Bit of an uphill fight with captchas everywhere. Do people here conduct all online activity over VPN whenever possible? Only for the sensitive stuff? Or perhaps the inverse because the bank already knows you? Maybe when travelling or getting around region blocking? Something else?

The one provided by my work aside, I realized that I don’t have any consistent rules around using VPN. Except sometimes, you know, when downloading ISO’s for my favorite distos.

  • non_burglar@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    100% of the time.

    My VPN turns on automatically when I leave my home lan. I don’t use split-tunneling, so all my traffic goes back to home before going to internet.

  • communism@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    On at all times at the router level. Because it’d be annoying to selectively disable it. My VPN isn’t really an anonymity feature anyway; I have a dedicated browser profile for things like banking where I intend the fingerprint to be associated with my government identity.

  • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Always on although my Phone VPN recently has failed to start up automatically or has shut down randomly lately and I got to get that fixed.

    My reasons are just privacy. I’m not using it to get around regional restrictions. Additionally, it helps when I want to use a public Wi-Fi, especially if it doesn’t have any passports on it.

    I will not connect to public wifi without VPN.

  • Brutticus@midwest.social
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    3 days ago

    maybe like 75 percent of the time. the Invidious APIs for Freetube.

    My job requires secure outlook and access to our database. I do occasionally have to interface with banking sites.

  • manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    I use a VPN 99% of the time, i turn it off when i need to access archive.org, or watch something on the public braordcasters streaming platform

    yeah sure the captchas are annoying but it’s not like websites load within 10 seconds anymore

    I only wish protonVPN was a good as the one i used previously, but i cancelled it cause it had ties to israel

  • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    98% of the time. I hate having to turn it off to look at my local grocery store’s website but I have done it before.

  • Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I have a VPN configured at the router. I use a PI-hole with a lot of restrictions and lists to run my own DNS and downstream DNS is Adgaurd. Several machines I let bypass the VPN umbrella and they have local clients they can switch on at will. I’d like to make a Linux firewall too but not with prices where they are now. These days you have to distrust everything.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    My VPN is on about 95% of the time, except when I need to pay a local utility bill (or check my bank account) where they need to know my location.

    • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      If you’re paying them, why do they need to know your location to accept it? We’re in a capitalist system. Money is money.

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I never have. Don’t know how to do it (I know it’s not hard). The only use I occasionally have is blocked media, but I just don’t watch whatever it is. It’s not that important to me.

    What’s important to me is blocking ads, which I do as much as possible. The way I see it, the main point of them tracking me is to serve me ads, so I break the chain at the ads.

    If I want privacy, I use Tor. Everything else seems like spitting into the wind.

    • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      I also think, ad/trackerblocker, Portmaster and common sense in what you public on the web is mostly enough (How much claims of the lack of privacy I saw in Facebook through the years…)