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When purveyors of VPNs claim that if you use a VPN, then big tech can't track you across the web?
Browser fingerprinting is the predominant way they track you and a VPN can't hide your browser fingerprint.
Look at a company like fingerprintjs.com.
They have brought fingerprinting to a new level.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
modified 31-Aug-21 16:32pm.
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It's all part of the conspiracy!
Those techno necromancer lizard man from Alpha Centauri are here to get you! 
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... which is why I use six different browsers, all for different things.
Paranoid? Moi? 
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A possibly easier solution would be to have separate VMs, using one for general surfing, one for anything confidential, and others for any other type of surfing that you wish.
Using Linux for the guest O/Ses would mean that the whole setup would cost you little or nothing.
Best of all - checkpoint each VM before you start surfing, and then if you make an "oopsie" it's easy to reset the VM!
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Yes, I have a Linux VM that is only used for paying bills.
>64
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Like the Swede having a hotmail-account for threatening emails?
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Sorry to be in the slow group, but that does not compute for me.
>64
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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You have to know Swedish. "Hot" in Swedish means "threat".
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I've had many an argument against "tech enthusiasts" about how useless VPN's truly are at protecting your data.
People seem to think that they are a magic block everything bad technology, rather than simply redirecting a pipe through someone else's server first technology.
So yes, I've certainly seen lots of "False advertising" from VPN providers.
Side Note: Only twice I've seen a useful use for a VPN:
1. Get Netflix content from other countries
2. Getting internet access from the wrong side of the Great Firewall of China.
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3. Using e-banking on public hotspot.
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Seems like a good idea to use one when doing email or company business from a hotel room or starb$$ks. I use Proton if away from home office.
>64
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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If you try to use VPN to stop tracking yes you are right. But using VPN to just keep some idiot from watching your connection to your bank or work email or or or
VPN is perfect for what it is intended for. Securing your connection in another layer to the end connection.
But then again people don't understand what they are doing in a browser half the time anyway. Joe Six pack wants to view funny cat videos or 'other' videos. And well he can't be bothered to take 30 seconds to "think" about what he is doing.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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It depends on the specific claim. If it's a blanket statement like "
big tech can't track you " then yes, that would be false.
What VPNs are good for is encrypting content so your ISP or any man-in-the-middle can't see the content of your web traffic.
You're correct, that hiding your IP address has limited utility in hiding your identity from the sites you visit. There is enough unique information being sent to form that browser fingerprint.
Products like Avast AntiTrack are specifically meant to scramble that fingerprint data and prevent your identification and tracking.
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Call me an old fart if you want. I can't say that I have ever used a VPN for anonymity purposes. Leaving my privacy in someone else's hands never seemed like a good idea. To me, a VPN is a tool for securely accessing resources inside a private network from a remote location. Beyond that, I avoid doing anything I wouldn't want someone else to know I did, and avoid doing anything involving private or sensitive information on a network I don't have high confidence in. (I do acknowledge the use for accessing otherwise blocked resources in other countries.)
Money makes the world go round ... but documentation moves the money.
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Hello Richard Andrew x64,
Hmmm... if the claim is "they can't trace you" then yes "it" is false advertising but I doubt that is the whole content of the claim... better read the fine print?
I am so tempted to quip "Isn't advertising false?"
It sure seems to be, to me... LOL
our culture accepts all manner of false claims. We or most Human Beings believe Human Beings control Earth for instance. That is not true and yet Human Beings either believe that or just choose not to look in that direction. As a society Humans conspire to stay blissfully blind?
Oops Is that religion or politics? Or is it common sense that our society is not a civilization?
... that written, One could build a dedicated chip to sit in any device and pretend to be a human for the user. The straw man chip could send all manner of counterintelligence out to scramble any profiling attempts? having a dedicated chip to do that would prevent early attempts to detect the straw person while keeping overhead down? Eventually this too will fail to prevent profiling as will all measures. Every solution must adapt with the threat? Perfection is not a destination rather it is always a journey?
Sorry for the non-solutions and gravitas. I have a dark perspective from down here in my tomb or government issued comfort zone.
Thanks, Richard , for asking such an open question; open to all manner of rants on my darkest pedantic pet peeves.
Blessings
chuck
A blind Harper, harping on Human Sovereignty and Earth.
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Is Inspector Morse half man, half horse?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Yep, and they believe they are the Centaur of the universe.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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You should Endeavour to find the answer to that question.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Could you image a morse code operator that stutters?
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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Dot's a good question.
Sorry - must dash . . . .
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "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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I'd say 20% man, the rest is horse.
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Neigh!
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I don’t have a clue.
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Sorry for the delay I had to go out
Mysterious union with markers around point (8)
Union = Num
Markers = ious
Point N
Numinous
Numinous - Wikipedia
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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That's a bit UK ... and out of date. Are there any miners in the UK any more, let alone enough for a union? 
[edit]
I just checked: the NUM is still going, but it's a bit low on membership: from teh mighty 950,000 it had, it;'s down to it's last 100: Now down to just 100 active members - the decline of the once-mighty NUM - Wales Online[^]
I'm surprised it still has that many after the Thatcher era wholesale destruction of the mining industry and the communities that relied upon it.
[/edit]
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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