Came across this controversial link where someone says that a VPS would be more secure than a VPN provider. From my understanding:
-Wouldn’t the VPS provider just see everything instead of a VPN provider? -Wouldn’t fingerprinting be straightforward, even if you use a hardened browser, since you have a single IP traceable directly to only one user?
ytcombinator doesn’t seem to take it seriously but I’m curious to hear what you all think about it.
I think both protect from different threat vectors.
A VPN provider can anonymize you but you have to trust them to not use the backchannel in any way (and of course to not actually log everything you do).
Hosting your own VPN isn’t anonymous anymore, since the final connection still leads back to you. But it can properly shield you from untrusted public networks and you can be sure, that you are private, since you are in your own network then.