Trying to figure this one out, just upgraded to windows 10 and it asks you to sign in with your microsoft account, and if you dont you miss out on a fair bit, so with that being the case does that mean even if you connect to a vpn for anonymity for downloading torrents or whatever that you have given yourself up anyway? I know there is a sign in locally option, but i want to figure out if you can sign in to the microsoft account and still use a vpn anonymously. Hopefully smarter and wiser minds than mine can shed some light, cheers.
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Does windows 10 make using a vpn pointless??
- Thread starter Mboner1
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bigdogchris
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Signing into your PC with a Microsoft Account is basically acting as a single sign on for Microsoft services like Mail, Onedrive, Store, etc.
You can choose to use a local account and sign into each service separately if you wish which is the way I prefer.
You can choose to use a local account and sign into each service separately if you wish which is the way I prefer.
D
Deleted member 245375
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Here's the dirty little secret that most people don't seem to realize with a VPN:
The only way you can ever remain truly secure and "anonymous" (if that's your intention with using a VPN) is that once you sign up for one and make a payment (which defeats that anonymity purpose right then and there but most folks just don't grasp that) you can never ever use the VPN for anything that you typically do or else you're throwing away the anonymity you're expecting from it in the first place.
Once you start using a VPN you can't:
- check your email the same way you've always done
- visit any websites that store login info as cookies the way you've always done
- use any audio or video streaming services the way you've always done
- use any cloud services the way you've always done
- do ANYTHING that you've always done the way you've always done them
Having a VPN is like having a black limousine in some respects. It can keep people from seeing who's inside and what you're doing when you're traveling around, but if you go to the same places you've always gone, the "pattern of behavior" is something that can be tracked and traced right back to you at some point.
Remember, the weakest point in VPN "security" is you, believe it or not.
Now as for the Microsoft account thing (sorry, went off on a tangent there) you're not required to link one (if you have one) with Windows 10, it's entirely optional for the most part - however if you intend to download apps from the Windows 10 Store or make any purchases, at some point you will actually be required to input that information and from that point on that install will be tied to the Microsoft account.
The only way you can ever remain truly secure and "anonymous" (if that's your intention with using a VPN) is that once you sign up for one and make a payment (which defeats that anonymity purpose right then and there but most folks just don't grasp that) you can never ever use the VPN for anything that you typically do or else you're throwing away the anonymity you're expecting from it in the first place.
Once you start using a VPN you can't:
- check your email the same way you've always done
- visit any websites that store login info as cookies the way you've always done
- use any audio or video streaming services the way you've always done
- use any cloud services the way you've always done
- do ANYTHING that you've always done the way you've always done them
Having a VPN is like having a black limousine in some respects. It can keep people from seeing who's inside and what you're doing when you're traveling around, but if you go to the same places you've always gone, the "pattern of behavior" is something that can be tracked and traced right back to you at some point.
Remember, the weakest point in VPN "security" is you, believe it or not.
Now as for the Microsoft account thing (sorry, went off on a tangent there) you're not required to link one (if you have one) with Windows 10, it's entirely optional for the most part - however if you intend to download apps from the Windows 10 Store or make any purchases, at some point you will actually be required to input that information and from that point on that install will be tied to the Microsoft account.
Thanks, and yeah i know its optional whether you sign in with the microsoft account or not and i know staying truly anonymous online is not as simple as installing a vpn and you're done. In fact i know its pretty much impossible. However , for torrents you dont really need to be "truly" anonymous, the movie studios arent going to be putting in the same effort as say the fbi or whatever. Generally they will just be tracking the torrents seeders and leechers right? Thats why i was thinking signing in MIGHT be ok?
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Deleted member 245375
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Well when you connect to a tracker and become part of the swarm for a given torrent you're either a seeder or a leecher so that's the tie that binds and it can't be avoided. While using a VPN just makes you less likely to be tracked directly, if some law enforcement agency wants to find you they will. You're "safer" in general compared to using your ISP's assigned IP address, sure, but there's no such thing as absolute 100% security or safety anymore, hasn't been for a long long time unfortunately.
Most VPN services are a little more advanced then that. They use many techniques to obfuscate your identity.
