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Happy side effect of a VPN

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by bwilson4web, Feb 1, 2024.

  1. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    The VPN I'm using allows section of a country to appear to be based. So I chose Japan as I'd had two semesters of Japanese while stationed in Okinawa. But 50 years distant, trying to practice what I'd learned was difficult. But now I see Japanese commercials between YouTube videos ... great:
    • The cadence of more than one native speaker - this is critical to 'hearing' not just listening.
      • Japanese writing in the slogans.
    • Japanese teaching YouTubes from more than one instructor.
    I am throughly enjoying revisiting an exceptionally efficient language.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #1 bwilson4web, Feb 1, 2024
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  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Speech-to-text for "selecting a country where you appear to be based"?
     
    #2 ChapmanF, Feb 1, 2024
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  3. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Among other things, many VPNs allow one to pick which country your activity appears to be located. I think the activity is securely tunneled from your machine to the provider's servers, with choices in many different countries, then dropped onto the public internet at that point. Your real location is stripped off as part of the VPN's security, so get replaced by the location of the provider's server.

    Much advertising is keyed to the location where the ad services 'think' you are located. When I used a VPN while traveling in Cost Rica last month, initially through a randomly selected VPN server that happened to be in Sweden, most of the adds were in Swedish. When I limited the service to U.S. servers, ads returned to English.
     
    #3 fuzzy1, Feb 1, 2024
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2024
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  4. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    I'm on a company VPN which is moderately wonderful with the exception of the fact that it makes searches a little more interesting geographically.

    For personal use I really don't see the point in paying for one for me personally, and all of the free ones are worse than not having one (if a product is free, YOU are the product!)
     
    #4 ETC(SS), Feb 8, 2024
  5. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I paid for one for travel use, after getting lots of warnings from internal security about some wifi access points having inadequate security. Don't use it at home.
     
    #5 fuzzy1, Feb 9, 2024
  6. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    There are applications that don't like my choice of Japan as my VPN destination. When that happens, I turn it off, do what I want, and turn it back on. One example is Plugshare.com that won't let me see and choose charging stations not found in Japan.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #6 bwilson4web, Feb 9, 2024
  7. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    ALL WiFi access points that you do not set up and actively monitor are insecure!!!
     
    #7 ETC(SS), Feb 9, 2024
  8. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    At least it is under my control, not someone else's control.
     
    #8 fuzzy1, Feb 9, 2024
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