"a VPN makes you anonymous"

lore

privacysecurity

A commercial VPN moves your trust from the local network to the VPN company: it hides traffic from the coffee shop and your IP from sites, while seeing everything itself.

Browser fingerprinting, logins, and cookies identify you regardless of IP; 'no-logs' claims have been contradicted in court cases and breach disclosures. Useful tool, wrong noun.

Disputed / commonly mistold A popular version of this story is inaccurate - see the note above.

Also known as: vpn myth

Sources

EFF - Choosing the VPN That's Right for You
US FTC staff report on VPN marketing claims (2021)

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