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I think it's the thought that counts. Presumably they will get better at blocking all VPNs.
You can't just blanket block all VPN access, that's not how the internet works... they could pick some common/well-known providers of VPN services and block their IPs/ASN/etc., but you can't just flip a switch and make all forms of VPN/proxy stop working, as there's no way to tell with certainty that someone is using one.
Hell, I remember malware (Trojans / RATs) from the 2000s that allowed you to use your victims IP as your personal proxy.
A lot of shady shit under that term. Used by all the harmful services - scammers, AI crawlers... :)
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Hell, I remember malware (Trojans / RATs) from the 2000s that allowed you to use your victims IP as your personal proxy.
Nowadays it's called "residential IP proxy". A lot of shady shit under that term. Used by all the harmful services - scammers, AI crawlers... :)
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Yes, and email is decentralized in theory... If using a VPN for access is forbidden by the ToS, you only need to detect a VPN connection once to prove violation. The IPv4 address space to consider is limited and it is technically absolutely feasible to exhaustively scrape and block the majority of VPN endpoints. Realistically any VPN provider will have some rather small IPv4 subnets make do, shit's expensive. More so…
> you only need to detect a VPN connection once to prove violation But an IP address is not a person (legally in the US at least), and many IPv4 addresses get re-used fairly often. My home 5G internet changes IP every single day, and it's a constant struggle because other users often get my IP blocked for things I didn't do. I cannot even visit etsy.com for example. Just for fun I even checked 4chan and the IP was ba…
That's a completely different matter (and still probably reasonable suspicion for a search, anyway). If an account/service ID evidently uses a service through a VPN there is no uncertainty of ToS violation. Of course someone could have hacked your account and used a VPN, it doesn't ultimately prove you did it, but nevertheless the account can be flagged/blocked correctly for VPN usage.
> many IPv4 addresses get re-used fairly often
The VPN's servers won't be using changing, "random" IPs. That's something ISPs do when assigning residential IPs. VPNs with residential IPs are not common. (I am not sure those VPNs are even really legal offerings.)
If your ISP uses NAT for its subnet space, you could argue it's technically similar to a VPN. However, same as with VPN exit scraping/discovery, those IP spaces can be determined and processed accordingly. I am also sure those ISP subnets for residential IPs are actually publicly defined and known. Eg. the Vodafon IP may get temporarily flagged for acute suspicious behavior, but won't get your account flagged for VPN violation, or even blocked permanently, since it's known to be the subnet of a mobile ISP, which uses NAT.
Additionally, I presume e.g. SoundCloud prohibits anonymizing VPNs, not everything that's technically a VPN or similar.
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There are plenty of VPN and proxy detection services, either as a service (API) or downloadable database, which are surprisingly comprehensive. Disclaimer: I’ve run one since 2017. Years on, our primary data source is literally holding dozens of subscriptions to every commercial provider we can find, and enumerating the exit node IP addresses they use. There are also other methods, like using zmap/zgrab to probe for…
This will also cause problems with anyone that happens to (even accidentally/unknowingly) use apps that integrate services from companies such as BrightData/Luminati/HolaVPN/etc. where they sell idle time on your device/connection to their VPN/proxy customers. The legitimate end-user will then no longer be able to use e.g. SoundCloud.
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> which is a shame because I'm a real human being using the internet as intended. This is the main issue here, the web has become actively hostile to normal people in the quest to monetize every second of online activity.
"Actively hostile" is another of the common myths. See also: "corporations are evil". "Completely indifferent" and "Corporations are completely amoral" are more accurate. It's the difference between someone trying to drown you, versus someone trying to fish while you drown just off the bank. Same end, of course.
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There are plenty of VPN and proxy detection services, either as a service (API) or downloadable database, which are surprisingly comprehensive. Disclaimer: I’ve run one since 2017. Years on, our primary data source is literally holding dozens of subscriptions to every commercial provider we can find, and enumerating the exit node IP addresses they use. There are also other methods, like using zmap/zgrab to probe for…
Interesting. I assumed all VPNs switched to IPv6 by now, making detection much harder.
You just track and block /24 or /16 as necessary.
Ironic posting that on reddit who also blocks vpn access.