How anonymous am I?

Hi, there’s a question bothering me for a while now:

Following scenario:

  1. I am at my computer visiting a site or downloading someting.
  2. parallel to this I have, say steam or google drive or any other stuff where i’m logged in with my full name running.

Now my question:

Is it possible to track my IP trough 1) and cross reference it with 2)?
Or better said: Am I sabotaging any anonymity I had with staying logged in in services like that?

Am I sabotaging any anonymity I had with staying logged in in services like that?

Yes.

IP tracking is only one way you can track people, if “staying anonymous” is what you want you will want to use TOR, not a VPN.

VPN is good for hiding your activity from your ISP* or admin and “changing” location.

*If the VPN provider isn’t a sellout.

If you are using both at the same time it won’t be hard to detect who you are. If you happen to disconnect either of those services before using the VPN you will be better protected, with anominitity. You won’t be 100% invisible on the web with a VPN as someone dedicated enough will still be able to find the traces of you. Hopes this helps.

You would be better off using a shared account at a public library to which you left your phone at home. If you use google drive, one drive, icloud etc. The cost is your data

When you give an app permission, it will track just about anything you do on your comp/device. No matter what vpn you use b/c you are letting them see what you do on actual device not just what goes through internet connection. It’s why Government defense employees are banned from having TikTok on their device.

It’s going to be hard to associate just by IP address the uses where you’re identified to uses where you’re not identified, simply because lots of other people are using that IP address on a VPN. Keep the the things where you don’t want to be identified on a separate browser (or browser profile, or browser container).

The trouble with Google drive or Steam is that it’s an app running directly on your OS which can identify you and your whole computer. Both collect lots of info about your computer, afaik. But Google business is to collect useful info about you from your computer. Maybe try a “drive” app that isn’t from a data-harvesting company (there are a bunch).

Another idea is to use a separate computer, or VM, and keep your private stuff on that, and maybe its own VPN connection. Slim down the stuff where you need to be identified on and those accounts associated; move other stuff to anonymous, isolated sets of PCs/browsers/accounts.

Then are we ever anonymous on, say, an android phone that requires a google account?

what are these protecting from being leaked via browsers?

Can you give an example of such drive app?

Not really, even a burner Google account can still be traced to you, given time. That’s the main thing here, for all intentions and purposes, you are never truly anonymous on the internet. Every little thing attributes to making a profile of you, your digital footprint. Best way to remain anonymous on the internet is to never use it.

Really, so you’re going to somehow deduce a spoofed MAC, which routes to a sock-puppet that doesn’t have any anagrams correlating to the creator and let’s say - in the case of legal activity - be able to build a case with providers who don’t log and don’t need to cooperate outside exigent circumstances? This isn’t even taking into account the capacity to proxy either.