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VPNs: Why So Many People turn to Them And Why You’re Missing Out For not Using One

Photo Credit: illustration by Joshua Harvey

Setting yourself up with a reliable, robust VPN service is a real solution to overturn the effects of net neutrality repeal.

Under the new FCC regulation, an ISP has the liberty of charging you more if you watched Netflix instead of Hulu, creating “fast lanes” and unfair advantages to preferred partners. Don’t think your ISP would do that if given the chance? Well, it’s already happening, since net neutrality repeal has gone into effect on June 11th.

With the present “state of affairs” there is no doubt that the online environment is becoming increasingly politicized and the concept of a open but safe internet is in the midst of powerful forces of antagonistic interests fighting each other. A balance between these forces is a desiderate for a healthy environment that we’re not sure how or when we’re going to achieve.

WHAT TO DO?

In the meantime, people are turning to VPNs to preserve access and to reclaim online freedom and privacy and we strongly advice that you do the same.

We tested a few VPN services in terms of speed, security and customer support and MyIP.io stays top of mind. They offer static IPs at no extra costs, have super fast speed for uploads and unparalleled cost to feature ratios.

No longer an exotic tool, VPNs are now entering the mainstream and given the context it’s easy to understand why.

Simply put, when you’re using a VPN, all your data travels through a tunnel encrypted from end to end. In other words, your ISP will not be able to block access or make sense of your data, since you’ll have all your online activity happen elsewhere, not going through your ISP servers and encrypted all the while.

But it’s not just your ISP that keeps track of your browsing data, it’s your cell phone provider too, most apps, operating systems, and other services do the same. Smartphones with preinstalled tracking software, secretly bundled with tracking files are sold everyday, while some companies try to leverage the very problem they created by charging extra for privacy.

Moreover, it’s not just the American net neutrality repeal, UK also passed a bill that basically allows internet history snooping, the infamous bill is known as the Snooper’s Charter (suggestively enough!). This British bill requires that every ISP keeps your search history for 1 full year.

And matters seem to only get worse in the future. Taking hold of your own digital footprint requires savvy, educated users, that know their rights and are not willing to compromise when it comes to their own privacy.

It’s easy to understand why more and more people resort to using a VPN service, rather than letting their information “fly” to unknown servers where they can be stored indefinitely.

An exact break down of all the things you can use a VPN for would maybe further clarify this topic.

We listed the most popular ones we could think of:

1. Torrents

Torrents are not all illegal, but for an ISP is really difficult to set the legal ones from the illicit, so very often that not they block this kind of activity. Having a VPN in place will camouflage the subject of your downloads and will make it harder for your ISP to track and block torrenting.

2. Security

Think of your health records, your banking details and other sensitive information that you might use while online. A VPN will encrypt that information and will keep your connection secure at all times.

3.Geo-restricted content

Every time you travel you get a different set of content according to your location. Sticking to your country of residence through a VPN while outside the country will leave your content unchanged, like say your Netflix catalog. On the other hand, changing your IP location to one that allows you to watch the World Cup in Russia as it happens is also a VPN away.

4. Research or journalism

Research data or revealing a sensitive issue to the public through journalism is something that people might strive extra to acquire access to. Having that data encrypted through the help of a VPN will spare you the trouble.

5. VOIP services

Using services like Skype or FaceTime to interact to your peers at work, may be a common thing inside your company. VOIP security is still lagging behind, but a VPN will help secure your connections, so you don’t have to.

6. Public Wi-Fi in airports or coffee shop

Notorious for welcoming prying eyes, airports and public Wi-Fi spots are not to be used sans VPN protection.

8. Gaming

Your connection to your gaming comrades can be direct through a VPN, resulting in increased load times and limited buffer overflows. You will also be able to get the latest releases of your favorite games as they happen and not wait for them to hit your location upon schedule.

10. Checking your competition out

It’s pretty easy for anyone to track the source of their traffic through their Analytics account so you too can be spotted checking your competition out. You can still do that undisturbed and anonymous with the help of a VPN service.

Services like MyIP.io will offer you a self-managed VPN platform, delivering fast, secure and reliable VPN service . This platform caters to a wide demographic through three channeled directions: Personal, Dedicated and Business, so it makes for a wonderful choice for corporate or personal use at the same time. Whatever provider you may chose, remember that the smart approach is to use a VPN service that you feel is the best match for you. Until then, stay smart, use a VPN!

The Link Tax, The Censorship Machines And The Balkanisation Of The Web

Photo Credit: illustration by Guillaume Kurkdjian, “Should we dismantle Google?”

You would think that passing a law to regulate link sharing or to validate intellectual ownership of content is a good thing in designating credible sources and ultimately delivering accurate information to the final user. Well, think again. In an attempt to modernise copyright law, the new Copyright Directive approved on Wednesday by the EU, raises cause for concern under three articles that seem to have control of informational flow at stake. If passed in January of next year, in the current form, the bill might damage the way we use the internet and online freedom of expression in a major way. Let’s brake down these three articles and what they stand for.

1. Article 11: News Aggregators — this article forces news aggregators like say Facebook, Reddid, Medium or Google News to have paid licenses in place for every which pixel and character of copy they share. Now, it all sounds just, but it’s still a double edged sword, as there will be an euro exchange for sharing or quoting content, which limits the access to information for the humble user and increases visibility of any paying outlet. Forcing licensing on news aggregators is nothing new, as similar attempts have been made in 2014 by both Germany and Spain, when Google neutralized the attempt by simply de-listing german and spanish news sites from their index. Article 11 however, might have much more profound implications, if passed. Cutting ties with the informational flow coming from 2 countries is one thing, cutting ties with all of unified europe is another. Having news aggregators diminish quantity over quality by being more selective is an ideal that we’re still not sure how we’re going to achieve as imposing paid licensing might not bring much relief, but the exact opposite.

