VPN and iOS apps/in-app tracking / general VPN-question

[kiddingguy]

I am wondering, when I have a VPN-service running on my iPhone, how are apps with in-app ad-tracking coping with this, mtaching & combining your devices to one user etc.

Am I kind of "anonymous" for them, or can they still trace and track me via my IMEI or other Unique-ID on my phone?

 

And, general question, is VPN some sort 'service' which hides/transforms your IP, so that your device (and activity) cannot be traced back to you? (and/or that you can 'come from another country' when viewing content on like Netflix, YouTube etc).

What does it do for, or technically & actually against , advertising and data hunger from advertising companies and apps with would like to have all your data (either from within the app, or phone in general)

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 02/09/2021 at 14:50, kiddingguy said:

And, general question, is VPN some sort 'service' which hides/transforms your IP, so that your device (and activity) cannot be traced back to you? (and/or that you can 'come from another country' when viewing content on like Netflix, YouTube etc).

What does it do for, or technically & actually against , advertising and data hunger from advertising companies and apps with would like to have all your data (either from within the app, or phone in general)

No idea about the ads question, so I'll skip that. But a VPN connection encrypts your devices traffic and sends it to a server that then forwards the data to a website. The website sends the data back to the server which sends it back to you. As far as the website is concerned, your requests are coming from wherever the server is located, which is how VPNs get around the geo-locks of streaming services. And because the traffic is encrypted before leaving your device, anyone else that is connected to the same network (for example, a cafe public WiFi) won't be able to see the data that you are sending and receiving.

[kiddingguy]

Any thoughts on how a VPN works with in-app ads and the tracking of it?