[HN Gopher] Obscura: The VPN that can't track your activity ___________________________________________________________________ Obscura: The VPN that can't track your activity Author : coldblues Score : 16 points Date : 2023-09-29 21:41 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (obscuravpn.io) (TXT) w3m dump (obscuravpn.io) | potamic wrote: | How does this compare to Mullvad who also use randomized account | numbers? Beyond that, whether account number activity is logged | is a matter of trust. | RockRobotRock wrote: | >How is Obscura's design different from Tor? | | >We have immense respect for the Tor project (please donate to | the foundation if you can), but its slow speed and frequent | network-wide DDoS attacks make it infeasible for everyday use. | | >Obscura has most of the benefits of connecting via Tor but is | optimized for everyday use by being much faster and more | reliable. | | Curious about the details on this. | thinkmassive wrote: | Best attempt at an explanation of how it works that I've seen so | far: | | > My understanding is it's CONNECT-IP / MASQUE where the | encrypted & HTTP encapsulated IP request is sent to Obscura and | the details of the request are forwarded to what they're calling | a "Blind Relay" which only knows Obsucra's IP. 2-hop onion | routing with pre-defined routes. No Tor consensus. Very simple. | https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-masque-connect-i... | | - bitgould from https://stacker.news/items/268728/r/031ef7d322 | | Impossible to say without seeing the source code though. | lxgr wrote: | So essentially the same thing as iCloud Private Relay, then? | Does it also use blind signatures for authentication to the | first relay? | lxgr wrote: | Looks nice, but it's barely the first VPN or proxy service trying | to make itself oblivious of the traffic it serves (plausible or | not). | | There's Google One VPN (which uses blind signatures for access | tokens) as well as iCloud Private Relay (which leverages nested | encrypted channels terminated by a different entity than the one | that receives user-side traffic, as well as blind signatures for | authentication if I remember correctly). | | That said, it's definitely nice to have alternatives, but as with | all VPN services, I'd be cautious - the proposition of "perfectly | anonymous network access" attracts a lot of attention, not all of | it beneficial to the product/project. | pricci wrote: | > Pay anonymously with Bitcoin. Or use Lightning for instant | payments and lower fees. | | Bitcoin is not anonymous. This makes me doubt of all their | privacy claims ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-09-29 23:00 UTC)