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Privacy Communications Government Network Networking Security Software The Internet

VPN Providers Report Huge Increase In Downloads, Usage Since Privacy Rules Were Repealed (ibtimes.com) 67

Posted by BeauHD from the drastic-times-call-for-drastic-measures dept.
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?
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VPN Providers Report Huge Increase In Downloads, Usage Since Privacy Rules Were Repealed More

VPN Providers Report Huge Increase In Downloads, Usage Since Privacy Rules Were Repealed

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  • That is retarded. (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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 THE RULES THAT WERE REPEALED WERE NEVER ACTIVE. Further, what was really repealed was the FCC having any control over the internet.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

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by manu0601 ( 2221348 )

      The privacy rules WERE NEVER IN EFFECT

      But repealing them shows an intent, and there is some rationale to react to just that.

      • Re:That is retarded. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by gweilo8888 ( 921799 ) on Wednesday April 12, 2017 @09:23PM (#54226099)
        Exactly. It was one thing when internet providers new that the rule was coming, because it wasn't worth the investment in a program that would soon be canceled. Now that the rule has been canceled, you can be 100% certain that Comcast and its ilk will be monetizing you in every way they can, disingenuous statements about not selling your data be damned. (Of course they're not selling the actual browsing histories of their users, because they'd be selling the keys to the kingdom. What they'll sell is customized reports on your browsing behavior. The report on you that your medical insurance company buys will be different from the one that your would-be next employer buys, because they'll both be interested in different things.

  • 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

    • Not sure about that, but you can change your computer's and phone's DNS to an open source encrypted (DNSCrypt) no logging server as added protection.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      A cheap device with two ethernet ports with pfsense installed can handle this, and as a benefit should handle much greater VPN speeds than a consumer router.
      I used a Shuttle DS57U for my own setup as it was passively cooled and had dual intel NICs, but there are thousands of solutions that will work.
      Make sure the device has AES-NI to accelerate encryption if you have a fast connection, without it you are unlikely to break 100Mbps VPN throughput.

      Pfsense themselves sell a pre-made, supported device that would

    • Most routers have VPN clients, which you can use to connect to a VPN server thus sending all of your LAN's web traffic (or optionally all network traffi) over the VPN. The high-end routers also have OpenVPN clients (and servers if you want to connect to your home LAN from the Internet). And DD-WRT supports both an OpenVPN client and server, so any router which can be upgraded to DD-WRT will also work.

      So I just subscribed to a VPN service which supports OpenVPN (actually they just give me sole access to

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      For a small network, the last device on the network out is a router that supports the VPN.
      No packet in or out can then escape the VPN as that is the only network.
      Just make sure the router has the support, CPU, RAM needed for the network size and speeds.
      I would not fully trust any OS or browser solution given the role of other networks to request isp ip like data from a browser or OS. VPN the entire network and hope anything that is requested or induced only gets the VPN ip.

    • pfSense works just fine. Depending on their internet connection get a newer CPU with AES-NI and you should have no problem routing all the traffic.

    • 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

      • My question wasn't whether it's technically possible to set up a VPN. It was more, is anyone providing that as a service? Specifically, one focussed on privacy (obscuring the source of the traffic and not logging), and also that is reputable security service (marketing to businesses rather than pirates).

        • Oh ok, gotcha. In that case, I'd go for Private Internet Access. Their privacy rules are very good (in all cases we have to take the company's own statement on it), price is good, performance seems to be good, and it uses open standards for VPN connections. It also isn't like some where they are located in some minor island nation you've never heard of, they are in the US.

          It's what I use and what my instructor at SANS recommended to someone else this week who asked the same question.

          If you wanted to filter

  • Out of the skillet and into the fire (Score:3)

    by suso ( 153703 ) * on Wednesday April 12, 2017 @09:16PM (#54226071) Journal

    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 [wired.com]

  • Here it is again: https://theouterlinux.com/priv... [theouterlinux.com] 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... [theouterlinux.com]ðY"--/ for other categories.

  • Independent VPN evaluation site (Score:4, Informative)

    by Foresto ( 127767 ) on Thursday April 13, 2017 @12:29AM (#54226737) Homepage

    ThatOnePrivacyGuy on /r/privacy [reddit.com] manages That One Privacy Site, including a handy VPN section:

    https://thatoneprivacysite.net... [thatoneprivacysite.net]

    Unlike most other VPN reviews, this one encourages community discussion [reddit.com] and appears to be impartial [reddit.com].

    • Yes, and AFAIK the guy is using iVPN.net but cannot recommend it, it is the one that best fit his need.

  • ...as I will explain: http://www.linuxjournal.com/co... [linuxjournal.com]
  • ...as I will explain. http://www.linuxjournal.com/co... [linuxjournal.com]
  • 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.

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