You can’t just tell people to ‘get a VPN (Virtual Private Network)’. Buying a VPN is like buying a house. It’s very very important. Having no VPN or having a ‘wrong’ one can seriously damage your life. Especially for Americans because their privacy laws are garbage. I am going to try explain why you should get a VPN but bare with me, I am from Germany and my English is far from perfect.
Let’s start with a simple test. Click this link here: https://whatismyipaddress.com/ It will tell your IP adres, your ISP (internet service provider), and your location. The location might not be very accurate, but then again, it’s just a simple website. Imagine what the government can do!
So basically, everyone can find out where you live. But there is more danger. Your ISP. Your ISP logs your every move online and they are required to keep it in case the government wants access to it (or if a 3rd party wants to buy your data (yikes). They have everything. What websites you visit. How long you stay on a website. What you download. Your search terms. European laws are more subtle on this but if you are from the US you are #@*#&, especially because Trump doesn’t support the open internet. It’s scary but maybe in the future you can’t get a job because the recruiter knows your searched on ‘how to deal with depression’ or anythings else that’s supposed to be private because it’s your f*cking right. Or you get a $100k fine because you pirated a movie 15 years ago. You need a VPN. You’re dumb for not using one. but what does a VPN do?
A VPN encrypts all your data so if it were be intercepted no one can ‘crack the code’ and damage your privacy.
Usually being online goes like this (simplified): Your computer —-> ISP (—–> keeps data —–> sells it)
But with a VPN it goes like: Your computer —–> VPN (encrypts data)—–> ISP (ISP can’t see shit)
Furthermore, a VPN hides your IP address and location by giving you another IP address located in Spain for example (you can often choose from a list and change as many times as you want).
Now that you know why you should get a VPN and what is does it is important to educate yourself because people often choose the wrong VPN. VPN providers are also businesses and have to obey the law. If you choose a VPN provider located in the US then you are throwing your money away because the laws in the US shits on your privacy. If the US gov wants the provider to give all their logs they have to obey. The ISP still can’t see what you are doing online and sell your data but the US gov can interfere with your VPN provider so NEVER CHOOSE A PROVIDER LOCATED IN THE US.
I just wanted to make that very clear so my followers don’t buy false security.
There is still more danger! Who says your VPN provider isn’t selling your data? You need to check their logging policy. Do they keep logs? If yes, what for? For how long do they keep them? Tip: Choose a provider who doesn’t keep logs
More about law The US is part of the Five Eyes program (the worst):
The Five Eyes, often abbreviated as FVEY, is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are bound by the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence (source)
There is also a Nine Eyes (bit better) and Fourteen Eyes Program (better). You don’t want a VPN provider who is located in one the Five Eyes countries. If you had to choose go for a provider located in a country that’s part of the Fourteen Eyes Program or even better, go for a country that isn’t part of any program!
I know this is a shitty explanation and please pardon my english but now it’s time to do your own research. Take your privacy seriously. Maybe WWIII breaks out and you get killed for liking the ‘wrong’ FB-page.
Make sure that your future VPN provider both has green boxes for Privacy Jurisdiction and Privacy Logging.
I recommend ovpn.se and trust.zone. ovpn is located in Sweden so they are part of the 14 Eyes Program and they keep minimal logs. Their business ethics, however, are alright.
Trustzone is located in the Seychelles. No country can interfere and their privacy jurisdiction is the best you can get. The US want your data but needs to get it from Trustzone? The Seychelles will simply give them the finger and wave them goodbye. However, this makes this provider very appealing for people who torrent and criminals because they keep no logs (and that is how it shoud be) Also, there are almost no marketing efforts so this provider is one the cheapest)
Also, often providers such as ExpressVPN are being called ‘The Best’ on websites about VPNs but know that this is just marketing which also makes those provider more expensive (and they too shit on your privacy)
This must be the worst article you have ever read but please, please take your privacy very seriously.
I am also with Trustzone but I think you forgot to explain one of it’s most important features. It protects you when you are using someone else’s Wi-Fi. If you are at Starbucks and you use their Wi-Fi your privacy is at risk. Anyone with ill intentions could steal your information. Especially if you are using an unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot. With a VPN your data gets encrypted so no one can steal it.
Wait, what’s going, on? Did trump destroy internet privacy with a bill or something? Where’s the news? Oh wait, why am I getting visions of Alex Jones and selling water purifiers?
He hasn’t yet but he says he wants to. And if he is serious about it it would be really easy to do. Since all our data is already recorded, as the person above explained.
Trump wants more surveillance of Muslim Americans. This in a country where internet privacy is already close to non-existent.
