Pretty sure the validation scheme is hosed when you want to be anonymous
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charlieg wrote:
So I've started using a VPN to anonymize my internet activities.
and this goes out the window, mostly, as soon as you log into any site or service such as your google account or banking. just saying... private VPN use is intended so that authorities cannot track someone's activities to their personal computer via the IP. private VPN use, IMHO, has no real value or benefit to the regular citizen unless someone wants to commit crimes and/or say things online in anonymous forums such as 4chan, etc. and not have it traced back to one's personal computer.
We had a users account compromised when he did business from a hotel room (pre-Covid). VPN's that encrypt can help prevent that. Has nothing to with anonymity. For that, just use Tor, it is free. You are still free to hate VPN's. We still respect you. :)
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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It's a simple security feature. every time you connect from a new device, i.e. a new IP address, they will ask you to verify this device using 2nd factor authentication. Call it crazy if you will, some other people simply call it modern security practices! ;P
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SL, That's sort of my point. I understand some of the why, but what I'm learning is that "modern security practices" - as currently implemented - are falling short. I have 2f authentication enabled on most of my accounts, some I can access, some I cannot. cg
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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If you are not breaking the law, then you have nothing to worry about, and you don't need a VPN.
Niemand25 wrote:
I got taped 3 times by financial crimes unit that investigated my clients
:laugh: :sigh: :confused: If you don't like your country's laws and legal practices, then I strongly suggest moving.
Somehow I don't feel ok exposing my sex life by accident even if it's completely legal :laugh: I don't think the situation is much different in other states. It's not like I live in China or Russia. I live in Lithuania which is a democratic one. Yet due to the public opinion that it's ok for police to tap a phone line just in case (without any proofs of a criminal activity whatsoever), we have the situation. P.S. neither I nor any of my clients got convicted, nobody even got to a suspect status.
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Greg Utas wrote:
y your logic, the use of encryption should also be curtailed.
That is just a silly comment and has nothing to do with people hiding behind a VPN. We encrypt data so that hackers cannot read the data when it is intercepted. We hide behind private VPNs so that governments and law enforcement cannot track our IP addresses when we break that country's laws.
"We hide behind private VPNs so that governments and law enforcement cannot track our IP addresses when we break that country's laws." although your comments about fb twitter, etc are valid what you just said makes me wonder what planet you live on and for how long. The government nor law enforcement have the right to track me anywhere unless they have probable cause.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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noooo although this is the lounge and I had resigned myself to someone vectoring in that direction. :doh:
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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ProtonVPN offers a free plan, somewhat slow. I need to test more as sometimes I get interference from my customer's VPN. Be aware that many security checks depend on knowing your general (?) location. I suspect they do velocity checks. In any event, attempting to access your account with a VPN ip may trigger all sorts of "who are you?" checks.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
charlieg wrote:
In any event, attempting to access your account with a VPN ip may trigger all sorts of "who are you?" checks.
That is, after all, the point of a having a VPN, is it not ?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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So I've started using a VPN to anonymize my internet activities. No particular reason... Wow, did everyone get upset. My banks, Microsoft, google all have gone bat $hit crazy thinking my account has been hijacked now that they can't track my IP. Very, very interesting.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
my entire point of posting this was that I found it interesting how many online accounts simply went haywire when I enabled VPN. Two come to mind: 1) Microsoft - my customer uses 365 and MS validates me all the time. 2) Google - now here is where it gets interesting (Slacker - I'm looking at you). One thing that annoys me to know end is if I search for something, say new rotors for my teen daughter's car, I am forever inundated with ads everywhere, because most sites have sold sections of their pages to advertisers. Even if I've browsed anonymously,, I still see it. Firing up the VPN, I don't see this behavior. Further, with VPN on, google searches are constantly prompting me with Captcha contests :). It seems to me google really likes my IP address. I also like the idea that my ISP cannot really sell any useful data on me. I'm not paranoid, and I really don't care. I have more important things to worry about, but just on the face of it, an ISP selling customer network traffic (I'm sure it's somewhere in the t's and c's that no one ever reads) seems dirty to me.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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If you are not breaking the law, then you have nothing to worry about, and you don't need a VPN.
Niemand25 wrote:
I got taped 3 times by financial crimes unit that investigated my clients
:laugh: :sigh: :confused: If you don't like your country's laws and legal practices, then I strongly suggest moving.
You're trolling. And may your chains rattle lightly.
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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. -
and I still stick to that. Show me a valid reason for private VPN use, that has nothing to do with hiding one's criminal activities online.
I can think of many legal, but possibly immoral activities that some people would prefer the use of a VPN-service for.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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So I've started using a VPN to anonymize my internet activities. No particular reason... Wow, did everyone get upset. My banks, Microsoft, google all have gone bat $hit crazy thinking my account has been hijacked now that they can't track my IP. Very, very interesting.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
At some point someone decided they wanted to track your IP address. Then they said well this user's IP address changed since last time, that must be a security risk. Then the security nannies took over and demanded that you re-validate before you can access their service. And it is completely out of hand now. All this with complete disregard for real life scenarios as to why a user's IP would change from hour to hour. None of them want you to be anonymous, because that reduces the value of you as a product. They will make an effort to make your life a difficult as possible to get you to comply with how they would like you to behave. And it is even worse than this VPN situation, install Tor browser and browse to your favorite sites to see what happens.
