When I shop for stuff online, it seems like every website I visit guesses my location based on my IP address and immediately posts that location together with the closest stores. That’s best case – worst case is it won’t load because it thinks I’m not in a location it serves.
I’m really getting tired of it, especially since I use a VPN, so I end up with the store thinking I’m in New Jersey, Phoenix, Seattle… or, worse yet, if the last server I hooked up to is outside CONUS, I’ll see something like “Sorry, we don’t ship to the UK.”
It’s one of the many irritations associated with having a VPN (along with certain IP blocks being on banned lists). They’re starting to add up, to the point that I’m posting about it now because I’m losing cumulative time to dealing with/correcting it.
Is there any way to deal with this?
Yes, this is a real pain.
If you can, configure your VPN so that problem IPs are routed directly to the WAN instead of through the VPN. You may find this under PBR (policy based routing).
Use an exit node in your region?
Any specific reason that you’re on VPN when browsing stores?
The VPN is always on, except when I’m on Zoom (for performance reasons).
You do know what a VPN is for, yes?
I’m a network admin. I think I know what a VPN is for.
I’m not sure if YOU know what a VPN is for, though. Hence my question.
If you believe that a VPN-Connection will “protect your privacy”, you’re sorely mistaken. That’s a lie. An always-on VPN will in fact worsen your privacy online. I’m willing to tell you more about this, if you’d like.
If you use it to change your locale to watch the content of streaming services available at other countries: Only turn it on when doing that.
I’d love to hear about why a VPN is not good for privacy, considering that seems to be its main selling point.
VPN doesn’t help your privacy for multiple reasons.
Here are a few:
- Any Website that deals with sensitive information is already using cryptography. An additional VPN doesn’t help
- While your VPN Provider may advertise that they don’t log anything, it’s most likely true (at least it seems that way for most providers). But what they CAN do is analyze the websites you contact (only the Hostname) and sell that data. (Which is the only reason to use a VPN: So that your ISP doesn’t do this)
- Tunneling all your traffic through a single point (here: the VPN-Provider) is actually hurting your privacy online (see #2). You’d be much better off using a TOR browser.
- Despite what your VPN provider might have told you: It will NOT save you from any data breaches or malware attacks.
- Your Privacy isn’t secure against advertisers. They utilize different tools to track you online (Example: Evercookie - Wikipedia)
- Logged into any big social network? Your VPN just became useless! (See #5)
- As you mentioned yourself: VPNs are slow (At least those that are meant for public use)
Just do yourself a favor: Google “vpn useless”.
Here’s a few read-worthy links:
- Don't use VPN services. · GitHub
- Quote: “Because a VPN in this sense is just a glorified proxy. The VPN provider can see all your traffic, and do with it what they want - including logging.”
- VPN - a Very Precarious Narrative - Dennis Schubert
- Quote: “Acting as they do, and promoting commercial VPN providers as a solution to potential issues does more harm than good.”
- Why you don't need a VPN
- Quote: “Most VPN companies refuse to educate their customers about the limitations of their service. They don’t just ignore developments detrimental to the ‘marketability’ of their product, they claim VPNs solve a whole set of new, unrelated issues.”
- https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/technology/personaltech/are-vpns-worth-it.html
- Quote: “For several years, I subscribed to a popular VPN service called Private Internet Access. In 2019, I saw the news that the service had been acquired by Kape Technologies, […] previously called Crossrider, a company that was […] being part of an ecosystem of businesses using so-called ad injection technology that could behave maliciously.
In the last five years, Kape has also bought several other popular VPN services, including CyberGhost VPN, Zenmate and, just last month, ExpressVPN in a $936 million deal. This year, Kape additionally bought a group of VPN review sites that give top ratings to the VPN services it owns.”
Well isn’t that interesting. My VPN is EVPN.