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VPN Providers Report Huge Increase In Downloads, Usage Since Privacy Rules Were Repealed (ibtimes.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A number of major VPN providers reported a significant increase in subscriptions, downloads, and traffic from Americans since the U.S. Congress voted to repeal the Broadband Consumer Privacy Rules that would have mandated internet service providers get user permission before collecting information. The International Business Times reports that "several popular VPN providers reported a more than 50 percent increase in downloads." VPN provider ExpressVPN said they "experienced a 105 percent increase in traffic from the U.S. and a 97 percent spike in sales" since the repeal. Additionally, "KeepSolid, the New York-based company behind VPNUnlimited, noted a 32 percent increase in purchases and growth of 49 percent in total downloads," reports IBT. "The company also reports having a considerable amount of increased engagement via social media regarding user privacy." Have you taken any privacy measures since Congress voted to repeal ISP privacy rules? If you use a VPN, which provider do you recommend and why?
The privacy rules WERE NEVER IN EFFECT so this is fucking retarded. Literally nothing has changed about your internet privacy today from a month ago. Or six months ago. Or a year ago. THE RULES THAT WERE REPEALED WERE NEVER ACTIVE. Further, what was really repealed was the FCC having any control over the internet. Yes, you should have privacy. NO THE FCC SHOULD HAVE NO INVOLVEMENT. Not for good or bad. They should have no ability to regulate anything on the internet. Fuck them and fuck them trying to reach over into the internet as a way to justify their continued funding and existence as radio and television over the air dies.
And fuck all these tech-pundit-dipshits who have been misreporting all of this and fucking scaremongering people. You fucking twats.
So far, I'm just using Opera with the ad blocker VPN switched on.
holohaux didn't happen
With all this talk about using VPN for privacy, I've been wondering if there are any solutions that are designed to provide that kind of privacy across an entire LAN. If, for example, you wanted to make sure your company's web traffic was private, is anyone offering some kind of service that allows you to configure a common SMB firewall to route all outgoing traffic through a secure VPN/proxy?
I've had some clients request this, but I can't find anything that looks remotely reputable. Most of the services getting attention right now are designed to have software installed on every device.
How many of those fools will start using free VPN providers that make their privacy and security even worse: Proxy Services Are Not Safe. Try These Alternatives
Here it is again: https://theouterlinux.com/priv... Feel free to look around at the other stuff too. I'm always trying to figure out what to add or change to make better so if you got a suggestion, let me know. Just remember to keep the suggestion free or open source if possible. https://theouterlinux.com/rese...ðY"--/ for other categories.
I use witopia. They've been around forever, well regarded, never had a problem, well priced, excellent customer service based in the U.S. they don't advertise, strictly word of mouth. I cannot say enough about them. Used then for maybe four years now.
Having said that, can a VPN really protect you for your own ISP? I imagine they use deep packet inspection? But that is above my pay grade - someone with more relevant experience will have to address that.
It looks to me that the simplest one-stop shopping privacy aware vpn tunneled browser is Epic. However I never heard of them so I'm not sure I trust them. Anyone know about this browser. looks like the best one to me if it's all legit.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The government left hand doesn't know what its right hand is doing. We know that the government doesn't want people to use encryption. The FBI and justice department are continuously complaining about "going dark" because of crypto. Then along comes the FCC goes and does something that will have the consequence of encouraging people to use more crypto. How dumb can a government get.
ThatOnePrivacyGuy on /r/privacy manages That One Privacy Site, including a handy VPN section:
https://thatoneprivacysite.net...
Unlike most other VPN reviews, this one encourages community discussion and appears to be impartial.
...as I will explain: http://www.linuxjournal.com/co...
...as I will explain. http://www.linuxjournal.com/co...
Could be a ploy to thin the herd. Only smart, interesting people will invest time and more funds in a VPN.
Given the lack of VPN payment bans/comments on the use of VPN products in the US, UK and Australia, law enforcement at a national level does not care about VPN use.
If a user is found on an interesting site using a VPN, police will get a court order in that VPN's nation and log the next log in of that site by the same VPN.
Most people set their VPN, expect to enjoy a working VPN daily and connect the same site with the same details?
Their isp ip is hidden, a big pool of new random VPN ip's get offered?
The VPN product would just connect the next day and have the origin ip, isp logged by the local police in the VPN servers nation.
Habit would allow the police to just connect the normal ip and VPN ip after a court order in any nation that hosts the VPN company.
A user would have to totally change their VPN use every session to stay away from simple court ordered police logging efforts waiting days and hours later.
Extra sentencing guidelines could then be in place as the user made it so difficult to be found? International cooperation, other courts, the sorting of accounts by another nations police, finally finding the users own ip and isp. Did the interesting person pay for the VPN every year out of a main bank account and CC? No funds for a good lawyer with all accounts frozen given the wider international connections.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I take it they are still at same level then,
Haux: some crazy mofo - that is you, I assume?
Ezekiel 23:20
Just so, a VPN is at best a very minor speed bump for law enforcement ,and no barrier at all for someone like the NSA, or FBI. It will however keep your ISP from snooping what you do, so it is still, a good idea to use.
You clearly do not understand how a properly setup OpenVPN service works. Entry and exit server ips are generally not the same. Most providers have hundreds of servers available spread out in multiple countries across the globe with hundreds of users per server and do not log. Your scenario would only really apply to someone setting up a traditional VPN on a VPS etc...
AC governments have a lot to say about quality crypto and new apps as they cant get in. Governments don't seem very interested in most VPN use.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The government of the US is not a unitary thing. Different people and agencies have different positions and interests. The interests of the secret police are different than the Commerce Department. The secret police including NSA, CIA, FBI and more than a dozen other agencies tend to want access to all information but there are those within these agencies that don't support such a position. The government is not dumb it is internally divided.
Your scenario is unlikely. Lke most internet users, most VPN users aren't doing anything of interest to national law enforcement agencies. All the same, many VPN companies sell services addressing similar concerns and with a little research on your party, you will find that it is far more difficult to identify users of services in the way you suggest. Individuals necessitating surveillance would likely be subject to more direct methods of attack.
With IPSec you can set up all kinds of policies as to what can communicate with what and you can, if you wish, encrypt all traffic, even over the local LAN. Be warned: It can get complex and you are going to need PKI set up if you want to have any realistic hope of managing it in an enterprise. However you can set things up so that all traffic is encrypted on the wires for all communications, and so that devices can only communicate with other devices of your choosing.
So for a simple setup you could have a firewall (PFSense if you want a cheap one) that talks to whatever your VPN/Proxy is. Then set IPSec policies so that all your computers talk only to it. All traffic will pass only through the PFSense (even internal traffic) and it'll all be encrypted (if you specify that). You set the firewall/routing rules on the PFSense and you can force all outbound traffic over the VPN, and decide what can talk to what inside.
That's a simplistic setup, and the firewall will be a bottleneck, but that's a simple startup. You then can do things like have system to system IPSec communication, more firewall, additional routing controls (on systems or the network) etc etc.
These VPN services don't actually protect your identity, they provide another reference point of evidence against you that indicates not only were you alleged to do something bad online but here is a second account for the sole purpose of hiding what you are doing online and even shelling out money to do so.
I would suggest two hops of vpn not one.
Are you actually saying that a user sends traffic to an "entry" server and traffic comes back from a different "exit" server?
If so, that's the dumbest thing I've read today.
Same AC. I reread and now see what you meant.
VPN server puts up X amount of connectable servers for user to VPN provider traffic, but traffic between Internet and VPN go through one or more redundant fast pipes.
My bad.
Given the lack of VPN payment bans/comments on the use of VPN products in the US, UK and Australia, law enforcement at a national level does not care about VPN use.
They do not care *yet*. They will if VPN use becomes ubiquitous.
The NSA spent considerable effort to make sure IPSEC did not become ubiquitous.
If a user is found on an interesting site using a VPN, police will get a court order in that VPN's nation and log the next log in of that site by the same VPN.
The VPN product would just connect the next day and have the origin ip, isp logged by the local police in the VPN servers nation.
There are ways for the VPN provider to make this more difficult starting with not including the capability to log this data. With some effort, I think it could be made impossible.
A user would have to totally change their VPN use every session to stay away from simple court ordered police logging efforts waiting days and hours later.
Oddly enough, if a user routinely uses a VPN, then this is possible to do by accessing the VPN anonymously like through a public hot spot.
Did the interesting person pay for the VPN every year out of a main bank account and CC? No funds for a good lawyer with all accounts frozen given the wider international connections.
This will create a demand for anonymous payment methods. Won't that be fun for the authorities.