Nostr

After seriously using VPNs for several weeks now, I have realised they are an illusion.

Sites like ChatGPT get stuck in an infinite Cloudflare loop verifying your humanity while using a VPN, the second you turn off your VPN, the test completes. I have noticed this on several sites served by Cloudflare.

Other sites like Audible redirect you to your physical country of origin even when using a VPN and on a desktop machine without the aid of GPS.

This means any site is capable of detecting which country you are physically in and whether you’re using a VPN or not, the only question is whether they are incentivised to do so.

For sites like YouTube or X, they don’t currently care so will reflect the country your VPN reports to them in terms of country logo and content language.

For sites like Porn, who actually want your business, they will happily accept your VPN status.

But for sites like ChatGPT or Audible, who generate a better service by knowing where you are, they easily detect your physical location despite a VPN.

Lastly VPNs used by default degrade your general online experience.

Search results are returned in your VPNs exit node location and language, so if your VPN is set to Finland and you’re asking for coffee shops, you’ll get results shown in Finnish for coffee shops in Helsinki.

YouTube will bias recommendations based on your VPNs local language and location

Shopping sites will show products priced in your VPN exits country.

And many sites know you’re using a VPN and will simply refuse to show you anything while you continue to do so.

As an experiment, I set my VPN exit node to the UK, where I’m actually based, and suddenly many UK sites, like the BBC, stopped working because they knew I was using a VPN.

Peer to peer VPNs, like MysteriumDark mitigate this by exiting through users home broadband connections, but this is still easily detected by any service such as Audible who know where you are physically located. N.B. this knowledge is not based on GPS data, as this happens on desktop computers with no GPS.

In conclusion, VPNs only work to bypass restrictions because the service providers are either ambivalent or incentivised to ignore them.

YODL 5mo ago

I trust you know what you're talking about, but for YouTube specifically I've noticed changed functionality with in US vs out, using vpn. It's hard to recreate exactly each time, as there's also some interplay with being signed in possibly that I'm foggy on, but pretty sure PiP on free accounts doesn't work for me outside US but does inside (vpn used each way).

Is audible, in ur opinion, using knowledge of your account, or somehow defeating the vpn?

I definitely don't trust the one I use, and have been meaning to up my game

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Discussion

mike 5mo ago

YouTube is up to all sort of fucktardery, I was watching this the other day about them automatically adding AI touchups to shorts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86nhP8tvbLY

I don't use Audible nor do I have an account with them, so that was particularly noticeable. I simply followed a .com link somebody posted here and it redirected me to the .co.uk site despite me being VPN'd to Belgium at the time.

I suspect they are using cookies or Mac addresses or injection testing to identify your real location. These are relatively complex things to do, but if you are incentivised to do it, very possible.

YODL 5mo ago

Bastards!

Is at least the promise (I think it's the case anyway) that using a vpn encrypts your traffic? 🥲

mike 5mo ago

Yes.

The original function of VPNs was to give you a secure backhaul to your office when you are off-site. This is still a valid use case.

Then people started to discover they could consume regional content by using a global, public VPN. This is still a valid use case, however content providers could easily detect and block this if they were incentised.

The last case, which was never true was security. Stopping your ISP or government from monitoring what you are doing. Yes your path to the exit node is probably secure, but with the 14 eyes agreement as well as many other agreements, this simply means you are being observed and reported back by a different agency to your home agency.

How many VPNs do you hold the private encryption key for?

Now, NOSTR VPN's, where you hold your own key 🤔

But you're still being observed at the exit node.

YODL 5mo ago

Nostr vpn sounds smart, but I'm too ignorant of how things work to know for sure.

Thanks for splainin

mike 5mo ago

Bog standard VPN using something like the Wireguard protocol, but being NOSTR, you hold and manage the private encryption key, not a trusted third party.

YODL 5mo ago

Ohhh, big standard...right.

I think I get enough of what you're saying for now. Someday I'll properly learn how VPNs work!

YODL 5mo ago

Gd autocorrect, I wrote BOG standard (which means nothing to me). I looked it up just now. I see it was not a typo by you afterall

mike 5mo ago

Apologies, it was a British colloquialism 😂

mike 5mo ago

And that day will be the day your government follows mine and wants to know who's doing what and where, all the time 😂

YODL 5mo ago

And by then you'll hopefully have sorted this all out for a smooth onboarding process :)

mike 5mo ago

😂