On 2/1/2025 9:46 PM, micky wrote:
How can Nord VPM encrypt your internet traffic if there ismn't something
at the other end to decrypt it?
If you use https encryption then no one in the
middle can see what you download or the content
of webpages.
If you use encrypted DNS then they also can't see
what domains you're visiting.
You can test those things with a program that lets
you see packet content. Not long ago it was all in plain
text. These days, most of it will be encrypted so the
bytes are nonsense. But if you don't use encrypted
DNS then the domains you visit will be in plain text.
If you use a VPN then no one knows where you're
coming from.
If it were a phone call then it would be like hiding
the conversation, the recipient ID and the caller ID,
respectively -- https, encrypted DNS, VPN.
I use a VPN if I'm staying at a hotel where I have to
go through their network, because anyone on the network
could conceivably be eavesdropping. People in dangerous
countries might use a VPN to hide their activities. If you're
not a freedom fighter in China and you have your own
home system then why use a VPN? Mainly it would be for
an additional layer of privacy. Online surveillance can track
IP like a phone number. IP can also be used to find your
location. I even do that with my own rinky dink website.
I don't sell anyone's data, but I resolve IPs in my server
logs to hostname and location, so 123.12.1.123 can typically
be resolved to something like:
server1.trainco.com - Peoria IL US
That's helpful to figure out whether I have a real visitor
or some kind of bot in Pakistan. Is the Wordpress attack
attempt coming from California or China. (Usually China.)
If someone lokked at one page, did they also look at others?
Did they download anything? That's easier to see if I've
resolved IP addresses.
If you don't hide your IP then it can be used in so-called
"fingerprinting". It gets complicated. If you visit somewhere.com
and it's infested with Google tracking, along with 2 dozen other
analytics scripts, then they might use your IP to follow you
around online. But if you block that they might still use fingerprinting.
In that case they don't know exactly what you did, but they
were able to track your mouse movements, they know you
visited a furniture store online and looked at the same chair 3
times. They know that you visited your local dentist's site and
made an appt. They know you looked up sports scores. And they
can probably ID you by your unique signature of browser, installed
fonts, e-tags, blah, blah, blah. It's highly likely that Google and
their ilk have a record of your online activity and have also tied
that to your cellphone. Possibly even your TV and credit cards.
(Google entered into partnerships with CC companies some
years ago.)
In that case none of the encryption matters much because
they're seeing what you do on the webpage and connecting the
dots. So encryption is good for privacy and security in terms
of that data during transport online. Encryption does nothing to
block surveillance on websites, to stop cross-site scripting
attacks, to prevent trick popups on webpages that try to sell you
scams, etc. For that you need to block script as much as possible
and use a good HOSTS file.
(No, Ghostery, UBlock, etc will not do that. Frankly, if privacy
is not a hassle then it's not working. Those 3rd-party tools
won't block any but the most obvious ads because too many
webpages would break if they did.)
Why does it work this way?
If Google-analytics can run script they can do very
extensive fingerprinting and surveillance. If they can't run script
they can still track you by sending you a fake image with a unique
ID. They code the webpage to say there's a picture, 1x1 pixel,
named pic1jhviinlajjwqbkkvooajj.jpg. Your browser then asks for
the alleged picture and Google has tracked you. So script is the
worst, but IP, web beacons and even limited fingerprinting also
enable tracking.
But if Google-
Analytics is in your HOSTS file, identified as the local computer,
your browser is unable to contact Google's server, even if you
allow script. So Google gets no record at all of you visiting those
websites.
Your mission, should you accept it, is to decide how much you
care about privacy, how much you care about security, and how
worried you are about gov't swat teams breaking down your
door for visiting the free world. (Of course, that's not getting into
things like collecting child porn images, but you can get the basic
idea from my description.)
If you don't live someplace like China then script is by far the
biggest threat on all counts. The one exception would be logging
in through a public network, like Starbucks or a hotel.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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