Ran into an old friend from high school who runs a VPN service now

Was at a coffee shop in Portland last month and bumped into this guy I used to know from debate club. He told me he started a small VPN company after getting doxxed for writing about whistleblower cases. Said he had 3 clients in the first year and now handles traffic for over 200 people. He mentioned how his biggest headache is getting blocked by governments that don't want citizens using encrypted tunnels. Made me wonder how many of us actually think about the legal side of using these tools. Have you ever had a VPN provider suddenly stop working because of new laws in your region?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa_kelly1mo ago

Bet half those "200 clients" are just his buddies from debate club clicking a link once and never using it again. I mean come on, how many people actually need encrypted tunnels for whistleblower stuff? Sounds like he's selling a solution to a problem most of us don't have. And governments blocking VPNs? That's more about streaming services and copyright laws than some grand conspiracy to silence people. Unless you're actually hiding something illegal, getting blocked just means you switch to a different app and move on with your day.

jaken231mo ago

Totally not buying those numbers either. What's the real angle here though, maybe something to do with who's funding his little operation in the first place?