Slashdot Mirror
Iran Allows VPNs To Make Millions In Profit
New submitter Patrick O'Neill writes with this excerpt from The Daily Dot: Anti-censorship technology is de jure illegal in Iran, but many VPNs are sold openly, allowing Iranians to bounce around censorship and seemingly render it ineffective. Nearly 7 in 10 young Iranians are using VPNs, according to the country's government, and a Google search for "buy VPN" in Persian returns 2 million results. Iran's Cyber Police (FATA) have waged a high-volume open war against the VPNs, but it's still very easy to find, buy, and use the software. It's so easy, in fact, that you can use Iran's government-sanctioned payment gateways (Pardakht Net, Sharj Iran, Jahan Pay & Baz Pardakht) to buy the tools that'll beat the censors. To use these gateways, however, customers have to submit their Iranian bank account and identity, all but foregoing hopes of privacy or protection from authorities."
Khomeni and the jolly fellas? Is a ban on VPN non enforceable in Iran ?
Maybe the government's censorship stance is a show to pacify the more conservative bunch of clerics.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
A VPN is not a scarce, physical commodity that can be bought and sold. You don't go to your local VPN-monger and say, I want to by fifty-three VPNs.
Rather, VPN hosting is a service, and what you buy is access to the service. Talk about "VPNs are sold" or "buying VPNs" is just really imprecise and misinformative terminology that makes the speaker appear as a fool, and rightly so.
The Iranian government benefits from having a list of individuals, identified by bank account no less, who have purchased certain goods or services online. A very handy tool to have when making threats, coercing cooperation or prosecuting those who refuse to cooperate. It also gives a good starting list for surveillance targets, narrowing their initial field to people who are likely to be more interesting and not caught by the blanket keyword filtering on the public and unencrypted Iranian intranet.
I'm sure bitcoin is being used to pay for VPN service. Once again confirming that bitcoin is the preferred tool of criminals.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
If you think this kind of corruption is typical of iran, a bit of light should be shed to help. this type of nearly parasitic marketplace is the direct result of 40 years of unsuccessful economic sanctions and trade embargoes by the west. When Iran says, for example, its nuclear program is peaceful its quite easy to see why: imports of X-Ray and medical isotopes from nato countries are severely restricted if not outright banned. Iran is entirely dependent upon Russia for the nuclear material they receive, and 100% is directed toward the bushehr power plant. Irans every export from rugs to simple spices like cumin are forbidden by western allies. And once every other year, the United States toys with the idea of an invasion, bombing, assassination, or plot to destroy Iranian infrastructure as part of a sadistic and misguided foreign policy of stopping a communist threat that never existed. For americans, this video helps explain some of the market eccentricities of the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Good people go to bed earlier.
Of the day? Howabout "de rigueur" required.
Letter To Iran
This is an excellent example of criminalization of ordinary behavior enabling selective prosecution.
A good example would be traffic laws (everywhere).
Or, for a US specific example: the official who was convicted of leaking that NKorea would be unhappy with sanctions... as compared to the official who just leaked that we were going to retake Mosul.
And they let men marry young girls.
Not like feminist cuntries.
Wish russia allowed it too.
It was like that in the communist countries too. Jammers were working all the time, but radios with full shortwave bands, precision tuning, double/triple conversion were cheap and freely available making the jamming ineffective.
Christian Amanpour, a journalist, who visited her young relatives in Iran when journalists could finally return to Iran, talked with young relatives. She noted those young people just wanted to finish their education and get jobs, homes and families just like their relative who were in Europe; who they communicate with using VPNs, of course.
The young people in Iran are generally sharp and educated (more on VPNs than US kids) and they will eventually change Iran. Even the top leader recently noted they need to break up the monopolies in Iran (read controlled by the Republican Guard) so more innovation and business activity can grow & create more jobs.
Right now, many women in Iran, given half a chance, escape to Europe and never come back. Iran will change whether the Mullahs like it or not.
Expect Obama to act soon.
I remember someone who had learned Arabic in Syria saying that the Syrian government had method where they would loosen controls for a few years so that they could get info on people, then crack down.
Gov't locks down everything so the only way you can get to where you want to go is by VPN.
Pay for it and you say "Ha! I got around your firewall".
Govt supplies it for free and you say "WTF?! You're issuing internet licenses and spying on me!"
VPN's have useful purposes--getting past (some) firewalls, pretending you're somewhere you're not, protecting your privacy from a *casual* snoop.
As long as you don't *really* care about getting caught doing whatever it is you're doing, a VPN is just fine.
If what you're doing can get you put in the pokey for the next 20 years, you better find a different way to do it!
Don't assume the people running the VPN server have your interests in at heart and don't assume you know who they are (or aren't).
And you're helping pay for their operations!
BTW, I'm using a vpn right now for the second purpose--to pretend i'm in the UK.
For some reason, you can only get a website that sells certain bizzare chocolates (and bronze, glass, or silver items of the similar design) from within the UK. I showed it to my wife; she was NOT amused...
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
I think that apparently young Iranians don't understand the concept of a 'honeypot'. The Iranian government is probably keeping close track of them, and will pounce on them at the appropriate time.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
... doesn't mean they really give a shit.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Governments don't "allow" profits (or losses), what they do is either respect PRIVATE PROPERTY and private financial transactions or they don't.
If VPN's in an islamic Tyranny like Iran are profitable and being allowed to remain open it can only be because they either fear the consequences of shuttering them, or (much more likely) the people profiting from them are too well connected to the Mad Mullahs that run Iran to be shut down.
Corporatism != Free Market