A VPN company server was seized.
Reminder: your 'privacy' VPN is still a physical server in somebodies jurisdiction.
Claim of RAM disk servers as protection is...interesting.
I know nothing more about this case, but hotplugs that let authorities grab a server without cutting power are common.
Commodity VPNs are not tools for people that need strong privacy.
VPN servers can be seized, and data that goes in & out of them is subject to whatever interception regime is in place in the jurisdiction.
Then there's the question of whether the company can be compelled to turn over user data.
There are some clever approaches to interception & law enforcement demands, like layering data through multiple VPN companies.
Obscura VPN is an example of these tactics.
But it still comes down to you needing to place a lot of trust in a provider...
But your average podcast-sponsoring VPN company?
They are not a safe place if you are concerned about legal action taken in any of the jurisdictions that your data is passing through.
And that's if your data is actually going where you think it is.
Ultimately there is a massive information asymmetry between VPN providers and their customers.
Many of the claims 'defends against hackers' or 'prevents websites from tracking you' etc. are stinkers.
A VPN isn't protecting you from hacking that matters in 2026.
And despite the marketing BS, if all you do is change your IP address with a VPN, trust me your providers still know that you & your browser...are you.
On, and plenty of VPN providers are owned by some exceptionally shady companies..
VPNs are in the 2020s what Antivirus was in the 2000s.
Something that, thanks to marketing, everyone was conditioned to believe was the first step in being secure online.
When if you talked to experts, the consensus view was: nope, not even close.
https://research.google/pubs/no-one-can-hack-my-mind-comparing-expert-and-non-expert-security-practices/
Reminder: your 'privacy' VPN is still a physical server in somebodies jurisdiction.
Claim of RAM disk servers as protection is...interesting.
I know nothing more about this case, but hotplugs that let authorities grab a server without cutting power are common.
Commodity VPNs are not tools for people that need strong privacy.
VPN servers can be seized, and data that goes in & out of them is subject to whatever interception regime is in place in the jurisdiction.
Then there's the question of whether the company can be compelled to turn over user data.
There are some clever approaches to interception & law enforcement demands, like layering data through multiple VPN companies.
Obscura VPN is an example of these tactics.
But it still comes down to you needing to place a lot of trust in a provider...
But your average podcast-sponsoring VPN company?
They are not a safe place if you are concerned about legal action taken in any of the jurisdictions that your data is passing through.
And that's if your data is actually going where you think it is.
Ultimately there is a massive information asymmetry between VPN providers and their customers.
Many of the claims 'defends against hackers' or 'prevents websites from tracking you' etc. are stinkers.
A VPN isn't protecting you from hacking that matters in 2026.
And despite the marketing BS, if all you do is change your IP address with a VPN, trust me your providers still know that you & your browser...are you.
On, and plenty of VPN providers are owned by some exceptionally shady companies..
VPNs are in the 2020s what Antivirus was in the 2000s.
Something that, thanks to marketing, everyone was conditioned to believe was the first step in being secure online.
When if you talked to experts, the consensus view was: nope, not even close.
https://research.google/pubs/no-one-can-hack-my-mind-comparing-expert-and-non-expert-security-practices/
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