Which VPN Providers Really Take Privacy Seriously in 2023?

[xlbooyahlx]

Good read on the state of the top 20 VPNs in the world with regards to privacy & secirity.

 

[KGIII]

FTA:

Bitcoin is the most anonymous option, as it does not link the payment details to the user identity or other personal information.

Bitcoin keeps a record of every transaction. It's very much easily traced back to a user in a variety of ways, or it can be - depending on your actions.

But, the quote is reasonably true if you 'wash' your BTC. That is, for a small fee of course, you add your BTC to a pool and then take BTC out of that pool.

Otherwise, your IP address might be recorded (remember, they haven't activated their VPN at this point) and other transactions made by you will give you away if they were physical goods that you ordered or if you didn't maintain good 'OPSEC' every time you made a BTC transaction.

Let's ask the experts...

See: https://bitcoin.org/en/you-need-to-know

Also from their privacy page...

Bitcoin is often perceived as an anonymous payment network. But in reality, Bitcoin is probably the most transparent payment network in the world. At the same time, Bitcoin can provide acceptable levels of privacy when used correctly.

The key point, '... when used correctly.'

Pretty much nobody ever mentions that bit when they offer to accept cryptocurrency. You have to maintain good, perfect really, OPSEC if you want to be untracked. You only have to mess up once.

 

[xlbooyahlx]

Pretty much nobody ever mentions that bit when they offer to accept cryptocurrency. You have to maintain good, perfect really, OPSEC if you want to be untracked. You only have to mess up once.

Pay cash for a pre-paid Visa Card is what I do,
If you want to get real serious. ballcap, covid mask and sunglasses when purchasing the pre-paid card from WallyWorld. When logging into your account at your VPN to make the purchase, make sure you're already on a VPN.
Just depends on how anonymous you want to be, as I'm sure there are more than a few ways to be safer than the unsafe ways of doing crypto that you mentioned.

 

[KGIII]

Pay cash for a pre-paid Visa Card is what I do,

I just don't do anything that'd make a government all that angry or get the police called on me.

Well, at least not online.

I also don't have any cryptocurrency anymore. I did and I donated it back when it wasn't worth nearly as much as BTC is today. It's a long story and a very expensive story. I thought the value had probably peaked (how wrong I was) and I donated my mined BTC to EFF.

Ah well...

I don't even do any real banking online. I do that all in person or over the phone. I have an account that I use exclusively for online stuff and only put a set amount into that account. My credit union also lets me generate single-use debit cards, which I use if it's too sketchy. That's about the only account I do anything with online.

 

[xlbooyahlx]

My credit union also lets me generate single-use debit cards,

I've never heard of that before, but i'm pretty sure that can be traced pretty quickly by a gov't. I'm going to assume that anonymity is not your reason for doing so.
I'm also going to assume you're in the US, and as far as I know, there's nothing "sketchy" about buying a pre-paid visa with cash, nor paying for a VPN with it.
I can appreciate doing as little online purchasing, banking etc., especially these days, and I think the whole Covid cr@p that everyone went through got more people purchasing online than ever before.
Which goes hand in hand with what's coming up next with FedNow
And here, which is instant knowledge by the gov't of all transactions using it.
Not going to go into conspiracies, as this is posted in the "security" forum, but nothing good can come from this, espically if/when it becomes the mandatory way to do business.
That's a tough story about crypto. About as bad as when I bought 100 American Gold Eagles (1oz each) at $375.00 per ounce in '03, and then sold them later for $500.00 per ounce later thinking I did pretty well back then.
Hindsight is 20/20 lol

 

[KGIII]

I've never heard of that before, but i'm pretty sure that can be traced pretty quickly by a gov't.

Absolutely, it can.

I just don't do anything that'd make a government all that angry or get the police called on me.

I'm not worried about the government. I'm worried about a malicious site owner grabbing my details, making a clone card, and going to town to buy themselves all sorts of nice new stuff.

If my concerns were government, I'd pick a very different strategy.