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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?"

29 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 c0lo · · Score: 2

      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.

      Can you please share?

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    2. 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?

    3. 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.

    4. 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

    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.
    6. Re:The real question is by bsercombe72 · · Score: 2

      Innocent until proven guilty is how everything should work. People have jumped on the bandwagon of saying "just because he wants to do stuff anonymously you have automatically assumed he is a criminal". No I didn't. I asked: WHAT is it you want to hide. IF it is a criminal activity THEN you deserve what you get. IF you want to hide (as wild_quinine posted) information about your messy break-up, power bills, medical data and who you're cheating on your wife with- fair enough, that should be your private business and not, available for a price because it was easily lifted from some poorly secured government or ISP stash. But I'll flip that around for you again and say that if data is on any networked computer it is at risk. Just because there is some new government legislation you're worried about doesn't mean that you shouldn't already have taken some precautions over what information you have lying around. Furthermore, what precautions have anyone you've transmitted that information to taken (ie: your mistress, your dentist, etc. etc. etc.) I don't begrudge an innocent person their right to privacy. But I say that your guarantee of privacy is vanishingly small. Once you come to accept that fact it might change how you interact with technology.

    7. Re:The real question is by awrowe · · Score: 2

      "Nothing to hide, nothing to fear" is a bullshit argument at best, I really wish supposedly intelligent people would stop trotting this shit out. The law and the government is "supposed" to be there to serve the people, not spy on them. This "nothing to hide" bullshit is saying "What's that? You would prefer to have a little privacy? Aha! Now I know you are guilty of something, it's just a matter of catching you!"

      --
      A.I. Research. The peculiar science in which we know the question and we know the answer, but can't show the working
    8. Re:The real question is by cheekyjohnson · · Score: 2

      But I don't think that anyone putting data on any computer should have the expectation of privacy simply because there are too many avenues of attack.

      What? The fact that there aren't zero avenues of attack doesn't mean that people should expect the actual government to create laws that make it mandatory to keep information. That just makes the matter worse and expands the government's power.

      Some protection is better than no protection.

      --
      Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
    9. Re:The real question is by outsider007 · · Score: 2

      Uh, no. Violating a ToS is not a criminal act. Especially if you never clicked on it.

      --
      If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
    10. Re:The real question is by c0lo · · Score: 2

      But I don't think that anyone putting data on any computer should have the expectation of privacy simply because there are too many avenues of attack.

      This is exactly one reason NOT to save any traffic for any of the citizens unless you have very good reasons to and you are made responsible of what happens with the recorded data. Take for instance the old copper phone lines wiretapping: it was the police that acquired, stored, handled and were responsible for recordings (letting aside the need of a warrant). Because they needed to support the cost for doing all these operations, the police have a good incentive to do it only when necessary.

      Now, with the Internet traffic: it is the ISP to take care of "Internet tapping" (at the police request). Since the data is of no use to ISP (actually a burden to store and secure) - is it likely that the collected data will be equally secure?
      As the police "externalized" the cost of tapping and there is no legal need of a warrant for collection, is it likely that the process will be handled with the same care and not abused as for phone wire-tapping case?

      But I don't think that anyone putting data on any computer should have the expectation of privacy simply because there are too many avenues of attack.

      As long as there's nobody but me to take care about my privacy, I can sleep soundly on this account. Afterall, if my privacy is breached, it will be only myself to blame.
      But... this changes the moment a law says my privacy can be breached without a judicial oversight! I'll continue to do whatever I consider necessary on my personal computers and other computers I communicate with, but now I may need to change my communication strategy... what if a police person asks without a warrant for my traffic to be recorded and the anonymous "legions" decides to break into the ISP and the data I exchanged (and which I did not mean to store on any computer I don't trust trust) is made public?

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    11. Re:The real question is by c0lo · · Score: 2

      Go right ahead and use Tor and VPN's and anything else that will protect you. The secret police won't know what you are doing, but the fact that you are using Tor and VPN's to hide what you are doing will indicate that you are up to something and you'll be deleted.

      Do the Western countries already run "secret police"? If not, do you want to reach that point?

      Because, let me share you from my experience... if you reach that point, the everyday languages that you'll be using will be derivatives of the Tamarian culture. Yes, that's right, languages at plural: with every person that you trust enough to exchange information, you'll use a different set of metaphors.

      I won't tell you how painful is to reach a point in which you trust enough a person (one will never trust a person entirely without having a positive affection for that person but and having some knowledge to act as defensive blackmail... you know, for just in case) and what are the consequences of picking a single wrong person to trust.

      Do you think it the above were related with subversive political activities? Heck... the necessities of the everyday life... at a certain point, the meat/butter/sugar and some other items were rationed (you see, our "comrades" the communist Russians, needed them in larger amounts. Started to happen in early/mid '80-ies). Of course there was a black market (harshly punishable by law)... of course you needed a to speak a sort of "steganographic Tamarian code" with your black market supplier and agree to the price, quantity, delivery place, etc diluted in "a friend-to-friend chat over a glass of beer" half an hour long - even if recorded, that conversation would seem innocuous to any uninformed eavesdropper.
      And, for the sake of God... we were taking about 5 kg of beef, not overthrowing the government!!

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    12. Re:The real question is by nedlohs · · Score: 2

      The fucking summary says: "to avoid government snooping" and "So the time has come — VPN is no longer a luxury but a necessity". Nothing changed with respect to Hulu and netflix, "the time has come" refers to legislation in Australia about government snooping..

