Top all-time · #682
Comparitech
Company blog · comparitech.com/blogsecuritydata
Comparitech is the company blog at comparitech.com, writing about security and data. Since 2016, 93 different Hacker News readers have linked it 107 times, most often “The world’s most-surveilled cities”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-11, and you can follow it by feed.
Tech researched, compared and rated
Most-linked posts?
- The world’s most-surveilled cities11 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2019-08-19
- Which countries impose SIM-card registration and collect data on their citizens?9 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2022-02-14
- Comparitech shows that Github.com is blocked in China5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-11-13
- /blog/vpn-privacy/countries-netflix-cost/4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-12-16
- 700k Choice Hotels customer records leaked3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-08-15
- How Data breaches affect stock market share prices3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-01-07
- Database containing personal info of 106M visitors to Thailand exposed online3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-09-20
- 267M Facebook users IDs and phone numbers exposed online2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-12-19
- /blog/information-security/assistance-access-bill/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-03-11
- Does Your VPN Keep Logs? 120 VPN Logging Policies Revealed2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-06-11
What Hacker News says?
For the spam part, I commented below how’s that doesn’t work and it doesn’t even make sense for a messaging app. > I'm not sure why you need to assume that it will be linked back to your real identity; I’m not assuming, only North America (edit: and some European countries) doesn’t require an ID for a phone number (1), and even in here, you would use it in other services that are linked to your real ID like banks or…
Comment linking /blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-registration-laws/
on “Keep your phone number private with Signal usernames”Submitted UFO VPN claims zero-logs policy, leaks 20M user logs as a story · 589 points
HN discussionBut ExpressVPN does admit to keeping > connection logs including the date of the connection (not the time) and the server used. The total amount of data transferred per user is also monitored. ExpressVPN doesn’t log your IP but the connection logs are tied to the user account.[0] 0) https://www.comparitech.com/vpn/vpn-logging-policies/
Comment linking /vpn/vpn-logging-policies/
on “Alternatives to Google Products”Submitted 250M Microsoft customer service and support records exposed on the web as a story · 405 points
HN discussionYou can check whether a site is blocked by GFW with the following websites: 1. http://www.chinafirewalltest.com/ 2. https://www.comparitech.com/privacy-security-tools/blockedin...
Comment linking /privacy-security-tools/blockedinchina/
on “Einstein award going to Paul Ginsparg for creating arXiv.org”Submitted 267M Facebook users IDs and phone numbers exposed online as a story · 175 points
HN discussionThere is some evidence that it does hurt stock prices: https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/data-b... "Stocks of breached companies on average underperformed the NASDAQ by -3.2% in the six months after a breach disclosure" That said, it's not clear what the long term impact is on stock price (if there is any).
Comment linking /blog/information-security/data-breach-share-price-analysis/
on “AT&T says criminals stole phone records of 'nearly all' customers in data breach”Submitted 7M Adobe Creative Cloud Accounts Exposed to the Public as a story · 136 points
HN discussionFun fact: London has ~700k cameras and is top 3 in the world by cameras per capita, top 20 being almost exclusively Chinese cities https://www.comparitech.com/vpn-privacy/the-worlds-most-surv...
Comment linking /vpn-privacy/the-worlds-most-surveilled-cities/
on “Huge data leak shatters the lie that the innocent need not fear surveillance”Submitted Database containing personal info of 106M visitors to Thailand exposed online as a story · 105 points
HN discussionRequiring SIM registration is nearly universal outside of Europe and NA. https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-regist...
Comment linking /blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-registration-laws
on “Twilio incident: What Signal users need to know”Submitted The world’s most-surveilled cities as a story · 56 points
HN discussionI am not advocating for or against this practice; but in the United States the voter record has always been part of the public domain [1]. The National Conference of State Legislatures breaks out a by-state view of what info is available and how it can be used [2]. There's another good article [3] doing a state-by-state analysis of voter file privacy. The public file should only contain: Name, address, year of birth…
Comment linking /blog/vpn-privacy/personal-voter-data-study/
on “You can now ask Google to remove your phone number, email or address from search”Submitted HN Is Blocked in Russia as a story · 11 points
HN discussionShort term solution: Well VPNs for all, Ghostery [1] was running a deal on their paid version with a VPN built into their add-on [1]. Long term: The State is making their panopticon ambitions overt now in the public eye, thus spurring on the need to re-design the Internet entirely to avoid this. Anyone know what Starlink is offering in terms of privacy? Details are sparse for the most part right now, but given their…
Comment linking /blog/vpn-privacy/vpn-bitcoin/
on “Senate narrowly rejects plan to require a warrant for Americans’ browsing data”Submitted Which countries impose SIM-card registration and collect data on their citizens? as a story · 6 points
HN discussionA few high-profile examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_ma... You can also pick one, and check with a tool like this: https://www.comparitech.com/privacy-security-tools/blockedin...
Comment linking /privacy-security-tools/blockedinchina/
on “FCC commissioner wants TikTok removed from app stores over spying concerns”Submitted How much does your ISP spend on lobbying? as a story · 6 points
HN discussionNetflix is US-centric, so that's no surprise: https://www.comparitech.com/tv-streaming/netflix-subscribers... I don't mean to be rude, but in the grand scheme of things the other countries don't quite matter as much, financially speaking. And those smaller parts of the world pirating isn't a big loss. Similar to the video game industry in Japan; some games may get an overseas following, but if the domestic market is…
Comment linking /tv-streaming/netflix-subscribers/
on “The bottom is dropping out of Netflix”Submitted A Beginner's Cryptography Guide and List of Useful Resources as a story · 5 points
HN discussion> Quad9 is based in Switzerland. Despite what may be common knowledge from movies, there is a very formal and rigorous process for governments (Swiss or non-Swiss) to demand data. Due to Lugano Convention [0] / Budapest Convention [1] / Hague Convention etc, I don't see how Switzerland is any more insulated than, say, Norway is (both these countries are part of EFTA & signatories to various UN/EU/EFTA treaties). Per…
Comment linking /blog/vpn-privacy/surveillance-states/
on “Shutting down our public encrypted DNS”Submitted Surveillance camera statistics: cities with the most CCTV cameras as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSome countries still allow that: https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-regist...
Comment linking /blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-registration-laws/
on “The protester's guide to smartphone security”Submitted 5B records from previous data breaches leaked by cybersecurity company as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAccording to this website [0] it appears to do so which is interesting. https://www.comparitech.com/privacy-security-tools/blockedin...
Comment linking /privacy-security-tools/blockedinchina/
on “Captcha.nsa.gov”Submitted 267M Facebook Users IDs and Phone Numbers Exposed Online as a story · 4 points
HN discussionHow much storage does Netflix actually need for its whole library? It's got about 17,000 titles globally [1]. If they have copies in SD, 720p, HD and 4k that would be 68,000 versions (plus some extra audio tracks for stuff dubbed in multiple languages, but I suspect this is fairly minimal in terms of storage though) Let's assume that the resolutions have the bitrates at 5, 10, 15 and 20 mbps. The average length of a…
Comment linking /blog/vpn-privacy/netflix-statistics-facts-figures/
on “FreeBSD optimizations used by Netflix to serve video at 800Gb/s [pdf]”Submitted 35M US residents personal details exposed on the web as a story · 3 points
HN discussionhttps://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-regist...
Comment linking /blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-registration-laws/
on “Zero Trust SIM”Submitted Data broker exposes 235M profiles scraped from Instagram, TikTok, and YT as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
