I just started using NordVPN as my first VPN. I paid $99 for 3 years and now I see this news.
How worried should I be? Is my data and traffic still protected?
If I only turn it on when I need it, should I be that concerned about my bandwidth being co-opted?
Please pretend that I know nothing about VPN related things and stuff.
TLDR:
Free HolaVpn actually did this and was documented and proven. There is currently no evidence proton mail or Nord are running that type of shared resources vpn.
PIA vpn seems to be behind these accusations, and they made a similair claim against proton mail and their free proton vpn which afaik was never proven.
Personally I'm waiting for torrentfreak.com to weigh in on this and/or some sort of proof to surface that nord/protonvpn are running a holavpn type operation. For now It's just been guilt by association. I continue using my nord vpn while I monitor this situation.
That said tessonet thing is big red flag and a shitty company to be in bed with
Legit concern and i will not renew my Nord. I also wont use PIA again unless they turn out to be proven right.
Longer:
I am in same boat, I passed up others and went with Nord because I could pay with a subway giftcard and they had a solid mobile app. Prepaid visa are very hit or miss and you dont know until you shelled out the cash.
Torrent freak has long had reviews of Nord and never mentioned any concerns.
Previously there was an vpn called holavpn offered a free vpn service that actually ran like something between a botnet and torrent client. This got discovered and proven.
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/hola-vpn-security/
Sorry for terrible quality, long posts are a PITA to write out on mobile.
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