Tom Scott writes a more honest VPN ad, with the sponsor's name redacted, and explains why the typical claims in VPN advertising are misleading. He notes the sponsor was not happy about it.
Why Hacker News points people here: The standard link when VPN marketing comes up, as a clear debunking of the scare tactics behind VPN ads.
“It's well worth the seven and a half minutes to watch it, IMO.”HN comment, 2020
“Mad respect for him, and if he ever suggest a paid product in the future i'd trust him.”
Tom Scott turned down VPN sponsorship and debunked the ads
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I feel like if someone is hawking wares on their channel they should at least use it/have faith in it/do their research. Tom Scott has a great video about VPN sponsorship and how he turned down a sponsorship from a VPN company because of the copy they wanted him to say and debunks the ads: this video Mad respect for him, and if he ever suggest a paid product in the future i'd trust him. Conversely i really dislike when they clearly don't use the product, or are shilling a product that i KNOW is bad - looking at you raycons. I can't help but lose respect and definitely distrust every sponsorship they have. tl;dr integrity matters, raycons are really not that great, and i'm tired of hearing the same copy over and over: link
Strongly recommendsjjiceSep 2023
“Tom Scott is the only person I've ever seen have a great video about this [0]”
Great video on VPN scare tactics versus HTTPS
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> Some pour thousands of dollars into forcing influencers to say they care about security, Tangential to this, it always irks me how they talk about how they all act as if the majority of the websites their users are going to aren't HTTPS and they act like their main benefits are filling in the gaps that HTTPS actually fills in. HTTPS isn't a cure all by any means but most of the scare tactics that the big VPN companies that advertise via YouTube act like anyone will rip you credit card because you happened to be on Amazon while you were at the coffee shop. Tom Scott is the only person I've ever seen have a great video about this [0] [0] this video
> * Seriously creepy stuff. I hate how VPNs are being shilled by e-celebs these days as a privacy improvement.* You may enjoy Tom Scott's video: > I tried to write a more honest VPN commercial. The sponsor wasn't happy about it. • Get ■■■ days of ■■■ VPN free at ■■■■.com/honest * this video
RecommendsjlgaddisJan 2020
“It's well worth the seven and a half minutes to watch it, IMO.”
Honest VPN commercial the sponsor disliked
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Tom Scott recently made an video [0] you might be interested in. It's well worth the seven and a half minutes to watch it, IMO. > I tried to write a more honest VPN commercial. The sponsor wasn't happy about it. [0]: this video
RecommendsDeathmaxMar 2021
“Tom Scott put out a good video[1] that tries to debunk various marketing claims.”
Debunks misleading VPN marketing claims
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Unfortunately as GP has mentioned, advertising around these typical VPN companies (Nord, Proton, ExpressVPN, Surfshark and many more) tends to be very misleading. Tom Scott put out a good video[1] that tries to debunk various marketing claims. Sure there are use cases like getting around georestrictions, and like you mentioned you can use it to get around tracking. Except that for privacy and evading tracking you need more than just a VPN, you need to be doing things like adblocking, tracker blocking, clearing all of your cookies, not signing in to anything because then the service gets to link your new VPN IP with you again. VPN ads that sell "privacy" is snake oil unless it is paired with a guide on the additional things you should be doing. [1]: this video
RecommendsSahAssarJul 2021
“I think that this tom scott video summarizes the same sentiment nicely”
Summarizes sentiment about misleading VPN ads on YouTube
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I think that this tom scott video summarizes the same sentiment nicely, especially around the VPN ads on youtube: this video
RecommendsrchoweSep 2022
“Tom Scott made a good video on the uses and non-uses of VPNs [1].”
Uses and non-uses of VPNs
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... and a lot of those VPN companies are probably VC-funded. Tom Scott made a good video on the uses and non-uses of VPNs [1]. VPN advertising has changed since that video to downplay "security", but what I think is odd is that they've replaced that with advertisement that basically is "violate the terms of service of Netflix". [1] this video
RecommendsfellertsJun 2024
“Tom Scott said it better than I could”
Explains misleading VPN ad claims well
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Can you fault them when that's what NordVPN and others claim in their YouTube ads? Tom Scott said it better than I could: this video
RecommendsvoidUpdateAug 2024
“I think Tom Scott put it well here”
Puts the VPN security claims well
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The thing about nordVPN (and VPN services in general) is they always talk about how funneling all your traffic through them makes it more secure and it means that governments cant spy on you and whatever. But sending all your traffic through a single point of failure seems like a bad idea from a government protection view, and how is it any more secure than https? The only thing that I've seen it be good for is making it look like you're from somewhere else to watch different stuff on streaming services. I think Tom Scott put it well here this video
Cites itpen2lJul 2020
VPN as honeypot argument
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> If you wanted to see what the most paranoid, security-conscious people are connecting to, and you wanted to install software on their systems that is designed to read all their network traffic and then redirect it through a single choke point, then setting up a VPN service with a huge advertising budget would be a great way to do it. this video
Cites itSahAssarNov 2020
“This video[1] that describes some of the issues with VPN marketing in general”
Describes issues with VPN marketing
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Half off-topic but I find NordVPN's marketing extremely distasteful and in the same vein as snake oil (same as many VPN providers). This video[1] that describes some of the issues with VPN marketing in general is so widespread that it has created old-school SEO sites[2] to game it where they hide the actual search term with white font on white background. 1: this video 2: link
Cites itdavid_allisonMar 2022
“I wrote a more honest advert for VPN services and I found a company that was willing to sponsor the video.”
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> I wrote a more honest advert for VPN services and I found a company that was willing to sponsor the video. Unfortunately they kept asking for changes, and we disagreed on those, so at the last minute, I have had to blank their name out. this video
Cites itnoirscapeJan 2023Full comment
No offense but TOR is just too sluggish to be really useful unless you're well a gay pirate assassin (or one of those three components)[0]. It has basically all the drawbacks a VPN has (most sites will distrust you on recaptcha, speed bumps, sometimes a connection gets timed out or dropped) whilst having a shitton of latency on top of that because y'know, it's free. There's always been more people willing to use TOR than the server space needed to prevent overburdening the network (in no small part because running the server space needed usually incurs significant legal risks since congrats, you've now become a target for law enforcement to bust your door down and ask why an IP you own a machine on is being used to upload CP to the clearnet - few people want to deal with this scenario for blatantly obvious reasons). This isn't really something you can fix, it's just kind of an inherent issue with the protocol. [0]: this video
Cites itthrow0101bMar 2023
“where he explains most of the reasons listed to use VPN by ads is useless”
Explains why most VPN ad reasons are useless
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This reminds me of the 'original' 2019 video by Tom Scott called "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains most of the reasons listed to use VPN by ads is useless: * this video And then a few years later with "My robot double sells out (so I don't have to)" he did a follow-up listing useful reasons (geo-based content, better prices on vacation sites, etc) which was sponsored by NordVPN: * link
Cites itthrow0101bMar 2023
“where he explains most of the reasons listed to use VPN by ads is useless.”
Explains why most VPN ad reasons are useless
Full comment
> this video This is Tom Scott's 'original' 2019 video called "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains most of the reasons listed to use VPN by ads is useless. However a few years later with "My robot double sells out (so I don't have to)" he did a follow-up listing useful reasons (geo-based content, better prices on vacation sites, etc) in which he was sponsored by NordVPN: * link
Cites itsimondotauJun 2023
“Famously described by Tom Scott”
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> one major problem is VPNs are advertised or promoted as if they're synonymous with antivirus software. Famously described by Tom Scott — [How it started this video [How it's going] link
Cites itthrow0101aOct 2024
“where he explains why a lot of the ad copy at that time was often misleading, and why he didn't take money from them”
Explains why VPN ad copy was misleading
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> Given the amount of advertising for vpns you might think they are a scam. Tom Scott did a video in 2019 entitled "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains why a lot of the ad copy at that time was often misleading, and why he didn't take money from them: * this video In 2022 he made video with an ad read from a VPN provider with more honest claims about their use cases: * link
Cites itJdeBPSep 2025
“Tom Scott's honest VPN advertisement”
Contrasts VPN advertising with real features
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At this point I'm reminded of Tom Scott's honest VPN advertisement , contrasting how VPNs are advertised (on YouTube, at least) with the main features that they really provide. * this video
CriticalmslaMar 2023
“That's a video about NordVPN's dishonest advertising and how deeply it's infected YouTube.”
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this video That's a video about NordVPN's dishonest advertising and how deeply it's infected YouTube. link > The UK's Advertising Standards Agency(Opens in a new window) has banned a NordVPN commercial for misleading viewers about the privacy risks of using a public Wi-Fi network without also having a VPN. In essence: HTTPS already does what NordVPN claims you need a VPN to do. More, in fact, because HTTPS validates that the domain you're communicating with is the domain that shows up in your browser's address bar, which a VPN can't do on its own.
CriticaldijitJul 2026Full comment
it's always funny how the hardline advocates of the free internet (especially outside of the US) are subject to this kind of unpersoning. It's enough to consider that there's something malicious going on. But I guess we should use one of the VPN providers that aren't pushing for systems transparency[0] and are dubiously everywhere across all of youtube advertising despite that being provably the place where the scummiest of companies go.[1]. [0]: link [1]: this video & link Not wanting unfettered and uncontrolled migration (when it has proven to massively increase crime - which was the context) is not racism, that's stupid. If 15% of the population of Japan had moved from the UK in the last 10 years and committed a disproportionate amount of crime, it would cause racism, but talking about it as a problem that needs to be solved is not itself racism.
