My traffic will transit third parties all the time, since it's going over the Internet. What's the problem with relays, if the traffic is end-to-end encrypted?
- With a TURN/relay, you’re introducing a single, purpose-built box that:
- sees all the tunnel metadata for many users (IP pairs, timing, volume),
- is easy to log at or subpoena/compel,
- and becomes a natural central chokepoint if someone wants to block the system.
- Without that relay, your traffic still crosses random ISPs/routers, but:
- those hops are *generic Internet infrastructure*, not “the TunnelBuddy relay”,
- there’s no extra entity whose whole job is to see everyone’s flows.
- With a TURN/relay, you’re introducing a single, purpose-built box that: - sees all the tunnel metadata for many users (IP pairs, timing, volume), - is easy to log at or subpoena/compel, - and becomes a natural central chokepoint if someone wants to block the system.
- Without that relay, your traffic still crosses random ISPs/routers, but: - those hops are *generic Internet infrastructure*, not “the TunnelBuddy relay”, - there’s no extra entity whose whole job is to see everyone’s flows.