Selfhosted git on .onion or .i2p.

It usually works great for me (and when it doesn’t - I help), but it obviously doesn’t work on downloads so I still have to skip some ads manually.

Not just sucks, but is limited. Like, you can’t even register there! To use Signal without a smartphone, you’d need workarounds that are unfriendly to an average person! All while a computer is far easier to make private than a phone.

I’ve used it because it actually allowed me to register, while the registration in the official app broke (my best guess is due to lack of Google services, because that’s the popup the app got stuck on). And if I knew about it earlier, I could’ve used it to register in an Android VM and then tie a desktop client - because unlike the original, it did not force you to use your camera, you could just use a link. Another important quality for me is the ability to use arbitrary Socks rather than Signal’s own - when every protocol has a chance to be blocked, flexibility is important, and having a standalone proxy may be more convenient than a whole-device VPN (that you’d have to keep on all the time to receive notifications).

From what I understand, in my country OpenVPN and Wireguard work fine within the borders, but the protocols are blocked to foreign servers.

Brought to you by Kape Technologies lobby.

How is it privacy if it locks you into using an OS that reports on you?

I am saying this because I saw this happen. Whenever I accidentally peek into a random’s phone on a bus, chances are the homescreen has a VPN app. The blocked social media did have a bit of a decline, but remain very popular, especially Youtube, which was likely the biggest drive for people to bypass the blocks. The lack of credit is more about them often choosing shady VPN services.

I meant because of sanctions they don’t receive anything from Youtube itself. Yet they go on.

We have a similar situation on Youtube - the site itself doesn’t pay the creators anymore. But everyone who had Youtube as a profession is still there. Some depend on a Patreon-like service, some on their own sponsorships.

Meanwhile the mainstream would probably just download whatever VPNs they can.