My name and email show in web pages

[gflaubert 0]

My name and email show in web pages. Is that normal ?

 

Connects and activates lock at startup, does not start with windows.

 

[nick75 25]

Hello,

 

Do you mean you can see your name and email on websites you're logged into? If so, that's normal, a VPN isn't meant to log you out. It's up to you to be careful and not use your accounts while using the VPN.

[gflaubert 0]

That's not what I mean. I wasn't logged in to the website and I believe I had never been there at all.

[nick75 25]

Well you need to be more specific then!

What websites?

Perhaps you're logged into e.g. Facebook and other websites can retrieve your info from there?

Try and clear your cookies and cache

Have you tried with another browser?

[gflaubert 0]

I don't remember the site, I was browsing the web. I wasn't logged in to any site, social or other. Some time ago (1 or 2 weeks), I logged to my gmail account while I was using the vpn. I thought it was a mistake. Was it ? Is it really necessary to clear the cookies and cache ?

 

Is there a page or a post detailing the precautions to be used when in vpn ?

 

Thank you

[jean claud 45]

Hello,

 

Ban if possible Google and its products as Gmail etc.. Don't use Chrome but Firefox and take a look to this page to tweak it for a better privacy.

https://www.privacytools.io/

https://www.bestvpn.com/guides/firefox-privacy-security-guide/

But there is a lot of other pages on the same subject ...

 

And if possible change your OS for Linux  ;o)

[gflaubert 0]

Thank you for your suggestions. Here are more links :

https://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/comments/4u4to6/what_not_to_do_while_on_a_vpn/

https://airvpn.org/topic/9933-browser-configuration-to-be-anonymous/

 

I already followed an advice about search engines. I chose startpage for my search engine, instead of duckduckgo, which has become spamlike.

 

By the way, I don't agree that firefox is privacy friendly. Many of their default settings are anti-privacy :

-telemetry

-crash reporter

-location service

-send technical data

-automatically update search engines (replaces your engine by google's)

-enable tracking protection

-webrtc

-many more settings via about:config in the https://www.privacytools.io/ mentioned by jean-claud, and in the airvpn thread mentioned above.

And by drastically changing their options pages, they made it very difficult to follow the advice found in the web. Still, I use it, and also waterfox, not because they are friendly, but because the alternatives are even worse. I am hoping for something new.

 

I would also like to mention difficulties with mail sites. In May, I opened an account at www.mail.com . I could never log-in again. I think it's because I didn't give them my phone number. A month later, I opened an account at mail.yandex.com . This time, the problem was clearly with my phone number. I had to give it to them in order to get to my account, even though there was nothing wrong with my password. So now, they know one more thing about me for cross-referencing purposes.

 

I have decided to clear my cookies and cache before and after my sessions with the vpn, following nick75's advice. I also applied most of the tweaks above. I don't know if my name and gmail will show up again. But something worries me : according to panopticlick (panopticlick.eff.org) :

-Does your browser unblock 3rd parties that promise to honor Do Not Track ? --> No

-Does your browser protect from fingerprinting ? --> No, your browser has a unique fingerprint.

 

PS : I installed linux in my htpc a couple of months ago, but things are not going as they should. So I am still stuck with windows.

[corrado 100]

So you complain about firefox and duckduckgo, but use gmail?

[gflaubert 0]

Google is the great villain, I take that for granted. I have to make decisions. For now, I am gathering informations and that takes time. As for firefox, I have been using it almost from the beginning. But things have changed. I suspect that there is big money behind the funny default settings. Now about duckduckgo. It has been my default search engine for years, but things have changed there too. A few months ago, I started getting pop-ups every time I used it : "Your data shouldn't be for sale", than several more lines, and then "Add duckduckgo to firefox". But it's already there ! I get that many, many times a day. That's spam. Nevertheless, I will regret the parameters that I could adjust to my liking. I don't think that startpage offers that.

 

There is a question I wish to ask. I have 2 computers and a phone, all connected to a router. Suppose I am now using the vpn in one of the computers, so that it has a different ip than the other 2 devices. For an observer in the internet, is it apparent that the three devices are at the same place ?

[gflaubert 0]

I posted my question almost a month ago and nobody replied. Is it because it is unimportant or because the answer is not known ? It seems to me that it is important : if it is apparent that the devices are at the same place, then the vpn does not protect me, and I must shut down the second computer and put the phone in the airplane mode. Can someone clarify this for me, please ?

[nick75 25]

How do you expect us to give you an answer when you can't give us any details!?

It's like going to your doctor and only say "it hurts". You won't get very far.

 

So until you've got anything more specific, there's not much we can do.

[gflaubert 0]

Sorry, but I don't see what kind of details you're expecting. Here it is again: I have 2 computers connected to a router. Computer 1 is using a vpn, computer 2 is not. Is computer 1 compromised ? It's a hypothetical question.

[nick75 25]

If we're going hypothetical then...

No, computer1 isn't compromised (provided that there is no spyware/virus/malware installed)

the most likely option is that both computers are logged in to an account that has your name and email (Facebook, Google, Microsoft etc).

By the way you didn't say it was hypothetical which is the reason why I asked for the websites you saw your info on.