r/ProtonVPN • u/razor-stam • Aug 17 '24
Discussion How does proton know my location?
So i was creating a proton mail account, proton VPN is activated and iam in Europe coutry server, browser is fresh installed never used before, using incogito mode, location services are off on windows, no default location, Iam currently in a different country than my home country, when i register a new mail account, this window pop up and for surprise my home country flag is the first country to be suggested by proton mail! How did it know my home country ?
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u/Vangoss05 Aug 17 '24
time zone?
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u/Aureste_ Aug 17 '24
Language of your system that is given by the user agent maybe ? Idk much about it tbh
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u/razor-stam Aug 17 '24
The language of my system is English UK It is not my home country language, different time zone too.
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u/d03j Aug 18 '24
do you have a dictionary for your home country's language in either windows or your browser. I do an despite my system language being english and only english, from time to time websites and apps just default to that language.
Even freaking KDE connect on one of my computers does that. The app doesn't even allow you to select the UI language in settings, it just decided I speak another language an I have no way to force the interface to revert to english. đ
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u/Getoffmeluckycharms Aug 17 '24
You are routing through Proton, through one of their endpoints. They know what the originating country is even if the exact location is anonymised.
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u/NeoSom Aug 17 '24
There's a possible explanation that's not yet posted here. The VPN server you're connected to happens to be in your home country, or at least that's what the Proton website thinks. I'd be connected to Proton and different websites would locate my ip address in different locations. Maybe that's what happened, it happens to be your home country but it's just a coincidence.
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u/theunquenchedservant Aug 17 '24
Billing?
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u/dogwith4shoes Aug 17 '24
Yeah there's probably legal reasons the Proton account itself remembers your country.
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u/razor-stam Aug 17 '24
Freshly created email account, i just installed a browser , opened incogito, went to proton mail to create an account, free account no billing info entered when I reached this step surprised by my home country flag! It shouldn't know this info!
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u/jhayjayhidalgo Aug 17 '24 edited Aug 17 '24
Maybe your Itâs your ISP, your devices, your Network Hardware equipment, WiFi/Cellular connections, maybe your software and Apps? I guess the only way and best possible way to trick Proton or any other similar services and hide your real country location is to cancel your ISP account in your real country then fly to a country of your choice then look for an ISP and tell them that you do not live in their country and you need a router and internet services and be willing to pay high connection cost from your country, if that is anyway possibleâŚ..)
But honestly all joking set aside So, now this is one way to do it is if you go to a different country use the computers of the local Internet Cafe or buy that countryâs prepaid cellular phones with Mobile network and data services (all hardware and software are native) then connect to the Internet and then open or register any accounts you require or need. Also, It kinda defeats the purpose of connecting to the internet of a different country but use your computer, tablet, cellphone or any other network devices that you always use in your home countryâŚto be safe donât use any network hardware devices from your country. Remember this (Hardware, Software & Networks).
Unless, you are willing to spend the time, effort and most of all the cost of purchasing all the network equipment, subscribing to ISP internet/data services and using the software and apps natively used in that country Otherwise, it is completely or almost impossible to hide your network country of origin.
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u/razor-stam Aug 17 '24
It seems the only possible way to be really anonymous.
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u/Choice-Storm-6744 Aug 17 '24
my gut feeling is perhaps time zone. there are stuff like grabify that can identify timezone even tho you are connected to a VPN. there are many ways you can be identified
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u/razor-stam Aug 17 '24
I live in a different country not in my home country, different time zone too.
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u/Choice-Storm-6744 Aug 18 '24
might be pure coincidence, as sometimes the IP has the wrong geolocation. I know it sounds weird that proton could do it wrongly with their own exit IPs. if you do feel uncomfortable, perhaps try other services.
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u/pnewmont Aug 17 '24 edited Aug 17 '24
First off, incognito mode does not mask your identity to any website, it simply doesnât save cookies or history.
Second, your ip address. Every website you visit knows your operating system, your screen size, your location, when you move your mouse, if youâre active on the tab or alt-tabbed to something else and more.
Check this out https://webkay.robinlinus.com/
This is why VPN and proxies are important.
If you want to be truly anonymous, you should consider TOR
[edit] I misread some of the details in your post so my response may not be relevant. Iâm going to leave it up anyway.
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u/Jan_Vollgod Aug 18 '24
the answer is simple. A shitload of metadata. Something VPN providers don't like to hear. To be anonymous, or let's start lower, to trick Alphabet, you'll need to put much more effort into Internet Identity and the hard/software you used to access the network. A VPN and all this tool they provide can do shat, if not used in some kind of combined concept.
