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I beg to differ.
- With the exception of banking and access to government-provided services, there is no requirement to identify oneself with one's real name
- Many countries criminalize the free expression of opinion - if said opinion goes against that of the local government
- Even in the so-called free countries, expressing an unpopular opinion can get you into hot water (e.g. losing anything from friends to a job)
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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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: Even in the so-called free countries, expressing an unpopular opinion can get you into hot water (e.g. losing anything from friends to a job)
VPN will not prevent this.
Most social media requires you to login to a site. VPN only hides the IP, not who is logged in making the comments.
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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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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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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
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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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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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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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Will trade for toilet paper....
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Brilliant Idea.
I was originally planning to wash, dry, and reuse what I had until the supply chain returns to normal.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "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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It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
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It's our (Italians) fault. With the dozens of lockdowns and restrictions we are spending more time at home and you know how much coffee we usually drink...
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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I think you should inform Chris . . . if coffee becomes unavailable well need at least two* new Soapboxes to temporarily allow the venting of the excessive grumpiness that is sure to follow.
* At least two as things may get so bad that even posts on the 'new' Soapbox will often need to admonish other posters to "take it to the Soapbox" .
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "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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Cp-Coder wrote: Coffee Deficit
This may be how the zombie apocalypse begins. 
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Here in the US, many places with large logistics centers (warehouses, distribution centers, and the like) also have huge stacks of "orphaned" shipping containers. Goods were shipped into the US in these containers, but were left because the US imports far more than we export. They sit piled up because there "is no profit in moving an empty container."
We need a rule — one container in requires one container out, with exceptions for containers that find a permeant use, such as housing, storage units, machinery rooms, equipment sheds and the like. This will encourage reuse. World-wide, many small ports have a shortage of containers which limits their trade potential.
__________________
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now.
© 2009, Rex Hammock
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Time to start transitioning to chicory.
JK: that stuff is horrible.
Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events.
- Manly P. Hall
Mark
Just another cog in the wheel
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Quote: Time to start transitioning to chicory
That's not funny!
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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but it only made my marriage worse 
Real programmers use butterflies
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Bad things happend?  
modified 24-Apr-21 21:01pm.
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I've got it all on tape. 
Real programmers use butterflies
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Duct tape cannot fix stupid. (It can muffle the sound, however  )
__________________
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now.
© 2009, Rex Hammock
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Not enough to prevent the victim calling for help though, unfortunately.
"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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