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gottabekd · 12-07-2018, 08:19 AM

On second thought, maybe I did a poor job explaining the anonymity aspect of a VPN, which is what you were after.

Let's say you want to ####post on the Oilers subforum of a message board where you have an existing account "Flames4Eva". You don't want your account banned, so you want to create a "ConnorIsTheBest" account for trolling purposes, but don't want the message board to know that both accounts are coming from the same Telus IP address in Calgary. So you need some anonymity. What do you do? Head to the library to use their computers!

So you visit your Calgary library branch, fire up the web browser, create your ConnerIsTheBest account, and have fun trolling Oilers fans. By using the library computer instead of your own (aka subscribing to a VPN service), there is no way for the message board to trace the trolling back to you. They know it is coming from a "public" address, the library, but obviously can't trace it back to your home Internet connection.

But let's say you post something really egregious like acknowledging that though Connor is good, Crosby might actually be the best. The message board gets law enforcement involved to find the perpetrator of this blasphemy. They raid the library and demand all Internet usage records for the day in question. Now your anonymity depends on how much data (logs) the library has about its patrons' Internet usage.

They could have logs saying Joe Smith sat at this computer at 11:55 AM and visited the message board in question, and was the only person in the library at that time that was trolling an Oilers forum. Or the logs might say that these 12 people were using the Internet at that time. Or they might not have any logs about who was using the Internet, so law enforcement gets a list of all the tens of thousands of members to comb through. But maybe you paid for your library card in cash (when that was a thing), and gave them a fake address, so there really is no personally identifiable information about you on the membership list. It seems this avenue of investigation is a dead end, and the library protected your anonymity effectively.

But what if you messed up, and the next day at the library you logged in to your Flames4Eva account. Now the message board administrators can see that two different accounts were used from the same "anonymous" library computers. Based on the other IP address you have logged in from, they can now link the ConnerIsTheBest account to your Telus IP address, and you are busted. So while using the library computer can protect your anonymity, if you share too much data through this channel, you pierce through this protection.

So back to VPN providers, some claim to do "zero logging". If you trust that this claim is true, then they should be considered fairly good at keeping you anonymous. But it is still up to you when using a VPN to not start sharing your home address to Oilers fans who want to come fight you.

12-07-2018, 08:19 AM	#3
gottabekd Powerplay Quarterback Join Date: Mar 2006 Exp:	On second thought, maybe I did a poor job explaining the anonymity aspect of a VPN, which is what you were after. Let's say you want to ####post on the Oilers subforum of a message board where you have an existing account "Flames4Eva". You don't want your account banned, so you want to create a "ConnorIsTheBest" account for trolling purposes, but don't want the message board to know that both accounts are coming from the same Telus IP address in Calgary. So you need some anonymity. What do you do? Head to the library to use their computers! So you visit your Calgary library branch, fire up the web browser, create your ConnerIsTheBest account, and have fun trolling Oilers fans. By using the library computer instead of your own (aka subscribing to a VPN service), there is no way for the message board to trace the trolling back to you. They know it is coming from a "public" address, the library, but obviously can't trace it back to your home Internet connection. But let's say you post something really egregious like acknowledging that though Connor is good, Crosby might actually be the best. The message board gets law enforcement involved to find the perpetrator of this blasphemy. They raid the library and demand all Internet usage records for the day in question. Now your anonymity depends on how much data (logs) the library has about its patrons' Internet usage. They could have logs saying Joe Smith sat at this computer at 11:55 AM and visited the message board in question, and was the only person in the library at that time that was trolling an Oilers forum. Or the logs might say that these 12 people were using the Internet at that time. Or they might not have any logs about who was using the Internet, so law enforcement gets a list of all the tens of thousands of members to comb through. But maybe you paid for your library card in cash (when that was a thing), and gave them a fake address, so there really is no personally identifiable information about you on the membership list. It seems this avenue of investigation is a dead end, and the library protected your anonymity effectively. But what if you messed up, and the next day at the library you logged in to your Flames4Eva account. Now the message board administrators can see that two different accounts were used from the same "anonymous" library computers. Based on the other IP address you have logged in from, they can now link the ConnerIsTheBest account to your Telus IP address, and you are busted. So while using the library computer can protect your anonymity, if you share too much data through this channel, you pierce through this protection. So back to VPN providers, some claim to do "zero logging". If you trust that this claim is true, then they should be considered fairly good at keeping you anonymous. But it is still up to you when using a VPN to not start sharing your home address to Oilers fans who want to come fight you.