Re: OT: VPN questionww
Hi,
On Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 05:40:33PM +0200, john doe wrote:
> Note that VPN providers will know what web site you are looking at.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
The Internet is increasingly centralised with for example so many web
sites served by Cloudflare. The host and URL that the browser requests
is done inside the https connection so all the VPN provider sees is a
port 443 connection to some Cloudflare IP address.
Now, the DNS is often clear text UDP on port 53, so if your DNS server
is also reached by the VPN they may be able to see what you are
resolving, which would indeed reveal the sites you use (but not the
URLs, directly¹). Yet, increasingly DNS privacy measures are in place
like again Cloudflare and others offering DNS over HTTPS, or
alternatively DNSCrypt.
So in fact I am personally more concerned about the vast trove of user
data that Cloudflare has as opposed to any individual VPN provider.
Thanks,
Andy
¹ With knowledge of the layout of a web site it is possible to
statistically partially recreate a user's journey through the site
based on what their DNS queries are. Similarly by analysing other
traffic flow metadata like file size it can be guessed which assets
have been requested without being able to see the content of the
assets on the wire. This has been one argument for https Debian
mirrors, even though Debian packaging format has its own
anti-tampering precautions.
--
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