2. Article 12a: Photos and Videos taken at sport matches — recording videos or taking pictures with your phone while at a sport match and publishing them is labeled as copyright violation, under this article. In other words, organisers will impose heavy barriers to outsiders in what sharing, publishing, presenting, reproducing or recording is concerned. That might lead to an entire fan culture to be filtered out by social platforms or news aggregators that will be forced to comply.

3. Article 13: Copyright Filters — any content flagged as infringement will be monitored by automated detection systems, under the new law. It sure sounds like a good thing, but given the lack of detail in what the implementation might be, this article too might bring much more chaos and a widespread, not necessarily positive impact. Online Censorship being one of them. Google will survive, but mid size companies won’t. Some platforms like github could potentially lose the ability to operate in the EU, any forum would be at risk, becoming giant copyright liabilities.

Failing to redefine these articles, might lead to permanent surveillance, damaging the open and free internet as we know it with great implication on innovation, proving that sometimes the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions.

Just as in the case of net neutrality repeal in the USA, these articles of the EU directive are seen as enemies of innovation. Advocates of net neutrality argue in the favor of keeping an unobstructed online field as a vital part of innovation. Their concern is very valid and should be a cause worth fighting for all of us.

Net neutrality broadly means that all content available on the internet should be equally accessible, it’s a philosophy that puts big ideas and big money on equal grounds- preventing american providers like Comcast and Verizon to block some data while prioritizing others. In other words big companies shouldn’t be blocking users from accessing services like Netflix in an effort to sell their own cable package or for the purpose of making users buy a streaming video service bundle sold by your ISP.

Otherwise, if broadband providers start picking favorites, new technology might never see the light of day. To understand that assertion, imagine you had your ISP blocking or limiting access to video streaming when services like Youtube came to shape, 18 years ago. Had that been the case, Youtube might not even exist today or would only be accessible upon paying extra fees to your ISP. A very unpleasant prospect, we agree.

In the case of net neutrality repeal, having a VPN in place can help you overturn its effects.

Under the new FCC regulation, an ISP has the liberty of charging you more if you watched Netflix instead of Hulu, creating “fast lanes” and unfair advantages to preferred partners. Don’t think your ISP would do that if given the chance? Well, it’s already happened as stated before, since 2004, coming up to AT&T’s Facetime ban and again in 2014 and 2017 when Verizon slowed down Netflix traffic.

While California’s S.B. 822 is becoming the poster child for states looking to keep net neutrality in place by voting its own rules, not all states have the luxury to do so.

Getting back to the Copyright Directive, whether this new law will empower content creators or cause more harm then good is still unclear. One think is certain, if the directive passes in its current form, things will get much more chaotic, before they start to order and actually make sense. If voted in the spring of next year, member states will have two years to implement it. Expect some large platforms to stop service in Europe- as we saw happening post GDPR implementation. Some might decide to just geo-block services for a while. When or if that happens, you know what you have to do. And by that we mean that turning to a VPN service might prove very helpful in this case, too.

All in all there is no doubt that the online environment is becoming increasingly politicized and the concept of a open but safe internet is in the midst of powerful forces of antagonistic interests fighting each other. A balance between these forces is a desiderate for a healthy environment that we’re not sure how or when we’re going to achieve.

In the meantime, people are turning to VPNs to preserve access and to reclaim online freedom and privacy and we strongly advice that you should do the same.

No longer an exotic tool, VPNs are now entering the mainstream and given the context it’s easy to understand why.

Simply put, when you’re using a VPN, all your data travels through a tunnel encrypted from end to end. In other words, your ISP will not be able to block access or make sense of your data, since you’ll have all your online data happen elsewhere, not going through your ISP servers and encrypted all the while.

But it’s not just your ISP that keeps track of your browsing data, it’s your cell phone provider too, most apps, operating systems, and other services do the same.

Smartphones with preinstalled tracking software, secretly bundled with tracking files are sold everyday, while some companies try to leverage the very problem they created by charging extra for privacy.

Services like MyIP.io will offer you a self-managed VPN network platform, delivering fast, secure and reliable VPN service , The platform caters to a wide demographic through three channeled directions:Personal,Dedicated and Business, so it makes for a wonderful choice for corporate or personal use at the same time.

Engineered as a global platform,MyIP.io is a VPN service provider committed to developing applications and services that preserve an open and secure Internet experience while respecting user privacy.

8 Months In Retrospect: Global Privacy in 2018

Starting with Facebook scandal in April and following with net neutrality repeal in May, 2018 is ringing alarm bells in online security and rightly so with a double sworded twist, both on the technology and law enforcement standpoints. Digital privacy concerns culminated however this summer, when both Russia and China decided to ban VPN services, thus preventing government censorship to be undermined by virtual private networks any longer or by other anonymous browsing tools.

While China is leading the censorship through technology control, detecting and blocking server infrastructure used by VPN providers, Russia went on a more bureaucratic path, by creating more draconic rules against VPNs, enforced by law.

Yet, neither one of these two examples comes as a surprise. China’s two decade long “Great Firewall” and Kremlin’s legal web spinned gradually over a 6 year period, starting roughly in 2012, lagging behind China’s much more complex technical apparatus, none of which were the least subtle in the first place, but rather indicative of the exact dystopian reality of today’s digital world.

It was early this August that Apple succumbed to China’s requirement to remove some of the VPNs from the chinese App Store front. And the case is far from being singular. Amazon and The New York Times too recognized that doing business in China means to play by chinese rules and ultimately caved to the country’s censorship apparatus. Maybe a small price to pay in order to tap in the massive chinese market.

Beyond the gated community of the Chinese Great Firewall, the “Chinese wall” abbreviation is today a business term, spreading its meaning to international affairs, imposing heavy entry barriers to outsiders.