A good VPN will:
- Pool the outbound IP, meaning you're mixed in with thousands of other users.
- Shuffle the outbound IP randomly.
- Not store any log information what so ever.
- Use interior DNS servers
- Use high grade encryption (some use 4096bit)
- Segment the billing and access accounts.
Thus, using your email account scenario, all someone can tell is that:
- Your account was accessed from a shared-IP. That IP tracks to a known VPN provider. A reasonable assumption is that you have an account with that VPN provider.
If you used your VPN to violate copyright, all they'd get is an IP# to a VPN. If they somehow were able to get a hold of the other sites that were accessed (such as your email website), it would be hidden among thousands of others via the IP#. Since no logs can be provided
The whole point of a VPN service isn't to completely anonymize you. It's to obfuscate you enough that it proves very difficult to find out your identity. If you're checking bank and email accounts, you aren't worried about anonymity as you're about preventing snooping between your box and the servers box.
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Deleted member 245375
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Yeah, I said that. 
Yeah, I said that.
My bad, I misunderstood your post, it read to me as you were saying that VPN's don't provide anonymity and/or anonymity is lost once you start visiting private accounts (banks/email).
If you meant that on a per website visit (versus the session as a whole, which is what I assumed you meant), your anonymity is lost (for that destination/site) once you login with a private account then that just seems like common sense. You're still somewhat anonymous based on that a shared-IP accessed your account (and probably many others, depending popularity of service), so there's just assumption it was the account holder. The difference being that they can't obtain legal proof (such as ISP logs) to make a reasonable assumption of the actual identity of the user logging in.
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Deleted member 245375
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What I meant was - as a big general view on the whole security/privacy thing - is that it doesn't matter what people do nowadays, if someone wants to find you ("someone" meaning some law enforcement or governmental services agency) then they're going to find you, period. People have flocked to VPNs over the past 2-3 years, with VPN providers basically "coming out of the woodwork" like bugs almost especially after the Edward Snowden revelations and I'm simply saying that people shouldn't focus on using a VPN to feel safer or more protected in terms of using the Internet because they're not helping at all in the long run.
The "pattern of behavior" thing is relatively easy to follow for most anyone and certainly for law enforcement or governmental service agencies so I just pointed out a few of the most common things that people tend to do as part of their online behavior which ends up being precisely how they're found if and when they think they're not going to be.
VPN providers are making a fortune off the ignorance of end users, basically. Doesn't matter if they keep logs or not because somebody else does and that's what matters. In the bank example, the VPN provider may not keep logs but the bank does - if needed the bank's logs can be turned over by a subpoena request and it doesn't take much to trace things back to the end user once again hence me saying if you're doing the things you usually do while utilizing a VPN service provider, you're not really any safer than just directly connecting without the use of one. The bank's logs would show a log in at a given date/time, linked to a given account, and it's easy to work backwards from there.
I ain't trying to scare people from using VPNs, I'm saying to make sure on as many levels as possible to understand that a VPN doesn't provide safety or security when it really matters. It's really not that difficult - even Tor traffic can be compromised much to the chagrin of the entire purpose for it.
<no this isn't some conspiracy theory, it's just how technology works now>
The "pattern of behavior" thing is relatively easy to follow for most anyone and certainly for law enforcement or governmental service agencies so I just pointed out a few of the most common things that people tend to do as part of their online behavior which ends up being precisely how they're found if and when they think they're not going to be.
VPN providers are making a fortune off the ignorance of end users, basically. Doesn't matter if they keep logs or not because somebody else does and that's what matters. In the bank example, the VPN provider may not keep logs but the bank does - if needed the bank's logs can be turned over by a subpoena request and it doesn't take much to trace things back to the end user once again hence me saying if you're doing the things you usually do while utilizing a VPN service provider, you're not really any safer than just directly connecting without the use of one. The bank's logs would show a log in at a given date/time, linked to a given account, and it's easy to work backwards from there.
I ain't trying to scare people from using VPNs, I'm saying to make sure on as many levels as possible to understand that a VPN doesn't provide safety or security when it really matters. It's really not that difficult - even Tor traffic can be compromised much to the chagrin of the entire purpose for it.
<no this isn't some conspiracy theory, it's just how technology works now>