In this episode, we explore why I no longer use a VPN (most of the time) and nor should you.==============================SUGGESTED==========================...
the hostname of a website is explicitly not encrypted when using TLS. the Encrypted Client Hello extension fixes this but requires DNS over HTTPS and is still relatively new.
Everything after Hello is encrypted tho. The metadata is important, but takes some leaps of assumption to know what that data means—moreso than the metadata of say WhatsApp since the payload could be just about anything & from anywhere, not just a P2P text/multimedia message. And DNS over HTTPS does exist now & has support in all browsers & mobile operating systems. If it’s the hostnames you are worried about, a simple SSH SOCKS5 proxy with remote DNS could work with many older technologies. Not saying there isn’t some worry, but there are solutions now, the ISP is getting close to nothing, & for most folks subscribing to a comericial VPN is not worth giving monthly money to these actors that you probably can’t trust.
the hostname of a website is explicitly not encrypted when using TLS. the Encrypted Client Hello extension fixes this but requires DNS over HTTPS and is still relatively new.
Everything after Hello is encrypted tho. The metadata is important, but takes some leaps of assumption to know what that data means—moreso than the metadata of say WhatsApp since the payload could be just about anything & from anywhere, not just a P2P text/multimedia message. And DNS over HTTPS does exist now & has support in all browsers & mobile operating systems. If it’s the hostnames you are worried about, a simple SSH SOCKS5 proxy with remote DNS could work with many older technologies. Not saying there isn’t some worry, but there are solutions now, the ISP is getting close to nothing, & for most folks subscribing to a comericial VPN is not worth giving monthly money to these actors that you probably can’t trust.