I've never needed dead hand software. I wipe my phone before going through airports but that's it. If I needed it, my first instinct would be to write my own, because my use case would probably be pretty simple. I'm not sure. I think you're vastly overstating the danger of travelling through Russia. Still, I'd wipe my phone (or leave it at home) like anywhere else of course. Always best to be cautions.

But then, renting a box in Russia just to break out of it using a VPN kind of defeats the whole purpose.

This is just kinda how I use everything. I mean I'm paying for the VPN anyway... But it doesn't degrade performance for a seedbox. You connect to it and stream your files when you need them, it's less hassle than if you download things to your own home. Doesn't degrade performance for most private tasks to be honest.

If your place also does this and it has a working democratic and judicial systems, I would suggest starting to raise questions about it.

It absolutely does not. But even if it did, I think most countries in the EU have some form of internet censorship. Almost always left to the discretion of the ISPs when it comes to implementation. Your instance is in Estonia, so I checked, and Estonia blocks copyright infringement and gambling, and according to one source, as if this year, 'Russian propaganda'.

[–] drathvedro@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think you’re vastly overstating the danger of travelling through Russia

Eh, a red passports in my pocket, along with a military id of same color say otherwise

But it doesn’t degrade performance for a seedbox. You connect to it and stream your files when you need them, it’s less hassle than if you download things to your own home. Doesn’t degrade performance for most private tasks to be honest.

Actually, this sounds like a one good use-case for VPS in Russia because I didn't even know what a seedbox is. I have used transmission on a router solely for silent operation and only once encountered an ISP who limited bittorrent traffic, but then I just told them to fuck off and switched to a different one. It never crossed my mind that people might want a torrent box outside their country. Just use an encrypted connection to it, though, because who knows what the fuck is Russian(or your) government might be up to. Though I'd advice to consider one in Armenia, if possible. It's close, but much more liberal and the internet speeds are just as good. Though computer part imports seem to be problematic in there so I'm not sure if there are any good providers.

Almost always left to the discretion of the ISPs when it comes to implementation

It'd be interesting to see how they actually implement this, as I couldn't find much info. But the fact that this is passed down to ISP's to implement and there are seemingly no strict rules gives a hope that there might be some leeway between different providers, and ones that don't use it as a pretense to infringe on your privacy. But it's sad to see that they are, too, going political with this.

[–] Aria@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 9 months ago

Eh, a red passports in my pocket, along with a military id of same color say otherwise

Then you know better than me.

Though I’d advice to consider one in Armenia, if possible. It’s close, but much more liberal and the internet speeds are just as good. Though computer part imports seem to be problematic in there so I’m not sure if there are any good providers.

I don't have a particular love for Russia for this type of thing, it just happens that a lot of low cost barely-professional providers are in Russia, and that Russia isn't among the worst countries in terms of surveillance law and competence to enforce those laws. I'd happily rent from an Armenian provider, they're just a little worse at SEO. Thanks for the tip.

ones that don’t use it as a pretense to infringe on your privacy.

My current ISP works with any router but there is a mandatory purchase of their partner's router when you sign up. That router doesn't host a configuration page, if you want to configure the SSID or password, you need to use their Windows/Android app. The Windows app installs a root certificate. I haven't done that, and I think it's just to facilitate regular updates rather than MITM decryption, but it could be either. ISPs have smart people (or people with skills in the right technical area), but they don't have any financial incentive to use a clean solution sadly.

But it’s sad to see that they are, too, going political with this.

I'm not categorically against blocking illegal content, but it's the surveillance I find really icky. Countries with laws about having to keep logs on users. Mandatory invisible/silent data-sharing with police. Gross.