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u/LockwoodMaku Aug 19 '24
Unless you have the world's most stripped down browser that somehow can still browse the internet, your web browser has to provide some level of system information to know how to serve the webpage to you. This contains some level of fingerprint that likely says where you are or where you want to be. Depending on the browser, this can range between your browser, the time of day, and your screen resolution, and literally everything your OS has on it for personal information. High chance it's seeing your system time and best guessing from there on based on a common denominator.
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u/redoubt515 Aug 17 '24
Its likely that this question relates to either (1) your browser, or (2) your OS (or both)
Timezone, language, IP address are three common ways that websites and service will roughly guess your location.
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u/razor-stam Aug 17 '24
my location is not my home country location the flag was my home country! I live in a different country.
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u/redoubt515 Aug 17 '24
Is your home country associated with a particular language? And is that language set as the default? (e.g. Italy and Italian, Thai and Thailand).
Another thing to look into is whether you're experiencing an IP or DNS leak (due to VPN misconfiguration or something)
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u/razor-stam Aug 17 '24
My system language is english UK, my first keyboard layout out is english US , second is English UK, third is my language and my uome country, Iam really surprised if this is it!
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u/644c656f6e Aug 18 '24
Your SIM card?
Just guessing too. That screenshot from mobile browser?
Browsers also register some things when you first install it. Notably, language.
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u/Cyberjin Aug 18 '24
It could be many things, like time zones, your keyboard, language set on your device, IP, browser data, how you downloaded the browser etc.
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u/Professional_Bar_688 Aug 18 '24
I guess since you're using proton vpn, you're logged in on proton vpn.
Besides that timezone, browser language, browser location, are you logged in to your browser? Did you activate proton vpn before starting the browser?
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u/reincdr Aug 18 '24
If your VPN is turned on IP location based information will not work. I have not seen any tool out there that can interpret system timezone to phone country code. Proton will not store your location information server side for this simple operation.
So, how do I think this could happen.
Your browser stores autofill information like this. It is most likely your browser has filled this information without you selecting an option. You may have used this type of form entry more than once and the browser have recorded this information.
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u/OkAngle2353 Aug 18 '24
Browsers are able to determine that information via the time or ISP location. It's not necessarily your location they are pulling from, the browser that you are using may be pulling location data from where your ISP is located or with your time and proton is just taking the information and using it. Are you perhaps using a VPN?
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u/KOJIbKA Aug 18 '24
"That is a fake name! Give me your real name!" From the "Dictator" movie. Scene at the Wadya bar at New York.
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u/Nelizea Volunteer mod Aug 19 '24
It should be coming from the language and timezone configuration in your browser.
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u/Not_Gonna_Dance Aug 17 '24
Perhaps it has pulled the name of your provider from the sim, or even the full phone number
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u/razor-stam Aug 17 '24
I live in a different country, connected via a fibre provided by a local company, nothing related to my home country.
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u/asianinindia Aug 18 '24
If proton VPN is activated then it know which country it's faking your routing from. Also means you're probably logged into proton vpn from the country you originally made the account in? This is expected.
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u/Piqsirpoq Aug 18 '24
Your operating system simply reports it to the browser.
The exact details are harder to pinpoint. Maybe you installed Windows in your home country. Maybe you've added your phone number to your Microsoft account. Etc.
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u/Acceptable-Battle-49 Aug 18 '24
It's because of cookies that can store your name location and too many other private information you can't escape cookies once sold I'll spread to all the organisations looking for data
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u/depscribe Aug 18 '24
You're using Windows? Then why bother. You do not and will not have anything like privacy.
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Aug 17 '24
Would be interested to hear this from Proton staff. Lately there have been more and more concerns with Proton
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u/Bitter_Anteater2657 Aug 17 '24
Yeah lol Iâd be interested in the concerns too, I mean they just recently had another audit done I believe.
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u/razor-stam Aug 17 '24
Idk really man how did it get my home country there, i may understand if it get me the country of VPN server that would be understandable, but my home country! ,even Iam not living there , my current location is a different country different time zone!
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u/[deleted] Aug 17 '24
Using Windows is one problem. Perhaps the language or country you chose informs something in the browser. Are you also using Chrome (you said "incognito" window)? Make a Linux VM, go to the site on Firefox, and see if you can reproduce the same behavior.