How Governments Tame VPN

[vibranium]

Once a business networking tool, the VPN has in recent years morphed into a subscription-based personal service for online security, anonymity, and remote server access, becoming one of the most user-friendly faces of privacy software. Governments around the world are now scrambling to keep up with the rapid take-up of VPN services and their diverse applications for consumers, citizens, and criminals alike.

 

As part of an international research project, a team of digital media researchers and I have been tracking and comparing international trends in VPN use, culture, and regulation. Over the last year, we have been studying how VPNs (and other privacy software) are being used for entertainment, politics, and communication in different countries. The results have been eye-opening.

 

One of the emerging themes is that different governments take different approaches to regulating VPNs. In countries with strong Internet censorship, a common strategy is a combination of legislative bans and network-level blocks. In China, home to the world's most sophisticated Internet censorship system, numerous VPN websites have been taken offline under the guise of a crackdown on unlicensed telecoms services. VPN traffic has been disrupted via deep-packet inspection and port blocking, too. Similar ban-and-block systems are in place in several Gulf states, including Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and in Pakistan. Reports suggest that Russia has been considering such a move.

 

Elsewhere, technical blocks are being combined with more malicious measures. Freedom House reports that Syrian authorities "have developed fake Skype encryption tools and a fake VPN application, both containing harmful Trojans."

 

And a new twist on the tale was recently seen in Iran, where the state has tried entering the VPN marketplace itself. According to advocacy group Small Media, Iranian authorities experimented in 2013 with setting up their own "official" VPNs. These VPNs were known to be government-linked but worked perfectly well for checking Facebook or YouTube, so long as users were not put off by government surveillance.

 

Then of course we have the whole issue of private regulation in the form of platform-level VPN blocking. Video services such as Netflix, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer -- with variable levels of efficacy and enthusiasm -- have all been using third-party commercial software to block access from IP addresses suspected of being used by VPNs.

 

What does all this mean for the future of privacy software products like VPNs?

 

The signs are mixed. Tech liberationists are probably right to insist that the distributed nature of cryptography and encryption mean that tech communities will usually find a way around top-down regulation. And service-providers have many options in the ongoing game of whack-a-mole, such as switching jurisdictions, changing server ranges, and inventing new workarounds.

 

At the same time, we should be careful not to assume that VPNs, voice scramblers, e-mail encryption, or any other technology products are entirely beyond the bounds of regulation at the point of use as well as production. Security agencies are far from powerless in this game, especially when the main aim is to discourage uptake across the board rather than stamp out use among techies.

 

In other words, the nation-state still has a few tricks up its sleeve. The stakes of this debate will only increase in the coming years as anonymization and privacy technologies enter further into the mainstream of tech culture.

 

 

ARTICLE SOURCE

 

[Sylence]

There's an old saying: "use domestic made VPNs to avoid NSA mass surveillance" 

[steven36]

41 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

There's an old saying: "use domestic made to avoid NSA mass surveillance" 

If someone uses a domestic made vpn and it logs and they are five eyes countries they are not exempt from there government sharing info with the NSA. If I lived somewhere besides the USA the NSA would be the lest of my worries  I would be worried about my own nations  law enforcement more than I would be the NSA . Every Nation has its own  law enforcement and Nation spies that make sure laws are not broke in there own nation.

 

Hers and example When the UK works with Hollywood USA  its not the NSA or the USA that sends people to jail its the UK Police who does

BREIN  handles the Netherlands

MPPA and RIAA handles the USA

The list goes on and own.

Most people dont use vpns for anything other than streaming and downloading If you're using them to commit really bad crimes chances are you going get real law enforcement on your butt . Old saying is if you do the crime you should be able to do the time.

[Sylence]

15 minutes ago, steven36 said:

If someone uses a domestic made vpn and it logs and they are five eyes countries they are not exempt from there government sharing info with the NSA. If I lived somewhere besides the USA the NSA would be the lest of my worries  I would be worried about my own nations  law enforcement more than I would be the NSA . Every Nation has its own  law enforcement and Nation spies that make sure laws are not broke in there own nation.

