Good afternoon there,

I became even more concerned about our future after reading your http://www.loper-os.org/?p=1299 page.

Our government continues to use surveillance technologies to collect sensitive data and then there’s a real risk that this data can be leaked. Did you know that over 7.9 billion private records have been exposed last year alone?

Your article really stands out, it’s exceptionally well written and interesting to read (yet, disturbing). I’ve also recently had a chance to contribute to an article that explains government intelligence alliances ([spam link snipped]).

I’m trying to spread the word about the increasing invasion of privacy and would be flattered if you would consider linking to my post.

P.S. What do you think about the article?

Regards,
[spammer]

Dear [spammer],

In my view, all, without exception, public VPN services are guilty until proven innocent (and such proof is -- elementarily -- impossible!) of being honeypots. On top of this, their practical and immediate effect on a user's privacy is entirely opposite from what the vendors claim it to be.

The traffic of any particular consumer ISP consists primarily of porn and "lolcats", and therefore creates an expensive headache for the snoops: they are stuck buffering the garbage, and sifting for "interesting" material -- a job which, despite $trillions invested in "intelligent" filters, remains essentially muscle-powered. And no amount of human snoop muscle can ever keep up with the input.

To help in separating the lolcat-and-porn packets from the "interesting" material, the snoops set up honeypot services, e.g. the TOR network and various VPNs, so that "interesting" people can helpfully expose themselves as such.

I want no part whatsoever in perpetrating this (or any other) scam. It is an insult to my intelligence, and to that of my readers, to ask for any such thing.

And so, any text presenting VPNism in any light different from the above, I regard as a work of NSA propaganda. And I see no reason to recommend any such piece to my readers, or for that matter to anyone else.

If you are an actual human being, as opposed to a spy agency shill (unfortunately, the item you endorsed does not enable me to make this distinction!) I recommend to think about what I have said, and reconsider the wisdom of *deliberately paying* an organization whose primary purpose is to assist snoops in their work of ferreting out "interesting" victims whose packets may be worth the disk space to log.

But if in fact you are a shill, I expect you will ignore this message.

P.S. I will be making this exchange public. Minus the spam link.

Yours,
-S