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Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

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Re: Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

#61

Post by adgjlsfhk1 »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #45
Cider9986 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VPNs are not snake oil. They transfer the trust of your internet activity from a place of low-trust, your ISP, to a place of high-trust, ideally a trustworthy VPN like Mullvad, IVPN, or Proton. Among other benefits. If you don't like your ISP creating a profile of you and selling it to target ads to you, you should use a VPN. >Should I use a VPN? Yes, almost certainly. A VPN has many advantages, including: 1. Hiding…

Making your traffic cross jurisdictional boundaries also adds a level of difficulty for tracking usage. Local law enforcement can tap a local ISP for their records, but it would take a scale more effort to then tap a non-local service provider for their records. Each additional level of difficulty adds a cost, and at some point those costs aren't worth the potential results. (assuming that the VPN provider doesn't ju…

the counterpoint is that making your traffic cross out of the US gives the NSA (by their ass backwards reading) permission to spy on you

Re: Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

#62

Post by curtisf »

fooker wrote: post #43

It seems surprising that people would expect a VPN to be comparable to Tor. It does seem ridiculous once you spell it out like that, and then you have to realize that it’s plausible to de-anonymize even Tor users by controlling exit nodes.

Most of the big consumer VPNs include "privacy" with an implication of anonymity in their marketing, so it shouldn't really be surprising

Re: Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

#64

Post by BLKNSLVR »

paulpauper wrote: post #53

This is why VPNs have always been crap. The pool of IPs are backlisted/tainted, so you will run into various roadblocks and cpatchas, in addition to slow speed. If you are serious about privacy and don't want blocks and blacklists, buy high speed private proxies. Don't use a pooled service.

A VPN by any other name would smell as sweet.

Re: Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

#65

Post by asdff »

solenoid0937 wrote: post #32

> As an example, imagine that you are a moderator on a forum and you suspect that a new face is actually a sockpuppet of a user you banned the day prior. You check the IP logs, and despite using different Mullvad servers, both accounts resolve to the overlapping float ranges 0.4334 - 0.4428 and 0.4358 - 0.4423. This gives you a >99% chance that they are the same person. This sounds like how I'd design a VPN if I were…

Makes you wonder...

Re: Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

#66

Post by BLKNSLVR »

faangguyindia wrote: post #63

I maintain a list of "23034 IPs to blocklist.txt" blocked IPs they contain all VPN providers. Often VPN providers seed Geofeeds with wrong data, this is why i use traceroute and ping network to locate their real location.

I have a script that logs IPs for any traffic coming in to my servers on ports that don't accept traffic. I then block those IPs from accessing ports behind which there are services.

If they're checking my locked doors, I don't want them coming in my unlocked doors.

Re: Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

#67

Post by vintermann »

curtisf wrote: post #62
fooker wrote: post #43

It seems surprising that people would expect a VPN to be comparable to Tor. It does seem ridiculous once you spell it out like that, and then you have to realize that it’s plausible to de-anonymize even Tor users by controlling exit nodes.

Most of the big consumer VPNs include "privacy" with an implication of anonymity in their marketing, so it shouldn't really be surprising

"Not knowing who a user is" privacy may still be useful even if you don't have, "not knowing two users are the same user" privacy.

Re: Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

#68

Post by applfanboysbgon »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #55
applfanboysbgon wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably won't find direct proof any more than you will find direct proof of any random VPN selling your data, it's just a given that commercial entities are liable to sell financially valuable data, and a list of all traffic, every website you visit and every service you use, tied to a specific identity is certainly financially valuable. Being in the EU doesn't change this; in fact the EU explicitly required tha…

"EU explicitly required that ISPs retain your identifying data with the Data Retention Directive" And then sells it?

What gives you confidence that they aren't? I have confidence my VPN doesn't sell my traffic not because I implicitly trust what they say, but because if they had logs the courts would have found them when trying to seize data themselves. What makes you trust your ISP so much? Faith in the human goodness of businesses to look out for the best interests of their customers, even if it means passing up an opportunity to make a larger profit? Faith in their words, or faith in toothless privacy laws that have been violated time and time again?

Re: Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

#69

Post by unselect5917 »

curtisf wrote: post #62
fooker wrote: post #43

It seems surprising that people would expect a VPN to be comparable to Tor. It does seem ridiculous once you spell it out like that, and then you have to realize that it’s plausible to de-anonymize even Tor users by controlling exit nodes.

Most of the big consumer VPNs include "privacy" with an implication of anonymity in their marketing, so it shouldn't really be surprising

It is privacy with respect to your ISP. A lot of ISPs are pretty shitty. Some will rat out their own customers to copyright mongrels and threaten to disconnect you - which is important when there's a local monopoly.

Things you connect to or log in to are clearly going to be able to ID you at least with in the context of the login that you use regardless of what the VPN does.

I'm logged into HN through Mullvad as it happens. I usually leave it on regardless of what I'm doing because what I'm doing isn't my ISP's business even though I'm pretty happy with them.

Re: Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying

#70

Post by marcus_holmes »

faangguyindia wrote: post #63

I maintain a list of "23034 IPs to blocklist.txt" blocked IPs they contain all VPN providers. Often VPN providers seed Geofeeds with wrong data, this is why i use traceroute and ping network to locate their real location.

You know that people use VPNs for perfectly legitimate reasons, right?

Like when I was travelling, sites would routinely use the language of my IP address location, not the language preference as I set it in my browser. So I would be served a site that I couldn't read. My only option was to use a VPN to spoof my location so that it would serve me a site in a language I understand.

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