 

you're right.

in five eyes countries there's no secret NSA can't find out about. yeah in other countries they have harder time gathering information, not that hard though.

as a normal person, you need to choose between bad and worse situations.

 

yea it's bad to let your own government log all your data but it's worse to let another government, US NSA in particular, collect your data and use them in some god-knows-what plan. and people are, fortunately, wise enough to choose the bad over worse

[steven36]

1 hour ago, saeed_dc said:

 

you're right.

in five eyes countries there's no secret NSA can't find out about. yeah in other countries they have harder time gathering information, not that hard though.

as a normal person, you need to choose between bad and worse situations.

 

yea it's bad to let your own government log all your data but it's worse to let another government, US NSA in particular, collect your data and use them in some god-knows-what plan. and people are, fortunately, wise enough to choose the bad over worse

If you live somewhere else the NSA can't send you to jail only you're own law efforment can . People want to look at someone else countries instead there own problems at there home no wonder everyone ends up in jail . There to busy worrying about somewhere and there not subject to there laws . The only VPN from the USA I know of  that a lot people use is PIA .  There's like 1000s that's not in the USA to chose from . Everything i read on it says the exact opposite  its best to use VPNs from places that dont have data retention laws to begin with.

 

When  the Russians  done that raid on those Hackers in in that movie studio  it was not the NSA  and im sure they used vpns  and the KGB  or whatever the Russian spies are called now who  done it.

 

Even many Antivirus are working with Law enforcement all over the  world . They always have worked with Anti piracy too by putting false positives to cracks in there databases.

 

See in most places using a VPN is not needed to check Facebook watch YouTube etc . I dont need a vpn to bypass censorship . I use a vpn  so just anyone cant get my ip from all the logs every site on the internet does and my isp provider can see what i do when not using a vpn . If  we had a law were we could only use a government ran VPN.. I would not use one at all because it would not be needed.

 

I didn't use a vpn tell 2011 and i came online in 2001 and i went 9 years and never was bothered so im not going to use a government ran vpn ,
 

Quote

 

On it, many of the Web’s biggest sites, including Facebook—which is used by nearly 20 million Iranians—and Twitter, are blocked. Pay a couple of bucks for a virtual private network (VPN), however, and you can access much of the Internet as the rest of the world sees it.

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/iran-censorship-circumvention-tech/

 

That's just a money racket dude they make you pay money  for something that's a human right in most places.

[Sylence]

15 hours ago, steven36 said:

If you live somewhere else the NSA can't send you to jail only you're own law efforment can . People want to look at someone else countries instead there own problems at there home no wonder everyone ends up in jail . There to busy worrying about somewhere and there not subject to there laws . The only VPN from the USA I know of  that a lot people use is PIA .  There's like 1000s that's not in the USA to chose from . Everything i read on it says the exact opposite  its best to use VPNs from places that dont have data retention laws to begin with.

 

When  the Russians  done that raid on those Hackers in in that movie studio  it was not the NSA  and im sure they used vpns  and the KGB  or whatever the Russian spies are called now who  done it.

 

Even many Antivirus are working with Law enforcement all over the  world . They always have worked with Anti piracy too by putting false positives to cracks in there databases.

 

See in most places using a VPN is not needed to check Facebook watch YouTube etc . I dont need a vpn to bypass censorship . I use a vpn  so just anyone cant get my ip from all the logs every site on the internet does and my isp provider can see what i do when not using a vpn . If  we had a law were we could only use a government ran VPN.. I would not use one at all because it would not be needed.

 

I didn't use a vpn tell 2011 and i came online in 2001 and i went 9 years and never was bothered so im not going to use a government ran vpn ,
 

That's just a money racket dude they make you pay money  for something that's a human right in most places.

