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Using a VPN over Tor does the opposite of granting privacy.

If that VPN provider is compromised, Tor gave you no additional protection, just a shittier internet connection while you sent all your traffic to a compromised endpoint over an encrypted channel.

Using Tor over a VPN, it doesn't matter as much if the VPN provider is compromised-- your traffic is still scattered and encrypted by means of Tor itself.

Based on traffic analysis you can be identified either way so I can't speak to how well this holds up to hostile governments but in such cases the former is an amateur mistake likely to lead to your disappearance. The latter gives you more of a fighting chance.




I believe that Jstanley was saying exactly that — I read that as he doesn’t see any advantage for the use of a VPN ‘instead’ of just using Tor.

John




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