I don’t know how likely that is. But I was a bit too quick in my judgement, on public networks a VPN does ass significant protection to HTTP connections. Not really on home networks, mobile networks or well-secured public/office networks though.

I honestly don’t know how much risk your data is at after leaving the tunnel. Luckily most things are HTTPS now.

Your data still travels across the internet unencrypted. It only protects you on the LAN level.

While ISPs are in many jurisdictions obligated to log your connections (data retentions laws), VPN providers are not.

It’s not just all about encrypting traffic. Many people connect to the internet over a static IP most of the time from their home network. A VPN provides protection against tracking in this case.

A VPN doesn’t do much to protect HTTP connections.

That, unlike your ISP, isn’t obligated by law to log the connections you make (‘data retention’). Depending on the jurisdictions.

HTTPS, sure. But your ISP can and will create a pretty comprehensive social graph about you using only metadata (server IPs or hostnames). Where I live, all home networks basically have a static IP. Also, besides a commercial incentive, ISPs are also mandated to log your connections. VPNs are not.

Official link to ruling (in Dutch): https://deeplink.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak?id=ECLI:NL:RBOBR:2024:2069

Snapshot of translation: https://archive.ph/JKdbV

Right. So arguably better than WhatsApp, where each users’ contact books, profile photos, bios, and each group chat name, picture and description is not E2E. But to call it ‘private’ is not logical, looking at the alternatives, of which some are much more private.

Say the US government, in a worst-case scenario in which it constantly monitors all traffic that goes through Signal’s data centers, can ‘only’ see phone numbers, IP addresses and timestamps, right? Or am I forgetting something here?

In my opinion, the coolest project currently on IPFS is Standard Template Construct. Just no video streaming.

You must live in a huge neighbourhood. Your points are valid, though you can now choose to keep chats archived even when receiving a message. Settings > Chats > Keep chats archived.

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WhatsApp seems very conservative with adding new features. I generally feel the features they do decide to add are all pretty useful. Telegram on the other hand doesn’t ever seem to slow down with the new features. Many of them seem great, but just as many I would never use. I’m still wondering why Telegram won’t introduce end-to-end encryption as a default.