPN?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Honestly, as long a VPN takes bitcoin, you can pay with Monero by using a swap service when paying, just remember to set the swap to a fixed rate, not a floating rate. And ProtonVPN does take bitcoin I believe. Protonmail allows bitcoin as payment
Yes, that is true and I do that very often but the issue is not that they do not accept monero but that they somewhat refuse to accept it which I think is a red flag considering they claim to be all about privacy. It is also a bit weird that they separate their BTC payment option and that you need an account first. You are only given PayPal and CC as an option directly when trying to sign up for a plan.