> I just run my own VPN from a $5/month DigitalOcean droplet... I feel like all the public VPNs are like big honeypots I'd rather stay away from.
I guess that depends on your threat vector. I mainly want copyright hounds and data miners (including my ISP) to stay out of my way. For this a public VPN is perfect. Hell, in a weird way, if PIA somehow turned out be a NSA honeypot they would be even better for that purpose since they'd essentially be untouchable by copyright holders.
In general, I guess a personal VPN is more private on a micro level (no VPN provider that can spy on you) but less private on a macro level (any determined actor can trace your DO VPN back to you since you are the only user)
> Does that mean ProtonMail also is no longer trustworthy?
That is, again, for yourself to decide.
Personally I think the Proton company isn't malicious and just really bungled up the launch of ProtonVPN by going at it together with / through TesoNet, and their VPN efforts will forever be tainted by that.
But, that has very little to do with their mail branch, which preceded ProtonVPN and which so far seems a pretty good offering to me if you want your mail to be encrypted-at-rest.
I guess that depends on your threat vector. I mainly want copyright hounds and data miners (including my ISP) to stay out of my way. For this a public VPN is perfect. Hell, in a weird way, if PIA somehow turned out be a NSA honeypot they would be even better for that purpose since they'd essentially be untouchable by copyright holders. In general, I guess a personal VPN is more private on a micro level (no VPN provider that can spy on you) but less private on a macro level (any determined actor can trace your DO VPN back to you since you are the only user)
> Does that mean ProtonMail also is no longer trustworthy?
That is, again, for yourself to decide. Personally I think the Proton company isn't malicious and just really bungled up the launch of ProtonVPN by going at it together with / through TesoNet, and their VPN efforts will forever be tainted by that. But, that has very little to do with their mail branch, which preceded ProtonVPN and which so far seems a pretty good offering to me if you want your mail to be encrypted-at-rest.