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VPNs, Proxies & “Anonymity” – What People Get Wrong
There’s a huge myth that:
“VPN = anonymous”
That’s false.
What a VPN actually does A VPN:
hides your IP from the site
shows the VPN’s IP instead
That’s it.
It does NOT:
hide browser fingerprint
hide account behavior
make you anonymous by default
Browser fingerprinting
Even with a VPN, sites see:
screen resolution
fonts
timezone
OS
browser version
Combine enough signals and you’re unique.
Proxies vs VPNs
Datacenter proxies → cheap, detectable
Residential proxies → harder to detect
Mobile proxies → strongest but expensive
But again: IP alone isn’t enough.
Common OPSEC mistakes
logging into personal accounts
same browser profile
same typing patterns
same activity hours
Anonymity is about behavior consistency, not tools.
Real takeaway
Tools help, but discipline matters more.
Most people deanonymize themselves.
There’s a huge myth that:
“VPN = anonymous”
That’s false.
What a VPN actually does A VPN:
hides your IP from the site
shows the VPN’s IP instead
That’s it.
It does NOT:
hide browser fingerprint
hide account behavior
make you anonymous by default
Browser fingerprinting
Even with a VPN, sites see:
screen resolution
fonts
timezone
OS
browser version
Combine enough signals and you’re unique.
Proxies vs VPNs
Datacenter proxies → cheap, detectable
Residential proxies → harder to detect
Mobile proxies → strongest but expensive
But again: IP alone isn’t enough.
Common OPSEC mistakes
logging into personal accounts
same browser profile
same typing patterns
same activity hours
Anonymity is about behavior consistency, not tools.
Real takeaway
Tools help, but discipline matters more.
Most people deanonymize themselves.