It's not "well-known"- because your links don't say what you're claiming they do, and this is a conspiracy theory that's been shut down on here a thousand times before.
NordVPN used residential proxies at one point to enable access to Disney+ and other streaming services; that's a world apart from hijacking end-user connections.
They've got an open source client. Where's the code that's turning end users into endpoints?
i think users in a vpn dont expect other users traffic being redirected over their systems, even if its just to enable access to some streaming services... or are residential proxies systems in residential ranges that are used as proxies, but actually part of nord vpn infra, rather than its users?? (sorry i dont wanna read all the code, and am a bit confused)
It's the latter case; Nord used a third-party residential proxy service that they sent traffic through, but there's no serious evidence that they used their own users as proxy nodes or endpoints.
It really is of course, but I can honestly see them resort to this only to be able to offer a competitive edge because when it all comes around, this stuff is what many use VPN for rather than privacy. As streaming sites keep clamping down on VPN providers, the low hanging fruits of dodging via mere national IP addresses are blacklisted by them and these providers need to go even further to fool them and compete.
But yes, it's also sketchy with the other implications and all, and not the least what kind of traffic that people want to hide that you're unknowingly a proxy to!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22532682
NordVPN used residential proxies at one point to enable access to Disney+ and other streaming services; that's a world apart from hijacking end-user connections.
They've got an open source client. Where's the code that's turning end users into endpoints?
https://github.com/NordSecurity/nordvpn-linux