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What's the point of a VPN if you're easily identifiable? Surely you want to blend into a crowd?

Cacti 8y ago
I mean, unless you're going through additional effort, you're still identifiable through a VPN. Any web tracking, whether through cookies or through fingerprinting, still works just fine. At best you're merely making it more difficult. Also, there is also no reason, though it would be a PITA, that you can't add your own measures to a private VPN, whether that's rotating IPs or some other measure. Is it going to keep your illegal activities truly anonymous? No, but neither is a retail VPN. It is a matter of degree and what tradeoffs you're willing to make. As far as uses for a private VPN, the most obvious is to ensure intermediate parties, particularly on the same subnets, can't snoop on your actual traffic _content_. This isn't going to keep you anonymous from the NSA, but it sure will help against corporations (ISPs and their numerous corporate parents/cousins/siblings). Another benefit is that by protecting against packet level inspection, you are protecting yourself from many current forms of traffic shaping and bandwidth metering/throttling, as well as from limits on services you are running or the content of files you are downloading, as well as from intermediaries (e.g. ISPs) from inserting ads or additional tracking or whatever else into your (mainly web) traffic. This also comes into play not just with your normal ISP but any you are using while traveling (coffee shops, airports, hotels, and other untrusted networks).
wl 8y ago
I run a VPN from home for using at coffee shops and the like. While the proliferation of HTTPS has made sketchy networks less of a problem, DNS is still leaky.
- Cacti 8y ago
  You can run the DNS through your VPN and have it use secure DNS outside of your home ISP, and then cache the DNS results on a DNS server at home. It's not perfect but leaks will end up being pretty minimal, even in accidental situations.
  - wl 8y ago
    I route all traffic, including DNS, through my VPN when I'm not at home. I was just commenting on the leakiness of DNS to preempt people saying "HTTPS means you're safe!" I used to run my own DNS server when I was on Comcast. Now that I have a real ISP run by people I trust who have the same opinions on privacy that I do, it's no longer worth the hassle.

I mean, unless you're going through additional effort, you're still identifiable through a VPN. Any web tracking, whether through cookies or through fingerprinting, still works just fine. At best you're merely making it more difficult. Also, there is also no reason, though it would be a PITA, that you can't add your own measures to a private VPN, whether that's rotating IPs or some other measure. Is it going to keep your illegal activities truly anonymous? No, but neither is a retail VPN. It is a matter of degree and what tradeoffs you're willing to make. As far as uses for a private VPN, the most obvious is to ensure intermediate parties, particularly on the same subnets, can't snoop on your actual traffic _content_. This isn't going to keep you anonymous from the NSA, but it sure will help against corporations (ISPs and their numerous corporate parents/cousins/siblings). Another benefit is that by protecting against packet level inspection, you are protecting yourself from many current forms of traffic shaping and bandwidth metering/throttling, as well as from limits on services you are running or the content of files you are downloading, as well as from intermediaries (e.g. ISPs) from inserting ads or additional tracking or whatever else into your (mainly web) traffic. This also comes into play not just with your normal ISP but any you are using while traveling (coffee shops, airports, hotels, and other untrusted networks).

wl 8y ago

I run a VPN from home for using at coffee shops and the like. While the proliferation of HTTPS has made sketchy networks less of a problem, DNS is still leaky.

Cacti 8y ago
You can run the DNS through your VPN and have it use secure DNS outside of your home ISP, and then cache the DNS results on a DNS server at home. It's not perfect but leaks will end up being pretty minimal, even in accidental situations.
- wl 8y ago
  I route all traffic, including DNS, through my VPN when I'm not at home. I was just commenting on the leakiness of DNS to preempt people saying "HTTPS means you're safe!" I used to run my own DNS server when I was on Comcast. Now that I have a real ISP run by people I trust who have the same opinions on privacy that I do, it's no longer worth the hassle.