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[Shitpost] Government bodies that block your VPN (programming.dev)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by emotional_soup_88@programming.dev to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[-] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 19 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

[-] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Is there a particular reason to avoid crossing the streams here? As I understood it, exiting the VPN lumps everyone using that node together, so of doesn't matter if you're logging in from a node that's torrenting, they'd have to make a solid case that you were the only person connected to that node.

[-] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Yah, I believe you are right. Everyone will exit on the same IP. So maybe it's not totally necessary.

Part of my reason was, I wanted a VPN inside my country for my identity tied use. To avoid possible geo-blocks. But for non-identity use, I wanted to use a VPN in Europe.

Also I hoed, maybe it makes life slightly harder for identity brokers? Like, they can track that I use a certain IP for my ID-tied uses. Even if there are also 100 others on that IP, it's still data which can form part of a fingerprint. For my non-identity use, I wanted to minimize anything to tie the two worlds together. I use a different browser and different device, even.

I'm not doing anything wrong, or illegal, or unethical. I'm just a normal ass person, but I fucking hate identity brokers and mass surveilance.

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week ago

And what makes you think the VPN is not doing exactly the same thing? You think your measly 10 dollar a month subscription is enough for them?

[-] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

And what makes you think the VPN is not doing exactly the same thing?

Several reasons. First, they have been hit with gov lawsuits and a police raid before. They were unable to provide any data about customer behavior on the VPN. Police left empty handed. They don't log it. Also I pay with cash. They don't know who I am.

Second, they are audited by independent 3rd parties.

Third, it has also a good reputation. That rep would be destroyed overneight if it was discovered.

Nothing in life is 100% certain. But not all things are equal either, just because something "could" happen. I know for a fact my ISP does it. I have good reasons to believe my VPN is not. Thus, I will pick the safer option. My best guess is <1% chance my VPN does this. But even if 50%, that's STILL better than 100%.

[-] emotional_soup_88@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

they are tracking you with a VPN whether you want to admit it or not. Or how does a VPN stop tracking. And what stops the VPN from doing exactly what you say your ISP is doing.

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

they are tracking you with a VPN whether you want to admit it or not. Or how does a VPN stop tracking.

They hide your IP address from the sites you visit. IIRC they also use the same IP address for multiple users for further mix things up. You aren't necessarily untrackable with a VPN, but if you're IP address is out in the open you are 100% trackable.

And what stops the VPN from doing exactly what you say your ISP is doing.

Nothing technically. But there are three reasons why your VPN is more trustworthy.

  1. They trade on trust. Selling your data would undermine their entire selling point.
  2. The ISP's are openly doing it so a whisteblower would be meaningless, your VPN is not openly selling your data.
  3. Your ISP has a monopoly (in America) so they can do whatever they want. Your VPN doesn't. Changing a VPN is not only possible but extremely easy.
[-] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] emotional_soup_88@programming.dev 5 points 1 week ago

i2p here we come.

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] airikr@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] emotional_soup_88@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

That is so... Interesting? 😅 What do they have to gain by blocking their own IPs/locations but not the neighboring country's...

[-] airikr@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

[-] nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] emotional_soup_88@programming.dev 8 points 1 week ago

Online anonymity is not appreciated by authorities, it would seem...

[-] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

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.”

[-] shrek_is_love@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

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

[-] YoSoySnekBoi@kbin.earth 11 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] emotional_soup_88@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago

Not all websites support https.

[-] YoSoySnekBoi@kbin.earth 3 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social 1 points 1 week ago

From a security perspective it seems 100% the correct call for the government sites filtering out traffic that is probably used for fraud rather than legit purposes 99.9% of the time. How are you doing any those the tasks you mentioned without inputting your personal information into the government website? And I assume you are, so then why are you using a public VPN at that point unless your just trying to make things difficult.

You can use a VPN to try and hide your activity from the government, but becomes a fools errand when you are purposefully interacting with the government.

this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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