Merged Should I have a VPN?

[jt512]

Every now and then I have to turn it off as a number of websites block access via VPN.
Somewhat more annoying than the international access it provides.

I don't know how the annoyance of having to sometimes disable it because it is blocked on some websites could outweigh the ability to access some website content that you otherwise could not access. The former is just an inconvenience; the latter is a necessity.

FWIW, I leave the VPN off be default. I only use it when I need it to access geographically restricted content or when using an unsecured wifi connection, like in a hotel room.

ETA: especially annoying for online shopping, as most search results on same are tailored to the country location of the IP.

Your bug is my feature. I've gotten some good deals by pricing the product using various VPN locations.

 

[theprestige]

Might as well say the quiet part out loud.

Most VPN users fall into one of two categories: Corporations, or private individuals.

Most VPN usage falls into one of two categories: Doing confidential business securely over third-party networks, or stealing.

Ironically, the corporations are not the bad guys here.

 

[lionking]

I don’t need to pirate movies or anything, and just do the standard stuff over the internet. But a VPN at a cost of $3-4 a month looks like a decent precaution. But I’m far from an expert.

 

[arthwollipot]

I have one. It's not turned on most of the time, but it's there for when I want it. There are some sites I use (one in particular) that don't work through the VPN. Right now I use it mostly to check for blocked videos in Forumvision games and search for alternatives.

 

[Thermal]

Firefox has a free VPN built in, just needs a one-click enabling. I can't decide whether to use it or not. Seems like a smart precaution against Invasively prying robot eyes (the American in me instinctively bristles against that). But in practice, seems like it just slows things down a bit? And makes you sign in and verify much more often?

Then I think about who would be spying on me and why. Pretty much just robots, to gather marketing information, right? Well I don't really even see ads, soooo.... I'm not sure there is any benefit to a VPN?

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

I only use mine to watch films and series that are either not available in Germany (mostly Anime,) or they're only available with a German DUB instead of sub. I am, of course, fluent in German, but I'm also fluent in English (as some of you may have noticed) and prefer to see movies in the original language if I'm good at it. Hell, I watched the Fantozzi movies in Italian, and old French comedies in French, and my mastery of either is... very iffy. Saves me from hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking with a Swiss accent, or young Deniro sounding like a 60 year old guy, or such.

 

[Wudang]

It’s useful if you want to lookup say embarrassing medical questions and don’t want your social media flooded with ads for treatments. It’s also useful for Humble Bundle as some book bundles I want to buy are only on their US site. My view is they still get the money.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

It’s useful if you want to lookup say embarrassing medical questions and don’t want your social media flooded with ads for treatments. It’s also useful for Humble Bundle as some book bundles I want to buy are only on their US site. My view is they still get the money.

Pretty much my view when watching a movie on a streaming site I'm subscribed to.

 

[rjh01]

It’s useful if you want to lookup say embarrassing medical questions and don’t want your social media flooded with ads for treatments. <snip>

The simple solution is to have two gmail accounts and so have two Chrome browsers. Put your embarrrassing questions on the second one. The other option is to ask many unrealated embarrassing medical questions.

 

[theprestige]

It’s useful if you want to lookup say embarrassing medical questions and don’t want your social media flooded with ads for treatments.

Boomer mentality.

Social media was never your friend. Trying to keep it on side was never going to work for you.

 

[lionking]

One of my sons is a senior manager in the IT department of a very large university. He doesn’t think I need one. He thinks that password management is a far better protection than a VPN. He also told me that a number of streaming services have ways of preventing VPNs from accessing geo-cached content.

It’s not a lot of money to get a VPN but I think I’ll save it.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

On the flip side, most don't. The only thing I've seen some do is ban some IPs associated with VPNs. Which can usually be circumvented by just connecting again so you get a non-banned server. It also tends to help if you're not using a super well-known one (like one included in a very popular browser,) because their servers tend to be discovered fairly quickly.

But yes, it sounds like you don't really care about that region limited content, in which case you obviously don't need one.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

It’s useful if you want to lookup say embarrassing medical questions and don’t want your social media flooded with ads for treatments

BTW, you don't actually need a VPN for Google or other ad providers to stop remembering what you searched for. Just use the private browsing mode. All it does it that that session starts "sandboxed" without any cookies (login or otherwise), and any history or cookies from that session die when that session ends. Google doesn't (seem to) remember you by your MAC address, so once you close that private browsing window, it won't remember anything you searched for.

Of course, a VPN is still useful for geo-restricted stuff, but you don't need it for ads.

But then you probably knew that.

 

[Wudang]

I'm not entirely confident in any browser's private mode tbh. The "legitimate interest" farce as a way for advertisers to step around GDPR etc shows how much I can trust them, especially with the dark patterns used like having "legitimate interest" buttons way down their "consent" page.

 

[Thermal]

I'm not entirely confident in any browser's private mode tbh. The "legitimate interest" farce as a way for advertisers to step around GDPR etc shows how much I can trust them, especially with the dark patterns used like having "legitimate interest" buttons way down their "consent" page.

This. I'm at like 99.948% confidence that private browsing doesn't effect much beyond my viewable browser history, and maybe commerce sites not knowing who you are. Hell, the private tab stores info itself and autocompletes addresses. It also claims big and bold that your ISP can still see what you are up to. The cynic in me says if you can go on the web, you can (and are) tracked, monitored and recorded, no matter the promises made about anonymity.

 

[Wudang]

Also private browsing doesn't hide your IP address so within a certain date range ad companies can save and cross-correlate a good amount of your activity. If that IP then shows as you logging in to social media etc it knows who you are. Sure IP leases expire but there's a lot of money to be made with ads (look how much SM "influencers" can earn) to make it worth their while over time.