PrivacyTools.io

You've given lots of great reviews on this site, but this one needs an update. From what I've read online sounds like the founder has gone to lala land.

His team have now migrated to @privacy-guides

Review is outdated, PrivacyTools.io is a deceptive affiliate marketing business now, as Jason Brown says, everyone moved to Privacy Guides. https://www.privacyguides.org/en/

Personally i would argue we should put an "Deceptive Affiliate Marketing" banner so people know not to use it. (Removing it may not be ideal because having the listing up helps people update their information if they use it everyday and want an alternative for practical reason, may help them move off quicker).

I only learned about this problem from a youtube video.

But if you need the proof, go to the site now and compare it with this (see the removed sponsored affiliate links, while it still being an affiliate URL). https://web.archive.org/web/20220902021403/https://www.privacytools.io/privacy-vpn/

It's probably illegal as its false advertising, it's only a matter of time someone complains to the right watchdog and or regulatory body and they will be in legal trouble (No court needed: Regulatory impose 'Administrative Fines', if they ignore it (which some do because they think its the early 2000s), *eventually there will be a court hearing, Fail to Appear= "Blocking Order" by country or at provider level depending on registrar/server jurisdiction.

(They recommend NordVPN at the top, it doesn't even meet the "strict criteria" they imply, if you live in Albania or other non five-eye country, you may actually be better off without a VPN for some threat models(cyber criminals love when governments weaken security BTW, its not just for governments, there is no such thing as a secure backdoor), i use this to emphasise a point, PrivacyGuides have a strict, simple & transparent criteria you can read and critically analyse yourself).

This all happens if people file a report with their watchdog/government of course(few people bother), You will be surprised how little size of company matters to correcting legal mistakes in tech. (even if they ignore, if the right channels, 'friendly' letter from a regulatory body in a country somewhere usually causes a fix) usually it doesn't go that far from my experience, but it does take a while sometimes (OpenAI=1 year for me to get account deleted manually (locked out, couldn't change email via OpenAI's LLM based support team for some reason), but that's extreme because some of the 'AI' legal issues are novel case-law so it takes time and have many 'unfair business practice' and other legal cases on file, source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/search.html?scope=EURLEX&text=OpenAI&lang=en&type=quick).

Basically if nobody files a report, it could be the most efficient Regulation like Swiss or EU, and nothing happens. (Just having it on file adds to the pile, and especially if that pile is growing over time, it WILL be addressed in some kind of way, if its a big class action and you have been unknowingly impacted, you can get recovery without much effort, if its a privacy/data leak issue you often just have to prove your identity and email, or whatever account would have been leaked, Someone should recommend a HaveIBeenPwned checker that finds open court cases with the company to automate if you are impacted, its like that GetOutOfAParkingTicket idea principal but actually doable because you can program it with algorithms/API, if anyone knows one that's open source or gratis(zero cost), let me know)

https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/consumer-protection-law/unfair-commercial-practices-and-price-indication/unfair-commercial-practices-directive_en