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Ask Slashdot: Best VPN Service For Australia?

Posted by timothy on from the funny-you-should-ask-citizen dept.

New submitter frrrp asks, now that "Australia has proceeded on its merry way towards being an absolute nanny/surveillance state," what the best way is for Australians to avoid government snooping. "The Australian public, and media, have been largely asleep on this issue and, by Parliament standards, the speed with which this legislation has been rushed through must be a new record — with both major political parties colluding to force it through and quash any thoughts of amendment to its draconian scope. So the time has come — VPN is no longer a luxury but a necessity. The question is, which VPN service providers are best for us poor folks on the arse end of the planet? I have more or less settled on probably going with Private Internet Access. Can any of the BigBrains on Slashdot enlighten me further on the subject of personal VPN — the kind that provides the full spectrum of service as a naked direct link does?"

9 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. The real question is by bsercombe72 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What illegal activities are you so desperate to hide? If you have nothing to hide then you have no problem. If you're surfing kiddy porn then you get what you deserve. If you go to places like Tor or Darknet then be prepared for additional scrutiny of your traffic. I've read some of the oddest, whackiest things about how subtly related information has resulted in law enforcement successfully prosecuting people who think VPN and other obfuscating services will hide their activities on the net.

    1. Re:The real question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What illegal activities are you so desperate to hide?

      If you have nothing to hide then you have no problem. If you're surfing kiddy porn then you get what you deserve.

      If you go to places like Tor or Darknet then be prepared for additional scrutiny of your traffic. I've read some of the oddest, whackiest things about how subtly related information has resulted in law enforcement successfully prosecuting people who think VPN and other obfuscating services will hide their activities on the net.

      Maybe he just wants to access Hulu and Netflix. Or did you not think of that before going off the rails?

    2. Re:The real question is by wild_quinine · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What illegal activities are you so desperate to hide?... I've read some of the oddest, whackiest things about how subtly related information has resulted in law enforcement successfully prosecuting people who think VPN and other obfuscating services will hide their activities on the net.

      Quite so. Law enforcement, with sufficient motivation to investigate a person, will tend to get the information they need from other sources, using available facts, clues, and investigative logic. It's time consuming and expensive to actually work things out, of course, and they only do it when there's a strong reason to do it. And that is a desirable outcome.

      On the other hand, having my internet history, my transactions and medical information, my relationships, any affairs I may be having, rough financial status, sexual preference and political views directly accessible to who knows who simply because it is politically convenient... That is not acceptable. That is open to abuse. Access to that kind of database will be available to, for example, tabloid reporters for a price, because access to databased information that is widely available to a law enforcement community is always available for a price. And that's NOT ok.

      When you make just a little effort to hide what you are doing, I agree, that you are not anonymous. However, that information then requires effort to obtain. It requires co-ordination, intelligence, time and effort. It's only used when there is a strong reason. And a strong reason, even in this day and age, is usually a good reason.

      In many ways, consistent use of obfuscating technology serves merely to put the warrant back in to the process. We should all be doing it.

    3. Re:The real question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't have to have "something to hide" if I ask you to respect my privacy - immediately jumping to the conclusion that if I wish my activities to be private they must be illegal is basically assuming I must be guilty of something and therefore need to prove myself innocent...

      do you get all your bills and your postal correspondence sent to you in an envelope?

      what do you have to hide - are you doing something illegal with your electricity - is that why you don't want anyone in the postal service to know what is on your electricity bill?

      PRIVATE != ILLEGAL

    4. Re:The real question is by bsercombe72 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why would you need to do that anonymously?

    5. Re:The real question is by c0lo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Method 1:...
      Method 2: Information seized from Tor nodes is anonymised but may not be encrypted.
      Method 3: (partly uses method 2)

      Thanks. Now, a personal answer your original question...

      What illegal activities are you so desperate to hide?

      Nothing illegal. But I was born and then grew up for 22 years in one of the Eastern European block under a communist regime. Unless you experience this on your own skin, I reckon you simply cannot understant how profound the everyday life is altered by knowing that a secret police has a file on every citizen and may be tracking what you do at any moment.
      In the present, I can't get rid of the distrust in regards with any king of power, political power especially... So, as long as it is not illegal (is it already?) I will tend to "stick it to the Man" even if I'm not doing anything illegal. I do hope to be dead by natural causes if/when anywhere on this world it will be illegal to have a private life without being asked "what do you have to hide".

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  2. You'll have to try by ccguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As someone with experience providing VPNs to Australian customers I can assure that saying "I'm in Australia, what's best for me" is not enough *at all*. At the very least, you should provide your city and ISP.

    Not that you really care about replies obviously since you just wanted to advertise one specific provider :-)

  3. Why not running a Tor node/bridge in the cloud? by c0lo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Using a VPN has the disadvantage of being a single exit point, thus possibly subject to an international warrant to record the traffic (remember? - we are discussing this in relation to a law allowing Australia access to the "Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime", thus the more countries do the same, the less chances to find a VPN service that you can trust to anonymize you).

    So, instead of paying a VPN service, why not running a Tor node or bridge? If you are willing to pay a VPN service, then paying for a "cloud" hosted Tor node/bridge should not be a problem to you (the prices are pretty much comparable, I guess).
    The more people would do this, the less capable would be anyone to track the data traffic of a certain person (unless they control a good majority of the exit nodes and are willing to spend time/effort/money to reconstitute a traffic that may exit randomly thought different nodes).

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  4. Paranoid much? by Zouden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can we have a bit of sanity here? The laws are pretty clear that your online activity can only be recorded if the police specifically ask your ISP. Since most Australians are not under investigation by the police, a VPN is hardly a "a necessity".

    Your language makes it sound like it's the end of the internet as we know it, when the reality is far more mundane.

    --
    "A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"