[IvyMike]

I've said this before, but PIA and other similar VPN providers are great security against most drive-by hackers. I am a happy customer for this reason.

But if your threat model includes "NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA", you are going to have to spend more than $4 a month to remain secure.

[canttestthis]

Okay, I'll bite. My budget is more than $4 a month, but not thousands. Is there any way to keep myself secure from the NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA/etc in a simple VPN-way?

[r0h1n]

> if your threat model includes "NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA"...

I think there are two vastly different threat model within that - (a) large-scale and indiscriminate vacuuming up of the average citizen's Internet usage data to fill up datacenters and do analytics, and (b) active targeting of a specific subject.

I'm hoping a VPN will insulate me against (a) too. But for (b), I don't think I stand much of a chance even if I spent $400 a month.

[duaneb]

Yes. In fact, I'm not aware of a failsafe method to guard against digital surveillance at any price save not using computers.

[sliverstorm]

"Failsafe" is unnecessary. Come on, we call ourselves engineers here, right? A cardinal rule of engineering is to not let "perfect" get in the way of "good enough".

[duaneb]

Yes. I perhaps should have said that price for granted security scales exponentially.