Just a year ago, Uber the ride-hailing giant, capitulated to its Chinese competitor Didi, announcing the selling of its Chinese operations to Didi Chuxing, the homegrown favorite.

Even though circumvention tools are little used by ordinary Chinese, for the vast majority of westerners based in China, a VPN download is a common habit, just as drinking “still water” or keeping your air conditioning at minimum temperature.

Chinese online censorship on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be backing down, especially after a series of large, anti-pollution, anti-corruption protests, and ethnic riots, many of which were organized or publicized using instant messaging services, chat rooms, and text messages.

But the digital censorship has proven to be very lucrative for local technology companies like Tencent, the giant that owns WeChat, a 700 million users app that combines e-commerce and real-world services in ways that has the western companies in awe.

It’s no news that the Chinese market is home to a copycat cultural habit, but at the same time China and not Silicon Valley is cutting edge innovation if we were to quote New York Times. “While still lagging in some important areas, China managed to protrude Baidu instead of Google, Weibo for Twitter, WeChat for Facebook or Alibaba instead of Amazon. Letting users hail a taxi or order a pizza without switching to another app., the rich, resourceful Chinese digital world is proving itself to be worthy of causing a real great split between China and the rest of the world.” (China, Not Silicon Valley, Is Cutting Edge in Mobile Tech — watch the short video here by Jonah M. Kessel and Paul Mozur for The New York Times ).

The technological control in China is now being enforced by new laws against circumventing tools so expect no change for the better in what online freedom is concerned. At play we have a huge market that needs to be protected and an authoritarian regime not to be threaten by exterior influence. China’s local technology companies are flourishing protected behind the “internet gates that keep over 700 million users loyal to local brands.

On the other hand, Russia leads the digital censorship by oppressive laws, while both Russia and China occasionally resort to arrests and intimidation.

So given the not so bright perspective, it’s easy to recognise that 2018 was a pretty tough year from a digital privacy standpoint and it’s only the end of August.

In spite of the orwellian scenario, it’s not yet clear how the censorship ordeal will play out and there are still a lot of VPN services that still work in China and Russia.

There are many ways of circumventing the totalitarian Chinese surveillance system, such as proxy servers or VPNs.

Any company selling VPN services in China must comply with regulations, hence register with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Plus they’re constantly targeted by the local authorities and are often slow and unstable.

As monitoring and surveillance is not confined to the Great Firewall, but built-in social networks, chat services and VoIP, the best solution falls in the court of companies outside China.

MyIP.io is a self-managed VPN network platform, delivering fast, secure and reliable VPN service ,with servers located in France, Romania and Canada, hence is not subjected to Ministry of Industry and Information Technology or DMCA compliance.

The platform was designed with the professional focus in mind and caters to a wide demographic through three channeled directions:Personal,Dedicated and Business, so it makes for a wonderful choice for corporate or personal use at the same time. Engineered as a global platform,MyIP.io is a VPN service provider committed to developing applications and services that preserve an open and secure Internet experience while respecting user privacy.

Setting yourself up with a VPN connection, when in China or Russia is still the first thing to consider, whether you’re looking to stay away from the control apparatus or simply connect to Netflix streaming. The connection, in China however, goes at a global low speed pace, so you’ll need to have your expectations straight when entering the arena a VPN app. is able to unlock for you.

Your School Might Be Tracking Your Online Activity, Here’s How To Stop It From Doing So

Remember how net neutrality made waves just last month? Well, going forward the online security issue seems to only deepen as news about data collection, monitoring and surveillance practice go far beyond just access.

Since it’s only weeks before the start of the new school year, we figured it’s only relevant we address a very interesting report, conducted in schools in England and Whales by privacy advocates Big Brother Watch. The said report found more than a thousand of them to be using surveillance software to monitor students in class and while on campuses.

The very first paragraph of the report reads: “Unless you are a teacher or have a child in school, it is likely you are not familiar with a modern classroom. Your memories of school may be of chalk boards and scribbling down lessons in a workbook. Answering a question meant putting your hand up, whilst talking to a friend, or enemy, was done by scrawling on scraps of paper. Information came from books and encyclopedias not the internet, in fact the only time you may have used a computer was in a specific information technology lesson and even then there weren’t enough computers for every student to have a go. That vision of school is already out of date and will soon be obsolete. The analogue classroom of old has been replaced with smartboards, internet connected devices and communication via instant message. And rightly so. Learning in the 21st century must revolve around technology in order to teach children the skills required for a digital life in a digital society. The challenges of the modern classroom have changed. “

A pretty accurate description of how the internet changed the classroom environment wouldn’t you agree?

Whether this monitoring software (amounting an extra £2.5 million in school expenses as per the whole specimen included in the study) is used in aid of keeping students focused on educational goals or whether we are talking about a real privacy intrusion and possibly pecuniary driven data collection, is the real underlying matter in question here. Looking at the key findings of the report the results don’t offer much comfort in setting the bottom line privacy issue straight. Before raising concerns, let’s go through a few of these numbers as revealed in the study:

70% of responding secondary schools in England and Wales were found to use a Classroom Management Software package. Out of 1000 schools, only 149 (15%) provided Use Policies, of those 149 schools: 26 (17%) gave detailed information about the type of Classroom Management Software and how it was used, while 123 (83%) failed to give any information beyond the fact that students may be monitored when using computers

This is of course not just a case for UK, Australia also, has a few universities tracking students to the point of telling the exact room a certain student is in, at a certain time. There is no telling as to how these data catalogues influence the grade systems if at all, but the very fact that these institutions are storing this data could be revelatory of them analyzing patterns and behaviors for a so far undisclosed purpose.

Getting around this panopticon system your educational institution might have in place too, is actually a pretty simple task at hand. The most practical way to avoid being monitored by your school or university is simply to get a VPN service.

SET YOURSELF WITH A VPN CONNECTION AND ROCK ON:

No longer an exotic tool, VPNs are now entering the mainstream and given the context it’s easy to understand why.

Simply put, when you’re using a VPN, all your data travels through a tunnel encrypted from end to end. In other words, your school or university will not be able to block access or make sense of your data, since you’ll have all your online data happen elsewhere, not going through your ISP servers and encrypted all the while.

But it’s not just your school that might be keeping track of your browsing data, your cell phone provider too, most apps, operating systems, and other services do the same.

So, having a VPN in place is the smart approach to getting around all this. Think at a VPN as the middleman between you and the internet, where your ISP (that can be your school, while on campus) can only see a bunch of encrypted traffic. And since your VPN knows as much as your ISP would, it’s very important to choose a reliable one with a zero log policy and a strong encryption.

Services like MyIP.io will offer you a self-managed VPN network platform, delivering fast, secure and reliable VPN service , The platform caters to a wide demographic through three channeled directions:Personal,Dedicated andBusiness, so it makes for a wonderful choice for corporate or personal use at the same time.

The Net Neutrality Issue: Shortcut Trough The Noise

In times like these, as the bill to save net neutrality is still 46 votes short in the US House it is only relevant we should have an open discussion on internet security, especially since the effort of re instating it has unclear odds of success. Rather than getting wrapped in all the media headlines and speculation, we say it’s time we cut a shortcut through all the debate and aim for a solution to overthrow the effects of net neutrality repeal. It all sounds very sophisticated, but net neutrality is actually a common thing that can affect your internet connection in a very “tangible” way. If your ISP is no longer legally binded to remain neutral, think of how they can affect your connection by throttling access to services they are not partnered with, while creating “fast lanes” for preferred partners. And we are not talking hypothetically. It has happened already and under the new rule of the law it can continue to happen undisturbed.

A SIMPLE, TROUBLE FREE SOLUTION:

The simplest way to go around this and regain control over the situation is to set yourself up with a VPN service. For example, under the new rules, you could be charged more for accessing Hulu instead of Netflix. With a VPN in place however, your ISP won’t even know what you are accessing, since all your data will appear encrypted.

But which VPN to pick, you may ask? Since your VPN provider can pretty much know all your ISP knows, it is important to chose a reliable one, ideally with a zero log policy. To spare you the trouble of reviewing different VPN services, we tested things like speed, encryption, locations and costs as main indicators of a good VPN service forMyIP.io VPN.

Here are the features that we you will most definitely find a value in when using our service:

1. High Speed: Fast uploads even for big transfers.

2. Open Ports: Not many VPNs will allow you to use PPTP and even fewer will help you use this feature by guiding you on how to do it. MyIP.io offers comprehensive support given by a very responsive customer support team.

3. Static IPs: Usually an extra feature, static IPs are marketed at extra fees. On a MyIP.io you’ll get a static IP on a $5 plan.

4. Cost

You’ll pay less than $6 if you go with an annual subscription and $8 for a monthly. The costs are even lower for a dynamic IP, which comes with the “personal plan” for less than $3 a month.

5. Master VPN Account for teams

If you decide to go with the “business plan” we will allocate a whole subnet to you or engineer a custom solution to meet your needs. In a nutshell, the business VPN solution allows multiple accounts into one master deck, a convenient scenario in term of having control, management and payment. Simultaneous connections up to 50, on this plan.

6. Strong Encryption and a Zero Logs Policy My IP.io comes bundled with all the strong encryption protocols, supporting all the latest security protocols such as SSTP, PPTP, IPSec, L2TP, SSTP and 128bit –AES, OpenVPN cipher. They will not keep any logs of your activity on their server, so you can be sure no 3rd party is spying on your data.

7. Locations

You’ll have a diverse location offering to chose from with My IP.io that you can use to bypass geo-restrictions.

In the end, whatever you chose, be aware that a VPN provider is the middleman between you and the world wide web, so make sure you get a reliable one that ticks all your boxes. For us, that’s MyIP.io.
KEY IDEAS THAT YOU CAN KEEP AND CALL YOUR OWN:

With all the crazy headlines surrounding the online security, net neutrality ordeals, you kind of get the feeling that it’s been a pretty intense year. But wait 2018 it’s only half way through and signs of weird outcomes are seen almost everywhere, counting the World Cup results as one.

Whether it’s the Facebook scandal, self-driving cars or politics, there’s no denying that technology is taking over and chances are you are affected by all or at least some of these narratives.

Out of the bunch, net neutrality is the one we are focusing on here and how you can circumvent it.

Summing up, the common sense solution to go around net neutrality repeal is to set yourself up with a VPN service. If you take nothing but the main idea from this written material, this is it:

First, make sure your VPN provider has a zero logs policy. Most of VPN providers will claim they don’t keep logs, but will in fact document logging data that they can trace back to you. Going with a service that can not keep this information by design, like MyIP.io, is an exciting option.
And second, beware of throttling of traffic. Your ISP might try and throttle VPN traffic, however it is difficult for your ISP to do so since it can affect all traffic, including the one that goes to their partners and customers.

All in all, net neutrality could be at some point in the future revoked, but even if it is, naturally there will be a great deal of back and forth in this kind of matter. Attempts for another repeal might and will be pushed forward, if the case. ISPs have a lot at stake to simply give in that easy. While fighting a good cause is important, we think that focusing on circumventing the effects of net neutrality repeal is equally important. Especially since, going around it, requires just a simple education and making sure that we’re a bit more savvy then yesterday, when it comes to our individual rights and preserving them in an increasingly digitalized world.

Terms and conditions: the never ending saga

Photo Credit: Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013) documentary visual

“Terms and Conditions May Apply” is probably the most enigmatic phrase that you will encounter when reading the privacy policy of virtually any site. It’s also the name of a Netflix documentary that goes on exposing the truth behind pages upon pages of uninviting text that we usually give a swift scroll, followed by a vacant “I agree” click.

Produced in 2013 by Cullen Hoback, the film is relevant today as online service providers everywhere, starting with the biggest, most popular names, are proving ambiguous practice when collecting user and customes information. Today, we simply expect our data to be used without our knowledge or consent when surfing a website, installing a software or purchasing goods online. It has become so much of a given that keeping track of all privacy policies of all the sites we use on a regular, would consume enormous attention, the grey matter we seemingly are using less and less, while online or at least on definite, short spans.

Users and service providers alike are now trying to adjust to the new online environment which is still far from being appropriately regulated. For users, the solution is more in the direction of setting protective measures in place and some of the service providers are trying to limit credibility loss by doing the same. However, most of the so called “protective measures” taken by service providers still sound like liabilities instead.

Take Facebook ‘s new menu item called “Protect” — the blue shield icon that takes you to Onavo, a VPN service owned by the company. Onavo is basically the same piece of machinery as most VPN services out there, but here’s the catch though: it’s owned by Facebook. Without making a point that Onavo is not trustworthy in absolute terms, but simply stating the obvious that in there lies a possible conflict of interest, one that we would not recommend you gamble, it’s probably for the best that you get your VPN service elsewhere.

Photo Credit: Maurizio di Iorio Photography

No longer an exotic tool, VPNs are now entering the mainstream and given the context it’s easy to understand why. There are tons of VPN providers, but one should probably be aware of their business affiliation. The painless solution here is to go with an independent provider, free from such affiliation and/or partnerships.

And as we already know by now, it’s not just Facebook that keeps track of your browsing data, it’s your cell phone provider too, most apps, operating systems, and other services do the same. Smartphones with preinstalled tracking software, secretly bundled with tracking files are sold everyday, while some companies try to leverage the very problem they created by charging extra for privacy. Setting yourself with Facebook’s Onavo could not only mean that Facebook is keeping track of your activity when you use the app, but also when you browse away from the social network, stretching the net even further.

Having a VPN in place is the smart approach to getting around all this. Think at a VPN as the middleman between you and the internet, where your ISP can only see a bunch of encrypted traffic. And since your VPN knows as much as your ISP would, it’s very important to choose a reliable one with a zero log policy and a strong encryption. These 2 benefits are not in the cards for Onavo, which has a very slippery way to explain the way it stores user’s information in the following:

“We may use the information we receive to provide, analyze, improve, and develop new and innovative services for users, Affiliates and third parties.” Customer information is also stored according to “applicable laws and assist law enforcement.” which is not exactly music to our ears, considering net neutrality recent repeal. Services like MyIP.io offer privacy focused VPNs and can not store personal information of their users by design. Engineered as a global platform,MyIP.io is a VPN service provider committed to developing applications and services that preserve an open and secure Internet experience while respecting user privacy.

On the other hand, Onavo’s statements on data collection are far from being focused on user’s privacy unequivocally: “The app may collect your mobile data traffic to help us recognize tactics that bad actors use. Over time, this helps the tool work better for you and others. We let people know about this activity and other ways that Onavo uses and analyses data before they download it.”

All in all, online data privacy has never been more present on the public agenda than in the past few months, when news about Facebook data misuse broke as the Cambridge Analytica scandal unfolded. Whether the scandal is purely political, having the can-not-be-ignored Trumpian element attached to it, or the billion dollar pixel empireof Sillicon Valley ( as Wired describes it), there is a certain collateral that goes much deeper than politics or the Valley. And that collateral element is how easy we ourselves give away personal data in our idealized, highly curated virtual identities we create.

Stepping aside from the Facebook scapegoat, since we all know it’s not just Facebook that allows public data collection, but many more, let’s think about the positives in the wake of recent events. We are now more aware than ever before about the consequences of our online activity and how easy that data can be manipulated if given the chance. It’s time we should all be more responsible about our online footprint and take ownership of our data, take charge of our own protection. In all of the above, the no brainer is to set ourselfs up with a VPN service, one that is reliable and free from aforementioned affiliation.

Using their users as servers by converting them into a botnet, some VPN providers have been revealed, while others admit in their lawyer-eese terms of service, they can sell your bandwidth to other companies.

In other words, by searching a bargain you can be faced with two main issues:

Slower computer and internet connection: as you’re sharing your bandwidth and processor with others;
Higher Security Risks: assuming responsibility for what other users do online, that can be tracked down back to your IP.

A good VPN will have its own servers and encryption protocols designed for it, reducing possible security failures to a minimum. Free VPN services are often an open door to malware and can be easily used by scammers.

In the FREE vs. PAID matter, its is important to understand that most legit businesses will offer 7 days of free trial, but a free connection on a indefinite period of time is sure to get its profit elsewhere; in ways that can harm your security and defeat the whole purpose of having a VPN in the first place.

We suggest you do yourself a favor and invest a good 5 bucks for a reliable VPN like the dedicated VPN you can get from My IP.io or from another reliable provider.

Beyond the politics of the Facebook scandal, Trumpism and the billion dollar pixel empire of Silicon Valley.

5 ways to secure your account now.

Online data privacy has never been more present on the public agenda than in the past few months, when news about Facebook data misuse broke as the Cambridge Analytica scandal unfolded. Whether the scandal is purely political, having the can-not-be-ignored Trumpian element attached to it, or the billion dollar pixel empireof Sillicon Valley ( as Wired describes it), there is a certain collateral that goes much deeper than politics or the Valley. And that collateral element is how easy we ourselves give away personal data in our idealized, highly curated virtual identities we create. Before pointing the finger at anyone, perhaps we should take a moment and think about what any public post or action we take inside a social media platform implies and the consequences that every such action can have on the digital environment, when done collectively.

Stepping aside from the Facebook scapegoat, since we all know it’s not just Facebook that allows public data collection, but many more, let’s think about the positives in the wake of recent events. What is it that we can draw from the precedent and what can we do to ensure that we are taking our data security into our own hands.

As data security enthusiasts, we take online privacy seriously and like to focus on what we can do to create a safe haven for ourselves when online. In the following, we compiled a few things that you can do right now to secure your Facebook account. Some of the features we are going to tell you about were already there before the scandal erupted and some were added as a result of the event (et voila!)

1.Check if your information has been shared with Cambridge Analytica

First things first, you can actually check wether your account was affected during the Cambridge Analytica data collection or not here. Hopefully you will get a message like this one:

2.Manage your privacy settings

Find it in the Privacy Settings and Tools page. Here you can chose if you want to make your profile information, including your friend list, phone number, photos, posts, etc) visible only to your friends or to everyone. You can also hide your entire profile from search engines.

3.Manage Ad Preferences

Since you don’t have the option to avoid ads completely, you can make changes that would enable the network to serve you better. You can learn everything about what options you have in the Ad Preferences section

4.Remove apps you no longer use

In the App Settings page (that you can access by going to the Settings menu and then by clicking Apps), you can check what data you are providing to apps and remove the data you no longer want to share or simply delete the apps you no longer use altogether

5.Soon to be implemented: Access your information data management feature

Facebook is rolling out a new feature over the next weeks hat will allow users to have more control over their profile and timeline information, such as old posts, tags, searches, likes, comments, etc. here’s a sneak peak of how the page will look like.

6.For more security while online
make sure you set yourself up with a VPN and browse the internet uncharted.

Adding an extra hop to the route between your PC and sites like Facebook, your location data, for example, can be easily camouflaged.

Across the world, businesses use VPNs to connect to remote data centers, or for employees to connect remotely to the physical network of their workplace, while individuals can use VPNs to get access to network resources when they’re not physically on the same LAN (local area network), or as a method for securing and encrypting their information from the potential liabilities that lie ahead once exposed to unsecured networks such as public WiFis or hotspots.

MyIP.io is a self-managed VPN network platform, delivering fast, secure and reliable VPN service , designed with the professional focus in mind. Our platform caters to a wide demographic through three channeled directions:Personal,Dedicated and Business, so it makes for a wonderful choice for corporate or personal use at the same time.

“MyIP.io is the result of the craftsmanship of our engineers, with many years of experience supporting large-scale, custom deployments for businesses , telecommunications companies, multi-service operators and enterprises.” Dave Wilson, CEO My IP.io

Resist falling for that free VPN deal, hazards lie in fine print

Photo Credit: digital photography by Juan Antonio Zamarripa

“There is no such thing as a free lunch.”

Popularized by Milton Friedman back ’75 the phrase “There is no such thing as a free lunch remains of great economic relevance today in describing things like “opportunity costs”.

However enticing, free VPNS are more often than not the origin of many security hazards and in some cases data collection machines, hence defeating the purpose of what a Virtual private network should be.

“When the product is free. You are the product”

A VPN service implies having servers in various countries, so the maintenance or renting costs can amount a few figures, depending on volume.

While most legit businesses will offer 7 days of free trial, a free connection on a indefinite period of time is sure to get its profit elsewhere; in ways that may harm your security and defeat the whole purpose of having a VPN in the first place.

Even more compelling evidence on the security risks one might face when exposed to a FREE vpn surface once you start doing research. Take the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) the federal government agency for scientific research of Australia. In a study performed a few years ago, they analyzed no less than 283 VPN services only to find that 75% of the free ones contained tracking possibilities. You can read the entire CSIRO white paper here.

We list the most common of these corrupt practices that some VPN providers have been revealed to apply, while others admit as comme d’habitude use in their lawyer-eese terms of service or in very fine print.

SELLING USERS BANDWIDTH

using their users as servers by converting them into a botnet, some VPN providers appropriate their user bandwidth as their own and are resellling it through third parties or sister companies.

In other words, by searching a bargain you can be faced with two main issues:

1. Slower computer and internet connection: as you’re sharing your bandwidth and processor with others;

2. Higher Security Risks: assuming responsibility for what other users do online, that can be tracked down back to your IP.

DATA COLLECTION

In depth analytics of your use data can be sold to third parties companies also. In this case, your FREE VPN becomes a data collection machine that can use your browsing history and online habits to target you with spam, ads and may even compromise your banking accounts or hold you for ransom. Choosing a VPN provider, like My IP.io, that goes on a “no log kept” policies is the best approach to the matter.

ADS

modifying the web code to show ads is a common practice for “free” VPN services.

CSIRO identified FREE vpn apps “actively injecting JavaScript codes using frames for advertising and tracking purposes, while the static analysis of source code revealed apps that actively use up to 5 different third party tracking libraries.”

TRACKING LIBRARIES

The same study examined through ApkTool “the presence of embedded third party libraries (in the form of external hat files) for analytics, tracking or advertising purposes in the source code of free android apps. […] Since most VPN apps intend to provide online anonymity, the lower presence of tracking libraries is actually meaningful. However, we identified the presence of at least one tracking library in 75% of the FREE VPN apps claiming to protect user’s privacy” is stated in the same study.

POOR ENCRYPTION OR LACK THERE OF

The CSIRO research revealed worrisome aspects regarding encryption: “18% of the VPN apps implement tunneling protocols without encryption despite promising online anonymity and security to their users. In fact approximately 84% and 66% of the analyzed VPN apps do not tunnel IPv6 and DNS traffic through the tunnel interface respectively due to lack of IPv6 support, misconfigurations or developer-induced errors. Both the lack of strong encryption and traffic leakage can ease online tracking activities and by surveillance agencies.”

MALWARE

According to the CSIRO study “38% of the analyzed VPN apps by CSIRO have at least one positive malware report according to VirusTotaagencies.”

The Paid vs. The FREE VPN Issue

A good VPN will have its own servers and encryption protocols designed for it, reducing possible security failures to a minimum. Free VPN servicesare often an open door to malware and can be easily used by scammers.

We suggest you do yourself a favor and invest a good 5 bucks for a reliable VPN like the dedicated VPN you can get from My IP.io or from another reliable provider.

As a general rule, mundane but so incredibly important, reading the company’s Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, before buying a vpn service is a thing you should really consider. Ideally, these documents are in plain English and not lawyer-eese.

WannaCry Ransomware Attack crippled a lot of data. Guess who’s not crying? VPN users

Photo Credit: www.behance.net

Last Friday, WannaCry “ransomware” cyber attack struck globally in what has become one of the fastest –spreading extortion campaigns on record. The virus infected more than 300,000 machines in 150 countries since Friday and the victim numbers continue to grow. In this very moment, someone could be clicking a link or activating macros in a malicious document. A few seconds later, the entire hard disk content, personal files and sensitive information, everything including cloud storage accounts synced with PCs could be locked for good. Or for a good tidy ransom. A pop up in bad graphic could then appear on screen asking for “cold hard cash” in return for a decryption key.

If this is what you’re experiencing, well then tough luck. You’re device has been infected with WannaCry. Guess who’s not crying? All those people who are using a VPN. That thing you could never quite grasp the importance of. But wait! How is this even possible, how frequent these things can happen and could they happen to me? you ask.

Ok, let’s give some context and background to the story for clarity.

The first ransomware attack struck in 1989, almost 3 decades ago. It’s hard to fathom now, but the virus spread via floppy disks and involved sending $189 to a post office box in Panama. AIDS Trojan was the WannaCry ransomware from back in the day.

But ransomware attacks are believed to have broader implications in much more than just making money, as they have been used as tool in cyber battles of political substratum, the attacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment — in retaliation for the comedy film “The Interview” is a telling example. The hacker attack was aimed at Sony Pictures for the satirical comedy directed by Seth Rogen, that involved a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Who knew a Seth Rogen film could get this “inflammable”, right?

Well if we think that the attack is believed to being launched by Lazarus Group, allegedly a North Korean run hacking operation is starting to make sense.

Technical clues found in the code of WannaCry ransomware by researchers could link to the same North Korean group. However, no conclusive proof have been found for a clear conclusion in any of the aforementioned attacks.

If in the case of Sony Pictures cyber attack, the goal was to prevent the release of The Interview, a film that mocked a North Korean leader, in contrast WannaCry was wildly random infecting everything it could.

WannaCry didn’t seem to have a pecuniary goal, with more than 200,000 machines infected and around $70,000 paid in ransoms, it’s a terrible return.

Analysts are now turning to another hypothesis, maybe the ransom was a distraction for a political goal that has yet to clearly surface.

And here’s were things get really confusing and could take a really steep turn for the left so brace yourself for what I will reveal in the following of what the political implication could be

Brad Smith, President of Microsoft Corp, confirmed in a blog post on Sunday that WannaCry attack made use of a hacking tool developed by the NSA (US National Security Agency) that had leaked online in April. This pours fuel on the long running debate over espionage and cyber warfare conduct and software flaws best kept secrets.

Elevating the subject far beyond the immediate need to improve a computer defenses, the WannaCry attack has turned into a political debate in Europe and the United States with discussion of the role national governments play.

Since China was among the worst hit, it seemed unlikely to some that Lazarus was behind all this, as antagonizing North Korea strongest ally would not hold as a good strategy. Having been speculated as having an implication, Russia denied all accusations, but Putin did not waste the chance to draw attention on the NSA in the light of Smith’s revealing on the topic.

If this story is not in the realm of a true Matrix scenario unfolding, then I don’t know what is. But just as Neo is looking for a way to Zion, you too could be wondering for the same path.

These days data that is a day old can usually be recovered, but potentially losing real time data for even 24 hours can produce massive damage for a company, for example, just like a lack of oxygen to the brain.

Unless you have a back up, which companies usually have, but most people don’t, you can be faced with a cyber attack that could damage tones of done work, memories stored on picture or film or well put together playlists that took years to build.

Here are the most common infection methods used by cybercriminals.

· Spam email campaigns that contain malicious links or attachments

· Security exploits in vulnerable software;

· Internet traffic redirects to malicious websites;

· Legitimate websites that have malicious code injected in their web pages;

· Drive-by downloads;

· SMS messages (when targeting mobile devices);

· Botnets;

· Self-propagation (spreading from one infected computer to another)

SOLUTION:

In all cases prevention is the best thing you can do. Considering how intricate these attacks are in the large scheme of things is better to take the matter into your own hands and not wait for government to regulate. Besides, do you really trust the government with your personal data? Just a question.

Remember we talked about VPNs at the beginning. Did you know that having a VPN in place can protect your computer from remote attackers? All attacks will stop into the VPN vendor.

Having a robust VPN to encrypt your personal data is nowadays, the only way to Zion.

REASONS YOU SHOULD START USING A VPN APP. NOW:

· PROTECTS YOUR DATA FROM REMOTE ATTACKERS

your internal data, sites, git repositories, banking credentials and all information will be coated in multiple layers of encryption;

· REMOTE ACCESS

as IT is being challenged to enable safe access to employees remotely by providing mobile VPN, secure email, encrypted containers and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), living outside the data security paradigm is simply not smart anymore, whether we’re talking about corporate or personal data;

· IP CAMOUFLAGE

A simple VPN download gets you a new location identity so that you can use geographically dispersed resources;

· BYPASSING FILTERS AND GEORESTRICTIONS

Bypassing Internet censorship in countries where censorship is applied;

· SHARING FILES

You can share files and sensitive information inside a secured group away from prying eyes;

Congress sold you out, what now? Simple guide to online data privacy

statue of Cain by Henry Vidal, fragment, Tuileries Garden, Paris, France.

Privacy is a fundamental human right, declared so by the United Nations but don’t rest assured Congress is about to shake that up.

An inglorious attempt to block online privacy regulations to go into effect was made last week by the US Senate and this week’s House decision. Rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission or FCC to ask for permission before selling your browsing data, even though passed in October of last year, under the Obama administration, had not yet gone into effect.

Data collection and data selling is nothing new under the sun for your ISP, so continuing business as usual, selling your data to the highest bidder without bothering to ask you first, is a real privilege. One very particular privilege that sounds more like stepping on one of our most fundamental rights: the right to privacy.

#WHATSTHEDRAMA

Photo Credits: simplyclassywatches.tumblr.com

If you’re anything like me, the whole ordeal sounds a bit exhausting and futile since you don’t have “state secrets to hide”. But having nothing to hide doesn’t make a good case for allowing the abuse here, does it? nor does it set the premise to influence change for the better in a digital world becoming less and less private.

Your exact physical location from minute to minute, the constant monitoring, all the websites you visit, your banking details or social security number, clicks, searches, app downloads and video streams, shopping hobbits, porn preferences and even the content of chats and emails fall under the above litigious case. Sure, you’re going to appear as an ID, a long sequence of numbers, but isn’t that just the coldest of comforts? More, isn’t the social profiling that’s the most dangerous, not to mention annoying? And to add to the conundrum, how is it not having to give consent over sharing this information ever going to lead to a greater good? Can we still talk about thinks like the right to privacy then, when our boundaries have shifted so much we can no longer see where we took the left turn?

Rollback of FCC regulations could mean creating a loophole, to put more “in the gray” a matter that’s already debatable, so the next logical thing is to expect those who will take advantage of these loopholes. Even if we step aside from the bias of politics, regardless if this is a matter of democratic or republican enforcement, where do we, as individuals, draw the line?

The upcoming rule of FCC was going to make it slightly more difficult for your ISP to collect and sell your data to third parties like advertisers, by requiring a customer opt-in. This new privacy rule was set to take effect in December of this year, had it not been for the recent House and Senate vote to remove it.

Already passing the Senate, the companion legislation raises legitimate privacy concerns and President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill.

But how was this even possible and who’s benefitting off of it, you wonder? Passed in 1996 to allow Congress to overrule regulations created by government agencies, The Congressional Review Act (CRA) had been used prior to 2017. Once. With the new administration however, that took over in January, CRA has proven to be very lucrative, being successfully used 3 times to overturn things like environmental regulations and this time online privacy regulations.
Benefitting at the end of the scheme the rollback creates, stand four big companies as speculated: AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and Comcast, all proven to have previously used “in the grey” practices of online personal data collection.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OPT IN AND OPT OUT

there will be voices that will say, there’s no big difference between the opt in policy proposed by democrats versus the opt out advocated by republicans. Don’t believe them, there’s immense difference between the two.

Requesting people to opt in for the collecting and selling of their data to advertisers is reasonably expected to bring infinitely less people volunteering for such a cause, than collecting of data by default. Having to go through exhausting opt out processes will surely make a lot of people put up with the abuse, simply because let’s face it, we have better things to do with our time than constantly monitor our ISPs privacy policies. I would rather get myself a VPN then set a google alert for my ISP’s name and privacy.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?

No longer an exotic tool, VPNs are now entering the mainstream and given the context it’s easy to understand why.

Simply put, when you’re using a VPN, all your data travels through a tunnel encrypted from end to end. In other words, your ISP will not be able to make sense of your data, since you’ll have all your online data happen elsewhere, not going through your ISP servers and encrypted all the while.

But it’s not just your ISP that keeps track of your browsing data, it’s your cell phone provider too, most apps, operating systems, and other services do the same.

REASONS YOU SHOULD NOT GET A FREE VPN

The phrase “There is no such thing as a free lunch” made popular by Milton Friedman back ’75, remains of great economic relevance today in describing things like “opportunity costs”. However enticing, free VPNs seldom defeat the purpose of what a Virtual private network should be.

· IT AIN’T A FREE LUNCH

A VPN service implies having servers in various countries. The maintenance or renting costs can amount a few figures, depending on volume.

· SELLING USERS BANDWIDTH

“When the product is free. You are the product”-

using their users as servers by converting them into a botnet, some VPN providers have been revealed, while others admit in their lawyer-eese terms of service, they can sell your bandwidth to other companies.

In other words, by searching a bargain you can be faced with two main issues:

1. Slower computer and internet connection: as you’re sharing your bandwidth and processor with others;

2. Higher Security Risks: assuming responsibility for what other users do online, that can be tracked down back to your IP.

We suggest you do yourself a favor and invest a good 5 bucks for a reliable VPN like the dedicated VPN you can get from My IP.io or from another reliable provider.

As a general rule, mundane but incredibly important, reading the company’s Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, before buying a vpn service is a thing you should really consider. Ideally, these documents are in plain English and not lawyer-eese

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER

HTTPS : -makes it harder for your ISP to see what you’re doing on any web site, as they can only see that you’re on YouTube, for example, but not what video you’re viewing.
Disabling cookies or installing an ad blocker: — prevents tracking by conventional ad networks;
Opting out your ISP
use a different ISP. Not all ISPs want to sell their user’s data. In fact, a list of some of the smaller players — including Sonic, Cruzio Internet and Etheric Networks — wrote a letter opposing the repeal of the FCC’s privacy rules. The only problem is that they’re not as wide-spread as the big players and you might not have the luxury to chose a smaller company.

Having a robust VPN to encrypt your personal data is nowadays, the only way to Zion.

And as we’re not looking to exhaust the “hide everything I do” reasoning; we mainly believe that a VPN is not paramount to activity that borders on illegal, but the very symbol of our right to the privacy acumen.