To all my friends in the US, please read this entire post. Making everyone aware of VPNs is going to be my mission. Your privacy matters. Please reblog this post.
Don’t tell me you just wanted to scroll past this. Stop looking at pictures of cats for a moment, okay? Don’t you realize how important this is? This is dangerous! ‘America, the best FREE country in the world’ my ass.
With this new law your ISP can sell your Internet history which could include passwords, usernames, religion, credit card numbers, race and much more to the highest bidder. So here is what I want you to do.
You are going to read the whole thing and before you think ’this is so important. Let me reblog this real quick and go back to admiring cats again-’ NO! Don’t reblog this. Take action first. Then reblog. Sign up for a free trial! Trust.Zone offers one (here). Yes. It might be difficult to set up a VPN for some people. But is that going to stop you from protecting yourself and your family? 30 minutes. 30 minutes is all that it takes. 5 if you know how to install software. The problem with some of you is that you see ‘difficult’ as something negative. I want you to see difficult differently. I need you to push through this stuff. You are going to protect yourself. There is nothing negative about that.
VPNs are fun and costsaving too! A VPN bypasses geographical restrictions so you can access websites you normally can’t or you could start Netflix’s one month free trial over and over again- forever. And it’s legal! (unless you use it to buy weapons etc.,)
Don’t tell yourself that you are too tired and that you will do this tomorrow. Because that isn’t going to happen and you know it. You have to do this right now. You only have to click on it.
Don’t let this/shit/life just happen to you. Take yourself seriously. Get a VPN.
Privacy is not a privilege, it’s a fundamental human right
Ok sorry that it’s so freaking long and also sorry for the language, but this is extremely important. Please reblog!
Reblogging again bc this is important
Right now they’re having a black friday sale! 75% off!!
idk if I’ve posted about this before but by far the strangest things that’s happened to me in retail was the time someone’s total came out to my birth-year and I said “hey! that’s the year I was born!” and then the next customer’s total came out to like $12.57 and just bc I’m a weirdo I said “hey! that’s the year I was born!” and without missing a fucking beat this like, 70+ year old man said
“Ah! Another like me! We’re few and far between these days, aren’t we?”
And I was like oh man this guy’s sense of humor really aligns with mine! And I laughed and made some other joke about being immortal and thought that was the end of it,
but this man.
He stood by the register for five more minutes. Maybe more. Which let me tell you is an EXCRUTIATING amount of time for something like this to happen.
And he just kept upping the ante!! He starting talking about some REALLY specific details regarding day-to-day life in the 1300s to the point I started getting worried that I’d misled a genuinely immortal being to believe I am also immortal.
He eventually politely left when I got too busy with other customers to awkwardly respond.
Who the fuck was that guy.
I think it’s also important to mention this happened at Cracker Barrel.
A lot of people are really scared and angry because of the results of the newest climate change reports — as they should be. But I’m already seeing a lot of posts and news reports like “HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING” and bizarrely enough, the answers are never like “weed out climate change deniers from your government, impose strict new rules for the corporations that are creating most of the emissions, pour government resources into alternate forms of fuel, etc.” It’s always like “carpool to work!”
Look. Of course you should be working to reduce waste in your own life. But let’s not fucking pretend that consumers are the ones who made this mess. You know what another recent study found? Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. If the rest of us stopped ALL WASTE and fucking ascended to a higher plane of existence that no longer requires consumption of any kind, the world would still be absolutely fucked if those 100 companies keep on as they do.
I hate this personal responsibility model when it comes to conservation. By ignoring the actual source of the problem and focusing on individuals instead, guess who gets targeted? The absolute most vulnerable individuals on the planet. When people advocate personal responsibility, somehow they’re never talking about billionaires and their private jets. They’re creating straw bans that will make life more dangerous for people with disabilities. They’re shaming women for using disposable menstrual products. They’re criticizing the poor and destitute for using “wasteful” products because they’re all they can afford. They’re making vaguely eugenic statements about getting people in “third world countries” to stop ~breeding~ so much. It’s monstrous.
