I Don’t want this to come across as a negative or “attacking” post, rather I’m just curious if anyone else in the community here has seen this or other ObscuraVPN sponsorships lately.
Again this is mostly just me being curious, and not me trying to spread negativity or offend anyone.
Edit: Adding context
I guess what I am most curious to hear is if this is something that has been widely rolled out or has it just been one or two channels.
It would also be nice to hear the opinion of the Obscura devs on such sponsorship programs, especially considering the recent drama with Proton “partnering” with Vincent Lapierre - a supposedly far-right french YouTuber.
Personally, I don’t really care about these types of sponsorships most of the time.
However since this was the first time I had seen an Obscura sponsorship and Proton had this recent drama I got curious if there were other instances of Obscura sponsorships folks had noticed, and if Obscura had any particular criteria/thoughts in mind for this kind of promotion.
I guess i was mostly just curious. Like i said i don’t want this to come across as a negative post, it was just the first time seeing an Obscura sponsorship was interested in whether this community had seen any of these before, or if they had any other thoughts about them.
I think transparency is probably the key issue here. Sponsorships themselves aren’t necessarily a problem, but it would be interesting to know what criteria Obscura uses when selecting creators or channels. That kind of insight could help users better understand how the project balances growth, privacy values, and community trust.
Hey Jose, glad you asked this question and the followup. I can tell it’s coming from a place of genuine curiosity.
We (obviously biased ) believe that Obscura is the best VPN you can get, and that getting folks to switch to Obscura is a net positive for you and your privacy.
We want to reach people where they are, and YouTube is an obvious top contender for that (there’s a reason why other VPNs sponsor there!). In fact, we think internet content creators are a large part of what makes the free and open internet so wonderful! We don’t limit ourselves to a certain type of creator because we believe that everyone deserves to have private internet by default.
That being said, creators are humans and they may have beliefs or do things that some people won’t agree with. We do our best to do due diligence on those we work with, and will never work with outright hateful people. Obviously, our sponsorship doesn’t mean we condone or support everything they do or will do. If there are issues with the folks we sponsor, always feel free to reach out to our email support@obscura.net and we’ll take a look! (also feel free to DM me or @davidcollini here)
One last thing: as a VPN service, the more users Obscura has, the larger anonymity set we have, meaning that our service becomes more private!
@obscuracarl Hi Carl. Slightly off topic and a bit cheeky but any chance you’d be able to share an update on the roadmap for the remainder of the year?
Side note, I do find it ridiculous that many providers in the privacy scene get flamed for wanting to grow their business with marketing. Not all the time, but often enough to the point you can expect negative comments about the company.
I’m always happy to see a Proton sponsorship. Better to have actually good products being advertised, even if normally I am pushed away by ads. This applies to Obscura as well, ofc, but i haven’t seen any.
I think there’s tension between the idealized goals of the privacy community & typical business incentives. A for-profit business means market share & earnings means modern, effective marketing (usually) means exploitation of user data to target ads
This isn’t the only way to do business, and - despite the fact that I am in an Obscura thread - I am absolutely not accusing Obscura of such practices. But because of the larger societal trend, I feel many users have a knee-jerk association between “digital marketing” & “anti-privacy”, whether or not it’s truly warranted
we don’t have anything against Proton or Obscura doing this necessarily but with the reputation that has been Youtube Sponors, It is rightful to express this with skepticism in mind
Imagine if Skiff before it shut down and bought sponsored creators only for the situation to happen after the fact
or at worst lead to some enshittification course for the company
Expressing skepticism was never about attacking any one individual company or another, it is a valid defense mechanism in a sphere that tends to be in a mess
Look at DeleteMe and Icogni sponsors for examples
Very good on the surface but they do encourage youtubers to overestimate claims and in many cases can be better to try removing it yourself than using these services (I guess with the exception of EasyOptsOut)
) believe that Obscura is the best VPN you can get, and that getting folks to switch to Obscura is a net positive for you and your privacy.
