I don’t use browsers that keep any info either. Either way, it hides you from your ISP and keeps them off your back and allows you to view stuff that’s region locked. I never said there wernt other ways to stay hidden, but a VPN definitely helps, but it’s my fault for not clarifying that a VPN ALONE won’t fully protect you.
They can’t give any data if they never keep any data. There’s a lot of VPNs that never store your data.
Those untrusted access points would just log your mac address (unless you’re using mac randomisation) to track you… however, that doesn’t answer the question of why they’d bother tracking you? If it’s just an indie coffee shop then there’s zero need as well as having zero impact on your cookies because they’re encrypted with TLS. The mac address collection would be pointless as well, since it wouldn’t be passed onto their ISP, you’d only have the mac address of the router WAN port. All it would do is prove you connected to their SSID at a certain time. They’d need to be logging much more traffic and use analysis tools on that logging such as an ELK stack or some other SIEM suite.
There isn’t any market for that small a dataset and they are certainly not using packet inspection to inject ads (again, because they’re too small and because that traffic is encrypted… if they tried to decrypt your traffic you’d know about it as your browser would throw out the cert as not being trusted, unless they somehow installed it onto your system without you noticing). It’s also more cost than they’d ever get back selling data onto the market.
Thinking that it’s protecting any privacy when out on other’s networks is misguided at best, paranoid at worst. And if you want to be paranoid, that VPN provider is in a great position to gather plenty of info about you from inspecting TLS client hello info as well as unencrypted DNS requests… and they would have far, far more incentive to collect that than a small coffee shop because they’re concentrating a lot of traffic into a single spot, each with an account that is being used and an agent ID string to see which devices you’re using… doubly so if they have any HIP gathering module included. You’d be amazed at the amount of system info I gather from users via the mobile VPN client we use (which I use to deny access to systems that are not domained and/or are missing things like drive encryption and our approved anti-virus).
It’s not about a browser “keeping your info” it’s about what information the browser tells the website. Do you even know what information your browser tells websites ?
People who are really into privacy don’t even use the browser maximised, so the website can’t record the resolution of their screen.
Websites use this information combined to create a “fingerprint” of you. They then track you across different websites and record your activity. Every time you log into a website, this information is added to your profile. This is mainly for ad purposes but can’t easily be used to track you online.
Using a VPN and a browser that deletes your history and thinking you’re hidden is like walking around and not telling anyone your name and thinking nobody can see what you are doing or follow you.
Ok, so if you use a VPN that hides your activity from your ISP and doesn’t save any data, how can any site track you? They can track what you do on sites, but they can’t link it back to you without your IP info, cookies or fingerprinting over time and it’s hard to fingerprint someone when they change IPs constantly with other users. I’m not saying you can use a VPN to hack into the government and never risk being caught, I’m just saying it protects you from a LOT of common ways of tracking.
I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m saying.
A VPN does NOT protect you from the common ways of tracking people. ISP’s don’t use static external IP addresses for most people so they can change. People access the Internet from different connections, from mobiles, from Wi-Fi hotspots from mobile connections.
An IP address is not a good way to track people because even without using a VPN, it is likely to change. Plus, websites know people use VPN’s.
Without knowing your IP or using cookies, websites will be able to fingerprint you right away. As soon as you go to a website, they will see the browser and version you use, operating system and version, language, plugins installed, timezone, screen size and colour information, fonts installed. Then you go into things like canvas fingerprint, webgl fingerprint, and all sort of other information.
Every website gets this just by you visiting, so right away, they have a unique set of information they can track you with. Do log into a website using a username or email now that’s added to the list…
So, considering that as soon as you visit a website, they will recognise you immediately from all that unique information, it’s pretty pointless to change your IP using a VPN if your goal is to be “hidden”.
Just go to a site like www.coveryourtracks.eff.org to see all this information you are leaking…
Ah, fair enough. I wasn’t talking about being 100% hidden from every aspect of tracking. But them knowing my browser, screen size, and such isn’t a huge concern when they can’t link it to a specific person or place. A VPN alone will not make you invisible, I agree. Mybad, if I made it seem like it did.
So you have never logged into a website and put in your name or address?
You have never ordered anything online to your house?
You don’t have a Facebook account or email address with your real name?
Did I say any of that? Did I say I wanted no footprint online? Having no footprint is a huge red flag. I use my internet just like every other normal person. When I don’t want to be tracked, I use a safe browser and a VPN to disassociate from my normal tracked data. I’m also not doing anything more than visiting restricted, in the US, sites, and downloading videos so that my ISP doesn’t ban me from their service. Again, I apologize if I made it seem like I thought a VPN alone keeps you 100% anonymous online, that wasn’t my intention.
Have you been to the website i linked?
A VPN does NOT dissociate you from your normal tracked data. There are hundreds of data points they use to create your fingerprint and track you, and if you change your IP, it doesn’t make any difference to how they track you.
VPN on or off they can still see you have the same tracking profile and are the same person…
Ok, but I also mentioned other things on top of a VPN that can be used to allow them not to track certain things. You’ve made your point of “they track everything, including your device”, but that doesn’t mean they can legally pinpoint something to you if you use a VPN, a different browser that doesn’t keep data and so on. If you use Google and are logged in and then go on a VPN, of course they still know who you are. But if you use a VPN and a different browser that’s never been used to log into Google then it’s not like they can be like “yup, that’s Steve, 100%”. You’re trying to beat in the point that you’re always traceable, and I’ve already said that was correct, but they can’t always link it to you if you use certain methods. If VPNs were useless for privacy, there would be thousands of youtube videos about how all VPNs are scams. They’re not, but some are bc they store your data. You just seem to want to keep on with the fact that they track everything and you can’t get around that and you’re trying to still act as if I’m talking about being 100% hidden from the internet 24/7 and I’m not