Re: [gentoo-user] About to have fiber internet and need VPN info

[William Kenworthy <billk@iinet.net.au>]

On 6/8/22 20:42, Michael wrote:
> On Saturday, 6 August 2022 12:08:30 BST Dale wrote:
> ...

> The more you try to escape the 14 eyes Big Brother, the closer you may fall
> into the hands of various authoritarian regimes.  LOL!  Even VPNs like NordVPN
> which operates within the jurisdiction of Panama (let's not forget it is
> Langley's doorstep), it also has offices in the UK, Netherlands and Lithuania.
> I wonder why . . .
>
> Total privacy on the Internet is improbable.  If your only concern is to
> retain your privacy from your ISP with regards to your Internet connections,
> then most/any VPN service will offer this benefit by obfuscating your IP
> address.  Your browsing patterns, browser User Agent, addons and umpteen other
> OS and application fingerprints won't be obfuscated beyond the VPN server.
> Therefore your identity can only be protected so much and no more.
>
Also, leakage is almost inevitable ... DNS, content distribution 
networks, browser fingerprinting, timezones, paying online with a US 
credit card, US delivery address and just simple mis-configuration 
exposing you to risk etc.  My impression as a long time openvpn user is 
that TOR and the TOR browser might be the closest to secure for your 
purposes? Also, keep in mind that things like online shopping will cost 
you more overseas because if you are successful in hiding you are in the 
US you will get the international surcharges, or in some cases ordering 
IT stuff from the US you have to fill out export clearances (once even 
for sparkfun hobby stuff!) :) ... then if you pay with a US card and/or 
have a US delivery address they have got you anyway - in fact being in 
Oz I gave it up as being no gain, too much pain to use a VPN try and get 
cheaper US shopping. I found myself having to maintain two totally 
independent systems with one in a locked down VPN with US settings with 
all traffic actively blocked from the local network, and use US shipping 
and packaging firms that offered facilities to buy on my behalf.  That 
is much harder than you think - trusting the end points is only one 
small part of the problem you are trying to solve and from the Gov 
monitoring point of view almost certainly a waste of time anyway as they 
have massive resources. The best you can hope for with openvpn is SSL 
point to point level security.  Just use HTTPS, a good browser and be 
part of the crowd - if you are trawling suspect/socially compromising 
websites you do not want anyone to see you going to, no matter what you 
do there will always be a risk and as a VPN user you are a more likely 
target for a closer look anyway.  I am sure the bigger online VPN 
providers would be monitored closely - at least TOR is likely to help 
more than a plain VPN.

BillK