      So you'd have to be pretty damn stupid to think it's just about Hulu and Netflix and not about the exact thing the author said it was about.

  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 :-)

    1. Re:You'll have to try by i-reek · · Score: 2

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

      Yeah, it reeks of that to me as well. Helps to decide on what VPN company to avoid though ...

  3. What's the best VPN that can be use _anywhere_ ? by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 2

    I know TFA is asking what VPN service is best suited for ppl living in Australia

    I happen to travel frequently, from the Americas to Europe to Asia (including Australia/NZ) to Africa, for business, and there are times I desperately need VPN that just works

    I do not need a lot of GBs, but I do need security - which means, VPN which do NOT keep any log of my online activity

    Can anyone recommend VPN services that can work in _any_ country in this world?

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  4. For what purpose? by heypete · · Score: 2

    If it's protection from local snooping (e.g. wifi snoopers at the coffee shop), any provider will be reasonable, though it may be better to get a reasonably local provider for better performance. As you say, Australia is on the arse end of the planet and there's very long links to get to North America or Europe.

    If you want to be able to access geographically-limited sites (e.g. Netflix in the US), again, any provider with endpoints there should be adequate.

    If you want anonymity for Serious Purposes (e.g. whistleblowing, or any other activity where you or your family could be at risk), you'd probably be better off using Tor or some other system that doesn't require user registration. Of course, considerable amounts of services have ended up blocking Tor due to extensive abuse being emitted from their network, but that may be something you're willing to put up with. Pretty much any commercial VPN provider logs basic stuff about users (e.g. which user is assigned what IP address at what time) so they can shut down accounts being used for abuse.

  5. 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.
  6. Re:Maybe they like it that way? by Trracer · · Score: 2

    So you think home electrical work or plumbing should not be regulated? Home electricity, if wired wrong is a serious health/death hazard. As for plumbing it can also be a serious health and environment hazard.

    --
    English is not my first language, so cut me some slack -: Om du kan lasa det har sa kan du Svenska :-
  7. Re:What's the best VPN that can be use _anywhere_ by agm · · Score: 2

    It's not a VPN but what about a good old SSH connection toa server you trust (i.e. a server you own)?

  8. 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"
    1. Re:Paranoid much? by c0lo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

      Yes, can we? Why should the police be able to ask the ISP to start recording without a warrant?

      Since most Australians are not under investigation by the police, a VPN is hardly a "a necessity".

      Without being required warrant, the police can ask the ISP to start recording persons that are not under any investigation. I don't know... say a policeman with a personal vendetta against a neighbour? A corrupt policeman on the payroll on NewsCorp or the like? Yes, I know...once the data is recorded, theoretically it requires a warrant to be legally accessed. But I think the anonymous stunt demonstrated that, once the data is recorded, it can be made accessible by illegal means.

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  9. Re:Maybe they like it that way? by i-reek · · Score: 5, Funny

    Indeed. In fact, lack of regulation is why the US economy is the envy of the Western world while Australia is experiencing hard economic times and corporate collapse.

    Combine this with our lack of universal healthcare and, well, the place is a mess. Dont even get me started on restricting our freedom to homestyle electrickery implementations ...

    Wait a sec ...

  10. Re:What's the best VPN that can be use _anywhere_ by unixhero · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know TFA is asking what VPN service is best suited for ppl living in Australia

    I happen to travel frequently, from the Americas to Europe to Asia (including Australia/NZ) to Africa, for business, and there are times I desperately need VPN that just works

    I do not need a lot of GBs, but I do need security - which means, VPN which do NOT keep any log of my online activity

    Can anyone recommend VPN services that can work in _any_ country in this world?

    I suggest you take a look here. And that goes to all of you: http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-providers-really-take-anonymity-seriously-111007/

  11. TorrentFreak by unixhero · · Score: 2

    http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-providers-really-take-anonymity-seriously-111007/

  12. Re:What's the best VPN that can be use _anywhere_ by Errtu76 · · Score: 2

    Yep. This is how I connect to things if I'm on a public network. Just 'ssh your-host -D 1080' , configure your firefox/whatever to use a SOCKS proxy on port 1080 and you're good to go.

  13. VPN Experience from Aussie living in China by beefsack · · Score: 2

    I'm currently living and working as a software developer here in China, and my livelihood depends on using a VPN. A few things I've learned:

    • On the whole, VPN providers are unreliable and heavily restrict services.
    • It's trivial to set up a VPN using VPS providers.

    I have about 7 different VPN servers that I manage for myself, my main one I use nowadays is on EC2, however I'm running a low cost low bandwidth VPN on DigitalOcean now and have been very happy. There are a huge number of VPS hosts around, pick one in a country with a good privacy record and work through that.

    The process is simple: I just chuck an Ubuntu image on the server, install OpenVPN, and zip through a guide on configuring. The process becomes painfully simple to replicate to new servers if you're happy using a single private key for each of your servers, you can just copy the original server configs to a new server and have multiple servers available to you.

  14. Re:The real question is: why wear clothes? by nick_urbanik · · Score: 2

    If you have nothing to hide then you have no problem.

    I wear clothes. I have a lot to hide.

  15. Re:What's the best VPN that can be use _anywhere_ by heypete · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This can still leak a lot of information that doesn't go through the SOCKS proxy.

    I prefer OpenVPN: it's easy to setup on both the client and server, and it can proxy *all* traffic, even for applications that don't otherwise support proxying.