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"We hide behind private VPNs so that governments and law enforcement cannot track our IP addresses when we break that country's laws." although your comments about fb twitter, etc are valid what you just said makes me wonder what planet you live on and for how long. The government nor law enforcement have the right to track me anywhere unless they have probable cause.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Your personal IP address is logged each time you login to your VPN provider. The government can get your IP address anytime they want. Almost all VPN service providers have an agreement with law enforcement to give over most of your personal data upon a search warrant. I live on planet earth, same as you.
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So I've started using a VPN to anonymize my internet activities. No particular reason... Wow, did everyone get upset. My banks, Microsoft, google all have gone bat $hit crazy thinking my account has been hijacked now that they can't track my IP. Very, very interesting.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
charlieg wrote:
I've started using a VPN to anonymize my internet activities.
Some VPN's will change what country your IP address is coming from. In that case, yes, your bank accounts and everything else SHOULD go crazy.
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charlieg wrote:
In any event, attempting to access your account with a VPN ip may trigger all sorts of "who are you?" checks.
That is, after all, the point of a having a VPN, is it not ?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
It is and should be.. but these checks are failing even after 2FA and passwords and what not.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Wow, you have taken this thread to a whole new level of absurdity. We are talking VPN here. If people are getting fired from their jobs for posting political comments, I assure you that VPN is NOT going to protect them - Facebook/Twitter still knows who you are, VPN or not.
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ProtonVPN offers a free plan, somewhat slow. I need to test more as sometimes I get interference from my customer's VPN. Be aware that many security checks depend on knowing your general (?) location. I suspect they do velocity checks. In any event, attempting to access your account with a VPN ip may trigger all sorts of "who are you?" checks.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
charlieg wrote:
free plan, somewhat slow
Running a VPN service has associated costs. If you pay nothing for the service, then they're still making money somehow. As a customer, ask yourself what it is that you have that's of value to them. Read any such provider's EULA very carefully, you'll probably find the answer hidden deep in there in tiny fonts.
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charlieg wrote:
So I've started using a VPN to anonymize my internet activities.
and this goes out the window, mostly, as soon as you log into any site or service such as your google account or banking. just saying... private VPN use is intended so that authorities cannot track someone's activities to their personal computer via the IP. private VPN use, IMHO, has no real value or benefit to the regular citizen unless someone wants to commit crimes and/or say things online in anonymous forums such as 4chan, etc. and not have it traced back to one's personal computer.
Slacker007 wrote:
private VPN use is intended so that authorities cannot track someone's activities to their personal computer via the IP.
Or to have no travel/goods prices go up every time you visit the same website because they track your ip.
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charlieg wrote:
So I've started using a VPN to anonymize my internet activities.
and this goes out the window, mostly, as soon as you log into any site or service such as your google account or banking. just saying... private VPN use is intended so that authorities cannot track someone's activities to their personal computer via the IP. private VPN use, IMHO, has no real value or benefit to the regular citizen unless someone wants to commit crimes and/or say things online in anonymous forums such as 4chan, etc. and not have it traced back to one's personal computer.
Slacker007 wrote:
private VPN use, IMHO, has no real value or benefit to the regular citizen unless someone wants to commit crimes and/or say things online in anonymous forums
The stall door in a public toilet has no value or benefit to the regular citizen either, but I bet you still close it before you sit down to poop. Many people just like privacy.
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my entire point of posting this was that I found it interesting how many online accounts simply went haywire when I enabled VPN. Two come to mind: 1) Microsoft - my customer uses 365 and MS validates me all the time. 2) Google - now here is where it gets interesting (Slacker - I'm looking at you). One thing that annoys me to know end is if I search for something, say new rotors for my teen daughter's car, I am forever inundated with ads everywhere, because most sites have sold sections of their pages to advertisers. Even if I've browsed anonymously,, I still see it. Firing up the VPN, I don't see this behavior. Further, with VPN on, google searches are constantly prompting me with Captcha contests :). It seems to me google really likes my IP address. I also like the idea that my ISP cannot really sell any useful data on me. I'm not paranoid, and I really don't care. I have more important things to worry about, but just on the face of it, an ISP selling customer network traffic (I'm sure it's somewhere in the t's and c's that no one ever reads) seems dirty to me.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
charlieg I use Proton Mail and have been tempted to use the FREE VPN My ISP Frontier is tracking my every move and I have proven they sold my information That said the ISP service sucks 5 mbps speed So does the free VPN from Proton Mail affect your down/up load speeds? For the person who posted that the VPN providers sells your information Proton Mail after 3 years of use I have never seen one SPAM e-mail The can of worms the post generated made the question/comment GREAT What I find of interest here very few people use their real names or disclose their location When I joined CP so many years ago I was just starting to realize NOT to disclose too much personal information Thanks for the Posted Question
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and I still stick to that. Show me a valid reason for private VPN use, that has nothing to do with hiding one's criminal activities online.
That's easy. To hide one's non criminal activities online.
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and I still stick to that. Show me a valid reason for private VPN use, that has nothing to do with hiding one's criminal activities online.