 

Yeah I can get your point, that's why U.S presidential candidates talk so much about Iran in their campaigns instead of their own country's problems, some congressmen even wanted to come here and see the election by their own eyes...they didn't get Visa though lol even Iran's today elections are more trending than U.S elections in the U.S itself. 

it's a whole different story about Iran. i just tell you this much that it's never about the money to set up a government-ran VPN. it's too cheap to make money from (less than 1$/month ?) and it's not a long time since they've been around.. can't tell you more than that. 

NSA can send you to jail using local authorities, they have the power they have the people for the job. but of course not for something like downloading pirated contents.

 

lucky you that don't need VPN to Facebook and Youtube, by the way filtering is everywhere but this kind of filtering in here has a political background and was established as a countermeasure against the west's propaganda if you carefully review the 6 years ago's incidents you'll know what i'm talking about. 

these government-ran VPNs are much secure than those hosted outside the country, like PIA. more than 70% of Iran's International Internet traffic are in real-time controlled and reviewed for known and unknown threats.

 

[steven36]

16 hours ago, saeed_dc said:

 

Yeah I can get your point, that's why U.S presidential candidates talk so much about Iran in their campaigns instead of their own country's problems, some congressmen even wanted to come here and see the election by their own eyes...they didn't get Visa though lol even Iran's today elections are more trending than U.S elections in the U.S itself. 

it's a whole different story about Iran. i just tell you this much that it's never about the money to set up a government-ran VPN. it's too cheap to make money from (less than 1$/month ?) and it's not a long time since they've been around.. can't tell you more than that. 

NSA can send you to jail using local authorities, they have the power they have the people for the job. but of course not for something like downloading pirated contents.

 

lucky you that don't need VPN to Facebook and Youtube, by the way filtering is everywhere but this kind of filtering in here has a political background and was established as a countermeasure against the west's propaganda if you carefully review the 6 years ago's incidents you'll know what i'm talking about. 

these government-ran VPNs are much secure than those hosted outside the country, like PIA. more than 70% of Iran's International Internet traffic are in real-time controlled and reviewed for known and unknown threats.

 

The thing is bro in the USA , most of the EU and parts of Asia  if we were too use a government  ran vpn to download from p2p our governments would  use it against us also bit-torrent  trolls would be  working with government turning people in   so it could never be of any value in most places . This is why we use non state run vpns.  Even PIA is privately owned and has a very good track record that's why its so popular and its really cheap  .. Even in places in the EU were there more easy about it its not really legal to p2p  .

 

Also streaming Netfix  that's not  from you're area is impossible  without a vpn .  Most censorship that exist is broadcast online video/music in the west witch really i could live without watching  what other countries block  because i did most of my life anyways we have plenty of stuff  to watch were im from.

 

So our best bet is to use VPNs  from places that have no data retention laws.  The price of a VPN means nothing there's even many free ones that log . If they have a lot of costumers you can make a lot of money and sell them really cheap . Were you're from having a vpn would be  almost necessary if you wanted to visit sites that's  blocked   Here its just a tool to give you a little privacy.  

[Sylence]

3 hours ago, steven36 said:

The thing is bro in the USA , most of the EU and parts of Asia  if we were too use a government  ran vpn to download from p2p our governments would  use it against us also bit-torrent  trolls would be  working with government turning people in   so it could never be of any value in most places . This is why we use non state run vpns.  Even PIA is privately owned and has a very good track record that's why its so popular and its really cheap  .. Even in places in the EU were there more easy about it its not really legal to p2p  .

 

Also streaming Netfix  that's not  from you're area is impossible  without a vpn .  Most censorship that exist is broadcast online video/music in the west witch really i could live without watching  what other countries block  because i did most of my life anyways we have plenty of stuff  to watch were im from.

 

So our best bet is to use VPNs  from places that have no data retention laws.  The price of a VPN means nothing there's even many free ones that log . If they have a lot of costumers you can make a lot of money and sell them really cheap . Were you're from having a vpn would be  almost necessary if you wanted to visit sites that's  blocked   Here its just a tool to give you a little privacy.  