Stop shaming consumers for the sins of corporations and their powerful investors. Stop placing the blame at the feet of the people who already have the hardest time getting through life. Do something, and by “do something” I mean buy a reusable coffee cup on the way to fucking vote. Go to a protest. Call a representative. Demand accountability from the people who got us into this mess.
stop wanting. you are whole. detach yourself from the feeling of need. you are enough.
you only feel lonely bc humans evolved as a social species and were never meant to live in social isolation, slaving away day in day out with minimal contact to other people, that is very superficial at best not a single hint of intimacy, like it is the norm now lmfao no one can overwrite that by “detaching”, quite the contrary, detachment is a sign of depression CAUSED by severe social deprivation
I hate tumblr hot takes like that. our society is broken and anti-social and it’s making us SICK. normalizing this and pretending like it’s your personal failure that you can’t deal with something you were never meant to able to deal with bc we didn’t evolve to be alone is absolutely counter productive
im am literally begging y’all to reconsider your vice tight stance on “even daring to suggest lgbtqia+ spaces that arent clubs or bars is inherently homophobic” cause not only did everyone on this site want things like gay cafés like 3 years ago, but I cant even go to my uni’s lgbt+ society meetings any more cause all they ever do is go to a really loud bar. I’m autistic, I physically can’t cope with the environment. I also don’t drink, and this bar has 2 whole none alcoholic options that I can drink- the other 2 being cola and red bull. Not only is it just me, it’s also like all my friends at uni aswell, I made friends with a lot of queer people who don’t drink, including a trans man who doesn’t drink so he can take testosterone for longer without risking his health and anothe trans man who’s also autistic and can’t deal with clubs. It’s fucking cruel to expect us to settle with this one type of space in which we can’t cope with.
But i guess fuck me and my queer needs, cause as of the spawn of this shit awful discourse, anyone who dares suggest lgbt+ space that isnt a bar is almost immediately shut down with “thats homophobic” because?? Why? Iirc its cause asexual people started calling for more non alcohol related spaces and y’all hate asexual people with a passion so fuck the idea of accesible spaces because a tumblr user who’s ace and wanted said spaces suggested it.
News flash asshole, its not homophobic to want a queer space that’s suitable for your needs. Next time you make fun of people who ask for gay cafes or whatever because the idea sounds silly to you, bare in mind you’re acting like a right prick towards minors, disabled people, non drinkers and people who are recovering from addiction, and maybe just people who dont want to go to clubs.
The lgbtqia+ community isnt just able bodied young adults, stop acting like everything is already accomodated.
This really put into words a lot of my feelings on this topic too
As a fellow autistic, I agree wholeheartedly. This isn’t to discredit the history of gay bars and their importance, but we badly need more accessible queer spaces. More bookshops, I say.
This may be tangential, but this reminds me of a lot of work being done on alcoholism and queerness, and a major criticism of “bars = queer spaces” stance is that it encourages a culture around alcohol that is harmful to lgbt+ people. In a society that benefits from the erasure of lgbt+ people, I think it would be a mistake to say that the only queer spaces are those that can also be actively harmful to the very people they claim to be for.
Some non-academic reading (from a range of places) with some interesting quotes I’ve pulled out. TW for alcoholism and abuse in the full versions of these articles.
LGBT people are more likely to drink, have higher rates of substance abuse and are more likely to continue drinking into later life than the general population … Many brands have become adept at positioning themselves as “gay friendly”. Bud Light sponsors New York City Pride, for instance, while brewer SAB Miller has sponsored Pride in London. Smirnoff and Absolut vodka both ran social media campaigns supporting equal gay marriage. Our participants viewed drinks promotion on the LGBT scene as even heavier than elsewhere…
None of our participants seemed to be aware of the existence of LGBT AA groups.
My First Time Being Sober in a Gay Bar
(a more positive read)
“There can be a social stigma to it. People think that sober people are uptight, or broken in some way, or sick. And that’s really unfortunate, because it’s the healthy choice.”
The Fine Line Between Gay Pride and Alcoholism
I have heard so many gay men tease others about their sobriety while funneling margaritas down their throat, but with the Centers for Disease Control’s report on how LGBT people are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol than the general population, it would appear that the joke is on them. And it is on me too, as I keep trying and failing to reduce my drinking while remaining a part of traditional gay culture…
It is a part of the gay culture to laugh off alcohol abuse as part of our charm, a silly joke or a harmless offense. And for a while, it is funny! But every joke only lasts for so long, yet I was still part of the worn out punch line.
Gay Men, We Have a Drinking Problem
Make no mistake, the delicious, gritty, and decadent history of the gay bar is a beautiful one…
I wouldn’t want to deny any young gay person that beautifully messy but ultimately liberating experience. But there is this notion that by leaving the gay watering holes and recognizing the destructive nature of binge drinking as you grow up, you are somehow rebuking gay culture and “normalizing” into hetero oblivion.
There’s also the fact that having LGBTQA cafés and the like does not equal getting rid of LGBTQA bars. We can have both. This is not a zero sum game.
Exactly!
In fact, the more variety of spaces we have the better because it expands accessibility to more and more people in the community
Welcome to Chaos 