JoshCodes

Yep sorry, I said a dumb thing.

My point is probably more to do with the marketing around VPNs than anything else. As you very nicely put, there are a thousand ways to track someone without having their IP address. VPNs don’t cover all bases but the marketing teams talk about them like they do.

Amazon can still sell your info to data brokers without having your home ip address: they have your email, name, delivery address and search history as a start.

I am not OP, I just decided to reply.

There are definitely some VPN providers to worry about.

VPNs are a security tool but they don’t protect people as much as they think. They hide DNS traffic your ISP would have received, so that your ISP can’t tell everyone which cuckold or affair site you access (except you probably forgot to turn the VPN on one time or another so…)

Your ISP can still see IP addresses you connect to, they forward all your traffic [I need to proof read before I press post - this is just misinformation]. Good opsec is a nightmare. Ad blocking does more for less cost than getting a VPN will ever do (except for certain human rights circumstances but I’d wager they’re actually going to be careful).

My personal tip is use DNS over HTTPS/TLS where possible, and don’t use Cloudflare or Google. Add an ad blocker and it’s far easier to setup and way more cost effective than VPN.

100% agree, that is a “totally for fun” exercise

For added funs run an SSH tarpit to fuck with the attackers, something like endlessh.

Christmas Island is well known for its asylum camps… and nothing else? Stupid is really the only word.

From wikipedia:

Christmas Island’s geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of interest to scientists and naturalists. … As of the 2021 Australian census, the population of Christmas Island is 1,692.

And there’s a town there called “The Settlement”?

Good pick /s