VPN detection
Techniques services use to identify and block traffic arriving from known VPN infrastructure.
Glossary
Geo-blocking
Restricting access to content based on the country your address appears to be in.
Why it matters
It is the reason a large share of VPN subscriptions get bought, whatever the privacy marketing says.
What most explanations leave out
Detection is not only address-based. Services also use payment country, account region, DNS behaviour and device signals, so a correct-country address is necessary and not always sufficient. Terms of service usually prohibit circumvention, which is a contractual matter rather than a legal one in most jurisdictions.
Related terms
Smart DNS
A service that redirects only the DNS lookups used for region detection, without encrypting your traffic.
Terms are defined here because they appear in our scoring rubric or in provider reviews, not to fill a glossary.