It skips over all the advertising slop and stories

That’s what ad block and a scroll wheel are for.

I’ve started to add date limits to my web queries for things that don’t require current information like recipes.

No I do not want to see your AI slop recipe for tomato sandwiches “author” from 2025, I’ll go with a shitty web blog from 2021 thank you very much.

Look at Mr Fancy with mass transit options!

Cries in Midwest USA

A VPN will help with the first, but probably not the second item.

GeoIP lookups will get fooled by VPNs, but that’s not the only way to figure out where you’re located. A browser leaks a ton of information that can be used to validate your location, and public VPN endpoints are fairly well known (that’s why you can see YouTube/Netflix blocking known VPN egresses.

I can take a stab at this.

So let’s talk Internet traffic first. When you go to a website, your device first has to do a DNS lookup to find out the IP address that corresponds to youtube.com. The DNS server sees your IP address and probably logs that request, and that it has responded. Next, your browser attempts to connect to the IP, get a response from youtube, and render it.

If this was back in the day, youtube would probably let you connect with an unencrypted connection - http://youtube.com/, but pretty much everyone uses https these days (SSL encryption).

Encryption is basically just a way to secure a connection from eves droppers (namely, your Internet service provider/government). But the end points of the encrypted communication (in the example above, your device and youtube) is decrypted at your browser and at their servers. All your ISP can see is the DNS lookup (assuming you are using their DNS servers, or that you aren’t doing something like DNS over HTTPS - encrypted lookups), after that all the youtube traffic is encrypted so your ISP just sees a bunch of data going to a specific IP address.

So what does a VPN get you?

Well, now your source IP when you reach youtube isn’t your phone or your home in Ohio, it’s wherever that VPN terminates. This is probably the best use for VPNs - to get around region locks.

Your local ISP only sees the DNS request, then a bunch of encrypted traffic (same as before).

But critically, the VPN owner can log every single bit of unencrypted traffic that passes through. Also, they can link your behavior to a paying account via username/password and payment methods (not great for privacy). They effectively fill the role of your original eves dropper - your ISP.

So what did using a VPN actually do?

• Your ISP no longer knows as much about your browsing, so I guess that’s good.
• But now another 3rd party knows as much as your ISP did prior to using the VPN.
• Your ISP doesn’t know your DNS lookups now, but your VPN provider might.
• SSL traffic is still encrypted regardless - no change here.
• YouTube doesn’t know your device’s original IP (maybe).

The only other thing I’d say is that VPNs + torrents can may e protect you from DMCA take down notices. It’ll be that VPN termination IP that shows up in trackers, not your ISP provided IP.

As a counter point, the US would have to re-vote for the 14th Amendment.

As a counter counter point also the 2nd.

You know, I think I like the established way of doing amendments - passes by Congress and a plurality of the states.