Re:Second Swiss firm allegedly sold encrypted spying devices
by ardy42 on Saturday November 28, 2020 @11:03PM
(#25242842)
> Linked to US intelligence services. Makes you wonder how many VPN services are run by governments?
I don't recall details, but IIRC, there are (or were) a few popular VPNs in China that were used to circumvent the firewall that functioned fast and reliability despite the anti-VPN crackdowns. I've read speculation that they were likely collaborating with Chinese police/security forces to help them keep tabs on the VPN-using community in order to better anticipate threats to their power.
Facebook ran similar free VPNs for a similar reason: to gather intelligence on users to anticipate competitive threats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo.
I don't recall details, but IIRC, there are (or were) a few popular VPNs in China that were used to circumvent the firewall that functioned fast and reliability despite the anti-VPN crackdowns. I've read speculation that they were likely collaborating with Chinese police/security forces to help them keep tabs on the VPN-using community in order to better anticipate threats to their power.
Facebook ran similar free VPNs for a similar reason: to gather intelligence on users to anticipate competitive threats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo.