--- title: We View Consumer Data as Toxic Waste | daily.dev description: An interview with Carl Dong, founder of Obscura VPN and former Bitcoin Core contributor, discussing why the traditional VPN 'no-logs' trust model is broken.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/we-view-consumer-data-as-toxic-waste-o6k84aq0l twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: We View Consumer Data as Toxic Waste | daily.dev og:description: An interview with Carl Dong, founder of Obscura VPN and former Bitcoin Core contributor, discussing why the traditional VPN 'no-logs' trust model is broken.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/we-view-consumer-data-as-toxic-waste-o6k84aq0l og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/o6K84AQ0L.png og:image:alt: We View Consumer Data as Toxic Waste og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # We View Consumer Data as Toxic Waste **[It's Foss](https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss)** · 11 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An interview with Carl Dong, founder of Obscura VPN and former Bitcoin Core contributor, discussing why the traditional VPN 'no-logs' trust model is broken. Obscura splits user identity from browsing traffic across two independent companies (itself and Mullvad), so neither can see both. Dong explains the Two-Party Relay architecture, the choice of QUIC over TCP for censorship resistance, the role of reproducible builds in verifying client trustworthiness, accepted anonymous payment methods, the business model behind the $8/month pricing, and a closing discussion of TLS SNI leaking plaintext domain names to censors. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does Obscura VPN's two-party relay architecture work to protect privacy? Obscura VPN splits trust across two independent companies so neither sees both your identity and your traffic. Obscura acts as the first hop and sees your connecting IP but never your decrypted traffic, since it's end-to-end encrypted to keys controlled by Mullvad, the exit hop, which never sees your identity or payment information. _Developers evaluating privacy architectures can follow deep technical breakdowns like this on daily.dev._ ### Why do VPN providers use QUIC instead of TCP for censorship circumvention? QUIC is harder for middleboxes to inspect via deep packet inspection because its Unreliable Datagram extension lets messages fragment and shuffle across UDP datagrams, forcing censorship systems to reassemble them at high cost. QUIC also mimics ordinary HTTP/3 traffic and avoids the TCP-over-TCP meltdown problem that degrades performance in TCP-based VPN tunnels. _Anyone weighing protocol choices for censorship-resistant tools can track these tradeoffs on daily.dev._ ### What is the TLS SNI extension and why is it a privacy problem? The TLS Server Name Indication (SNI) field transmits the destination server's domain name in plaintext even over an otherwise encrypted TLS connection, so ISPs and middleboxes commonly use it to censor or block traffic by domain, which is more reliable than matching DNS requests. Encrypted Client Hello is the proposed fix still awaiting wider adoption. _Developers hardening apps against network-level censorship can keep up with TLS changes on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Obscura VPN now offers a desktop app for Linux](https://daily.dev/posts/obscura-vpn-now-offers-a-desktop-app-for-linux-2wqxchmib) · omg\! ubuntu\! · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [RaccoonLine Publishes Analysis of VPN Data Disclosure Risks and the Shift Toward Decentralized Routing](https://daily.dev/posts/raccoonline-publishes-analysis-of-vpn-data-disclosure-risks-and-the-shift-toward-decentralized-routi-4bgov5vik) · Latest Hacking News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I stopped using free VPNs after I learned what they do with your traffic](https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-using-free-vpns-after-i-learned-what-they-do-with-your-traffic-elipduerj) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Anatomy of Deception: How to Make DPI Believe Your VPN Is Just Chrome](https://daily.dev/posts/anatomy-of-deception-how-to-make-dpi-believe-your-vpn-is-just-chrome-2eauxqub4) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#vpn](https://daily.dev/tags/vpn), [#reproducible-builds](https://daily.dev/tags/reproducible-builds) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/we-view-consumer-data-as-toxic-waste-o6k84aq0l) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"We View Consumer Data as Toxic Waste","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/we-view-consumer-data-as-toxic-waste-o6k84aq0l","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/we-view-consumer-data-as-toxic-waste-o6k84aq0l"},"datePublished":"2026-10-03T10:51:30.049Z","dateModified":"2026-10-03T10:52:07.135Z","description":"An interview with Carl Dong, founder of Obscura VPN and former Bitcoin Core contributor, discussing why the traditional VPN 'no-logs' trust model is broken....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e5ab2134bdd5c7f184d078a666a02aa5?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e5ab2134bdd5c7f184d078a666a02aa5?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"It's Foss","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"It's Foss","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/582e3faed71842bfb9d3840a787d6700","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/we-view-consumer-data-as-toxic-waste-o6k84aq0l","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"privacy,vpn,reproducible-builds","timeRequired":"PT11M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It's Foss","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"We View Consumer Data as Toxic Waste"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/we-view-consumer-data-as-toxic-waste-o6k84aq0l#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How does Obscura VPN's two-party relay architecture work to protect privacy?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Obscura VPN splits trust across two independent companies so neither sees both your identity and your traffic. 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