This Is How They Know You're Using a VPN
How-To Geek, Saturday, May 16th, 2026
VPNs fail to hide their use despite masking IP addresses because shared IPs, browser data, DNS leaks, and behavioral patterns can expose users.
While VPNs effectively obscure users' real IP addresses and locations, they are poor at hiding the fact that a VPN is being used. Websites and security services maintain lists of known VPN IP addresses, especially since VPNs typically use shared IP pools among multiple users simultaneously.
Beyond IP detection, users can be exposed through browser data conflicts with supposed location, cookies revealing real location, DNS leaks from local ISP servers, WebRTC protocol bypasses, and behavioral patterns like rapid location changes or language mismatches.
The article explains that users can mitigate these issues by using dedicated IP addresses, privacy-focused browsers like Tor or Brave, ensuring proper VPN killswitch configuration, and disabling WebRTC in their browsers.