How instagram got it?

Questions
1

Hi all!

Today I got upset.

My setup (to contextualize):
I have Proton VPN (paid) in my phone, always turned on;
I use Graphene OS with Vanadium to browse Instagram and some other websites;
I only use alias. One different for each service that I use (I do not use that many).
On computer, I only use proxychains through TOR in a Linux environment.
I “individualize” every service. Meaning that I do not cross data. Everything is separated.

The “issue”:
Last week, I sold an item via InPost.
Today, on Instagram I received an ad regarding InPost. I never had faced it before. Never. How the f**** was this possible?

What did I miss? Did I forget something? Do you have some clue?

1 Like
2

Correlation does not imply causation.
In other words: might just be coincidence.

3 Likes
3

Everything is separated.

The VPN on phone gives every website the same IP address.
Vanadium also doesn’t offer full first party isolation like Brave/Mull/Tor Browser.

2 Likes
4

Could be either a coincidence, a vulnerability in your setup, or you may have looked up something related to InPost on Instagram in the past.

1 Like
5

In regards to the VPN statement, it sounds like nu.pi expected something akin to anonymity out of their VPN usage. If isolation between services and sites is what you’re looking for, perhaps Safing’s SPN is better suited to the task? From my cursory understanding, it routes traffic through different servers depending on the service/application/task, rather than all through one or a set of standard servers like a regular VPN.

The way I break down when to use a VPN to an average individual is simple (though perhaps not the most technically accurate or comprehensive): use a VPN on public networks for security, or when you want to hide/mask your IP from your ISP or a service. Unless someone uses a VPN for torrenting, a VPN probably isn’t what they’re looking for when it doesn’t fall in those two categories.

1 Like
6

@bee

I’d recommend Tor with IsolateDestAddr, IsolateDestPort, and IsolateClientProtocol instead.
Orbot makes these all checkboxes to enable.

Tor Browser already largely does per tab isolation.

1 Like
7

Yes, ultimately tor or orbot is the better overall option, but since it already wasn’t being used, I suggested an in-between.

Anyone looking for anonyminity or strong isolation between services would want to be looking into tor.

1 Like
8

Thank you all for your insights that I appreciate (and consider) so much.
So that’s it, I’m now a (full) TOR user for my personal life :smiley: lol
And I’m planning to move for Tails too. I will keep Debian ,but Tails fits perfectly my needs.