I have been reading about internet privacy for a long time. As time went on, I got a vpn subcription, a custom domain, a paid email hosting, etc. No regrets on the services themselves.

I recently had this conversation with a colleague of mine, complaining about the rising cost of everything including internet subscription services: netflix, spotify, youtube, you name it. I could simply disregard my colleague’s complaints as I didn’t have any of those and know the ways of obtaining materials. However, once I start adding up the privacy related services I’m willingly paying instead… they also add up into a considerable amount.

So, do you pay for anything privacy related, how much do you pay in total, and is it affordable for you? For example, many VPN providers offer yearly subscriptions around 40-50 USD.

  • Anark Karabey
    3•9 months ago

    @rar I pay for my own domain name + VPS for ~45 USD per quarter. (I know there are cheaper providers, but I am happy with my current one).

    I don’t use VPN, I use Tor while browsing and use I2P while torrenting—so I don’t pay a dime to obfuscate my online trails.

    I use a free tier from a “privacy-conscious” email provider, so I don’t pay for that either. I don’t self-host my email and I don’t seek die-hard email privacy with mine, currently. At most, I PGP-encrypt some of them.

    I self-host my own matrix server, which is an e2ee chatting service. So, that goes into my VPS subscription.