> I never understood why people working in tech would ever trust a VPN service?
It’s not that I trust them but I’d rather some random company across the world has my jerk off logs rather than my ISP who hands my habits to my government and all its favoured cohorts.
> For all you know, your government is running that VPN you’re using
The NSA is simply not most people's threat model, and if they _are_ running it, it probably means that someone shadier is not. I'm using a VPN because I don't want my ISP to see what I'm browsing, don't want end sites to know who I am, want to watch American Netflix, and because the country I'm in tries to block all adult sites. The NSA is welcome to all of this traffic _shrug_
My government, along with any other entity with lawyers, can obtain my browsing history from my ISP as evidence that is admissible in civil or criminal court by submitting some paperwork. They can’t do that with my VPN traffic, even if some government spooks are secretly running the VPN. The NSA is not going to burn their operation to help the MPAA fine me.
It’s not that I trust them but I’d rather some random company across the world has my jerk off logs rather than my ISP who hands my habits to my government and all its favoured cohorts.