These are very valid points, thank you! I have some thoughts of my own, as well:

The IP address a VPN assigns is no more random than the IP address your ISP assigns

I probably should have clarified this. Free versions of VPNs change your IP with nearly every time you disconnect and reconnect, often finding the fastest one. Paid versions may allow you to select one yourself, or choose truly randomly.

Last I knew ISPs still charged for static IP address, so most would be dynamic.

I heard the opposite. If you find out any information about this, please let me know!

I don’t know if the denial of service attacks of old are still relevant.

Technically yes, but not from just spamming the ping command.

Thanks!

But the biggest improvement coming from Windows?

The thing that got me to switch from Windows to Linux (the straw that broke the camel’s back) was Window’s “Eco Mode”. Eco Mode is a cute little thing that (at least at the time) cannot be disabled. It automatically slows down apps so your computer draws less power to help the environment. What did that mean for you? ChatGPT (which was just starting to boom at the time) would become barely functional because Eco Mode would slow down the browser. You could only temporarily disable it per-process, but it will enable itself right back again whenever it wants.

Well, are you a millionaire yet? We’re all dying to know!

/s

I’ve been waiting for a post like this. Every single time I have tried Windows 11 I have fallen in love with the UI and UX. Sure, it can be buggy at times, but that’s true with anything. It has always pained me a little bit every time I have to replace it with Linux. KDE Plasma 6 is the closest I’ve been able to find to Windows 11. Microsoft in my opinion did a really sleek and nice job making Windows 11 pretty, especially compared to Windows 10.

making the introduction about the topic itself

This is not necessary for what I am trying to achieve.

today, all traffic is encrypted. You do not need a vpn for that. Even if you wouldn’t use TLS, using a vpn wouldn’t make it much more secure.

You’ll find that a lot of it is not encrypted, namely DNS and background calls. Windows especially is bad about this. MITM attacks aren’t hard, either. I worked as a penetration tester in network security.

just address that IPs can be static or dynamic. There are many different cases and you exclude them.

I am trying to be as informative as possible, and it is a relevant and interesting issue.

just because the ip is hidden, you may still reveal your location by other means.

I never claimed otherwise.

i am still in charge of my privacy, vpn only hide ip. All other personal identification methods are still valid.

I never claimed otherwise. A VPN does more than just hide your IP address, though.

if you need to be anonymuous vpns aren’t the best tool for it which is the controversal part about vpns. If you just want to torrent, you have to use vpns in many locations. Vpns are useless if you log in to services.

VPNs can help with anonymity, but don’t on their own make you completely anonymous. VPNs are also still valid, even when you log into services, if you haven’t tied those services to any real data.

If you would like me to go into more detail about any of these, I am happy to. Otherwise, you are free to write your own post about VPNs.

Cheers!

I have the pleasure of using GrapheneOS. I can’t imagine using anything else. It was also the first (widely used) custom Android distribution to adopt Android 15. As far as I can tell, almost no others support Android 15 yet.

I’m unfamiliar with your work, what’s the goal of it?

If this is your first time hearing about me, welcome! :) I enjoy making informal articles about various privacy and security related topics. Whether it be a call to action or just fun thought experiments, I just enjoy sharing my viewpoints and ideas with the world. I hope that maybe one day someone will find a use for them. Yesterday, though, I asked Lemmy for some controversial privacy topics with the goal of settling debates in the privacy community, with the goal to help new people come to privacy, or to strengthen the privacy of existing privacy enthusiasts. I also maintain my own list of open source software to help people find software they may be struggling to find through their privacy journeys.

As mentioned in the post, the question on its own has different meanings. It’s not one single issue, but rather many smaller issues that are answered here.

The fake progress bar isn’t even 99% full, which is funny. Even funner: 4852.3 MB out of 5000 MB is only 97%

Horses can run between 25-30 MPH, a class 3 e-bike caps out at 28 MPH. So, they’re about the same.

I once had a conversation with AI to see what the fastest form of local transportation is, that didn’t absolutely require paying any kind of insurance, like cars do. I did not expect the response at all: the AI told me horseback riding. The thing is, it’s completely right, but it’s something no human would ever have given as a response. Anyways, if anyone has a horse you don’t want…

I’m not sure if this is good or bad.

“You don’t want to go down that road” taken literally

Usually I tend to avoid sarcastic responses, but since no one mentioned it, how about the game of Telephone?

SearXNG also lets you use Google as one of the engines, allowing you to obtain Google search results anonymously.

I made my own list of software, and most of those listed are software I use daily.

I made a list of open source software that you can use in the future when looking for software! My list recommends OpenStreetMap, OsmAnd, and Organic Maps under the “Map Services” section.

I do not know, sorry. Someone who does know is free to answer this, otherwise you could try researching using some of the sources listed in my previous post, or contact some knowledgeable people such as the GrapheneOS team, Mozilla, etc.

Some good, open source TOTP apps to use are Aegis and Ente Auth.

Chrome sounds more secure

Chromium is not the same as Chrome. I highly suggest reading the previous posts.

yet I don’t want an advertising company looking at my browsing habbits

There are more privacy respecting options such as ungoogled-chromium and Brave (which can be configured to minimize data collection and bloat).

In the end, the choice is yours.