I’m using Mullvad because I like their company. F***! These is no way I can formulate this sentence without it sounding weird…
Anyway!
It seems like the state’s websites and the municipalities’ websites allow Mullvad but the counties’ websites block it.
What the actual f… 😂
What’s the situation in YOUR country/region? Are you able to do taxes, surf on healthcare related websites (hospitals etc) and on government bodies’ sites without issues?
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Tangentially related, but I tried to update Linux once but the downloads were super slow. I switched on my VPN and suddenly it updated super fast.
I can do whatever with Mullvad VPN here in Sweden besides of logging into my bank. They are blocking the Swedish servers for whatever reason so I just change to the Norwegian servers instead.
That is so… Interesting? 😅 What do they have to gain by blocking their own IPs/locations but not the neighboring country’s…
That is a good question. I contacted Mullvad few years ago and since I download my emails for local storage and then delete them from the server, I can’t find their response (am not home at this very moment).
But I want to remember is that my bank blocks the Swedish VPN servers due to fraud/misuse.
I would never use a VPN for sites that require me to log in with my real name, in that case the VPN has no added value and you are actively sabotaging the privacy you’re trying to gain by using a VPN for general browsing.
In fact, I have a seperate browser for sites that require me to log in with my real identity.
Are you trying to say that I’m leaving a fingerprint by using a VPN? How? My threat model doesn’t require me to hide the fact that my real identity is using one.
Your bank now knows your ID. Now they know the IP address of your VPN exit node and your browser fingerprint. Theoretically if they give that information to Google (or more likely, both Google and your bank give your information to Peter Thiel) then Palantir can track you despite using a VPN.
Who knows how realistic this scenario is, but why chance it when your bank is also going to suspect you of fraud every time you log in via VPN.
I would never use a VPN for sites that require me to log in with my real name,
I think your point is valid and good. If you log in with your real name, you have given out your ID and have no privacy.
But there can still be reasons to use VPNs for sites you will log into. I use a dedicated VPN for all such sites. My banking, utilities, insurance etc. I use that VPN for nothng else but sites tied to my real identity. Why? Because it bypasses the data harvesting my ISP does. My ISP collects everything I connect to, the domains I mean not the contents, and sells to data brokers. The fuckers. So here, I do not use a VPN for privacy from the sites, who must know me. I use it to stop my ISP from seeing certain things.
But, I am also very careful! I do not cross the streams! My ID-tied VPN is only used for sites that have to know who I am IRL. I never mix it up with sites that have no business knowing my IRL ID. Which is most sites! Those use a totally different VPN, who I also did not give my identity to.
I’m in the US. It varies widely.
I think what happens sometimes, is we get caught up in anti-abuse lists. Sites see legit abuse coming from VPN IPs. After that happens enough, those IPs end up on anti-abuse filters. Then those blocklists are used by some sites, and not othrs, so some sites won’t work.
There are also whole countries who block VPN now for social control. And others who talk about blocking them soon. That’s not the case where I live. But there are still many individual sites that use blocklists.
There are also more sites using identity resolution services now. If the identity service can’t pin you to a human real life person, it increases your block score. If your block score is high enough, you get , um, blocked.
i2phere we come.
Why do you use a VPN? I only use one when torrenting. Basically all my traffic is over HTTPS, and my DNS is encrypted via NextDNS so I don’t think I need one usually
No amount of traffic/DNS encryption actually hides where your requests are coming from, or where they are going to. Your IP address and the IP addresses of the sites you visit are always unencrypted. VPNs hide both of these; realistically that’s their sole purpose on the modern web.
Not all websites support https.
I use strict HTTPS-only mode in my web browser and legitimately can’t remember the last time it’s broken a website that I wasn’t personally hosting as a dev server. At this point, I would never expect to be able to keep my interactions with any website that doesn’t support HTTPS private, VPN or not.
I’m in India, and most government websites block VPN usage. I have to turn off my VPN to access them. There is no other way.
One more thing I have noticed is that when I using Mullvad’s ad-blocking DNS (just the DNS, no VPN), many government sites do not load, as in the domain name does not get resolved.
Online anonymity is not appreciated by authorities, it would seem…
Ayup. This quote is from a techdirt article linked a few posts down. I like how they put it.
As the researchers put it to The Rage: “The state wants to see everything. The corporations want to see everything. And they’ve learned to work together.”
