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What server location should I use for a VPN?
I'm asking "I" in the sense that I'd personally like an answer to this question, but really this is more about using VPNs in general.
Currently, I just use the server with the lowest latency because that gives me the least friction.
However, thinking about the GDPR in the EU, or California's data privacy protections: should I be strategically choosing a server based on those? Is there any benefit to having my traffic routed through a jurisdiction like that, or does that not really matter?
What are you trying to use the VPN for?
Accessing region-locked content? Pick one in a country where that content is available.
Masking your IP address when torrenting? Ideally pick a server geographically close to you so the latency isn't horrible. In ProtonVPN, you can also specifically pick servers that are optimized for P2P networking.
IMO, the location of the node your data travels to doesn't matter for privacy reasons, it's more about your VPN provider and whether they log where your data is going.
If you're really concerned about the privacy of your data, you can set up a VPN at home and use that. I've built a stupid simple wireguard VPN at home with about 10 lines of config (figuring out those lines was a little tricky, admittedly) and it was rock solid - the only reason I replaced it is because I upgraded my router to a ubiquiti cloud gateway that has the server baked in.
With what reason are you using a VPN if I might ask? In a lot of cases people don't seem to trust their provider, but with a lot of the VPN providers you are for the most part adding latency to your experience and effectively a second ISP. Since a VPN doesn't hide your traffic overall, it just makes you enter the internet from a differnet location.
Many big websites also track VPN endpoint ips and make it more difficult to use the website (often citing abuse coming through VPN endpoints)
Choosing a specific geo location can be a genuine benefit. I know for a fact that me signing up for a service in the EU and using it in the EU often comes with less intrusive advertising bullshit people outside the EU will get. Sometimes you get that benefit by just using the service from that location, but often it is based on where you have signed up.
So, in many cases for people in first world countries using a VPN doesn't provide that much of a privacy benefit. If you have an extremely shitty internet provider who is known to do all sorts of shenanigans on their traffic a VPN can be a valid choice to simply bypass most of that. In that case the choice of VPN provider matters more than the exit node.
If you do get additional benefits then really depends on a lot of other factors, not just the location.
cc: @bitwyze
Basically what you said. I'm in the US where ISPs are awful with their customer data. I figure my home internet, where I spend the bulk of my time, has a LOT to say about me as an individual, so shifting the trust from my ISP (a known bad actor) to a VPN company (hopefully more trustworthy?) feels like the right thing to do.
I don't really use it to get around geoblocks or anything like that. It's essentially entirely because I don't trust my ISP.
Like you identified, I often have to drop it or change servers on account of services blocking VPNs, but I figure, even then, 90% VPN usage is better than 0%.
I'd say for day to day usage, unless you're using a specific location to circumvent some geographic restriction, use the country you live in as your server location. That way if you're logging into government services or your bank account or similar important thing, they don't think something is up because the location looks weird.
As far as there being a benefit to having it routed through a certain jurisdiction, I don't think it really matters.