 

I don't think you necessarily need to use VPNs from places with no data retention laws, only use VPNs from places where US or Federal laws don't apply there or NSA or 5-eye has no control in there, even if they keep the logs. this way you don't need to worry too much about what you're doing while on the web whether it's nefarious or as innocent as p2p downloading 

[steven36]

24 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

 

I don't think you necessarily need to use VPNs from places with no data retention laws, only use VPNs from places where US or Federal laws don't apply there or NSA or 5-eye has no control in there, even if they keep the logs. this way you don't need to worry too much about what you're doing while on the web whether it's nefarious or as innocent as p2p downloading 

I have along time ago used vpn from some places that log for stuff like just normal use .. But even some of these sites outside USA  that s not in 5 eyes countries have gave up hackers  so really its hard to trust them . Anything that's free and logs id be careful what i done most vpns that log wont let you p2p no how . Most free ones would turn you in because they provide a service and you're using for some kind of evil.

[Sylence]

1 hour ago, steven36 said:

I have along time ago used vpn from some places that log for stuff like just normal use .. But even some of these sites outside USA  that s not in 5 eyes countries have gave up hackers  so really its hard to trust them . Anything that's free and logs id be careful what i done most vpns that log wont let you p2p no how . Most free ones would turn you in because they provide a service and you're using for some kind of evil.

 

Oh..well, it's a shame people, who don't know the things you just said, call VPNs secure and use them for better privacy

[steven36]

6 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

 

Oh..well, it's a shame people, who don't know the things you just said, call VPNs secure and use it for better privacy

Only a VPN  is secure as the company who provides  it is.  Most all of them has it in writing what they do or dont do .. That's why you should read all the info before you install any software  that needs internet to run . Stuff you can fully block  or dont call home dont matter so much.

[Sylence]

1 minute ago, steven36 said:

Only a VPN  is secure as the company who provides  it is.  Most all of them has it in writing what they do or dont do .. That's why you should read all the info before you install any software .

 

right, in your opinion how trustworthy is what they write in their terms of use? 

[steven36]

12 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

 

right, in your opinion how trustworthy is what they write in their terms of use? 

Well there's millions and millions of people who use vpns everyday with no problems at all . And only very few have ever turned anyone in , even the ones that did were free and plainly it was written if you used there service for hacking they turn you in and they kept logs. When you agree to something or they dont require you to agree to something its legally binding . You can sue them that's why they write a toss to protect themselves . If you use stuff that are in places that don't have laws were they need too keep records and its in there toss they dont keep records then there breaking there contract with you if they did log  But these services are never free  unless they have a giveaway .

[Sylence]

3 minutes ago, steven36 said:

Well there's millions and millions of people who use vpns everyday with no problems at all . And only very few have ever turned anyone in , even the ones that did were free and plainly it was written if you used there service for hacking they turn you in and they kept logs. When you agree to something or they dont require you to agree to something its legally binding . You can sue them that's why they write a toss to protect themselves . If you use stuff that are in places that don't have laws were they need too keep records and its in there toss they dont keep records then there breaking there contract with you.  But these services are never free  unless they have a giveaway .

 

so for normal users there wouldn't be any problem but if you wanna step a lil further than normal usage then you face complications in choosing the right VPN

[steven36]

3 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

 

so for normal users there wouldn't be any problem but if you wanna step a lil further than normal usage then you face complications in choosing the right VPN

I guess just to watch YouTube or something like Direct Downloading from filehost  , but like i said most of these free ones block p2p were it dont work at all , and most of them are slow .

[Sylence]

9 minutes ago, steven36 said:

I guess just to watch YouTube or something like Direct Downloading from filehost  , but like i said most of these free ones block p2p were it dont work at all , and most of them are slow .

 

yeah. I don't really think any of them let you use all of your bandwidth through their VPN tunnels? like when your ISP's purchased bandwidth is 100/100 or 1000/100