VPN service recommends

[Lisa Kachold]

Hello Ken,

See my comments below:

On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 10:12 AM, Ken <parabellum7 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Greetings!
>
> I'm looking for a (free?) VPN service for safer use of public wifi spots
> and to improve general security, privacy and anonymity at home. This would
> be for general web use using Linux Mint. I don't currently have a need to
> VPN home-to-office. Research reveals many choices, I'm hoping some of you
> gurus can help narrow the list of trustworthy VPN providers.
>
> Thanks!
>
> (partial list of ones that look interesting but haven't tried yet)
>
> justfreevpn.com: keeps logs
> torproject.org: open source
>

Of course this is not a real VPN solution, is it?


> vpnbook.com: claims no logging
> freelan.org: open source
> logmeinhamachi.com: good reviews
>

I don't believe logmein/hamachi supports Linux anymore?


> openvpn.net:
>
I like the OpenVPN project and the OpenVPN AS service the best.
It's just so easy to setup and works well.

Of greater consideration here (of which you referenced by using TOR in
these lists) are our privacy rights which VPN use enhances:

The U.S. is in the middle of an upheaval when it comes to monitoring
citizens’ online activities. Over the last few years, law enforcement
agencies have been pushing for unprecedented powers of surveillance and
access to your private online communications. While it’s true that
surveillance laws need to be updated for the internet age, it’s clear law
enforcement is simply using this opportunity to achieve its Holy Grail –
the ability to spy on citizens without any judicial oversight.

Although it hasn’t yet been made law, we’ve already seen warrantless
surveillance of online communications. The NSA wiretapping controversy saw
the Bush administration collect web logs and emails, directly from Internet
Service Providers, without any judicial oversight and largely in effort to
silence critics of the government (instead of the stated aim of defeating
terrorism) (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy).
Rather than reverse this practice, the Obama adminstration instead sought
to continue it under new FISA guidelines (
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/us/01nsa.html?_r=0).

Not content with accessing information from ISPs, legislators introduced
CISPA to make it easier for law enforcement to access your information from
private companies (
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/cispa-passes-out-house-without-any-fixes-core-concerns).
CISPA attempted to allow companies, such as Google and Facebook, to spy on
users’ personal information and share data with not just the government,
but anyone, without fear of legal repercussions. While CISPA passed the
House convincingly, it was thankfully defeated due to a the threat of a
veto by Obama. But the issue of online surveillance remains and another
bill will undoubtedly be drafted to take CISPA’s place. Remember, unlike
the data stored in your house, emails stored on a server are not protected
by the Fourth Amendment (
http://digitaldueprocess.org/index.cfm?objectid=37940370-2551-11DF-8E02000C296BA163
).

On top of CISPA-esque legislation, the growing threat of a data retention
bill in the US also looms large. Data retention is the practice of ISPs
storing customers’ online data. This data includes every website you’ve
visited, all your email logs, and your billing information. In Europe a
‘Data Retention Directive’ has been in place since 2006, forcing every ISP
to retain online data for at least 1 year following cancellation of their
service (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Retention_Directive). The US
currently does not have a state-mandated data retention policy. But the
Obama administration is clearly pushing for such a law (
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/john-morris/doj-looking-mandatory-internet-data-retention-law?quicktabs_4=0).
At the moment ISPs are free to set their own policies. As this article
shows, some ISPs retain data for around a year, while others like AT&T
refuse to even disclose how long they store your information (
http://torrentfreak.com/how-long-does-your-isp-store-ip-address-logs-120629/
).

Protecting your data

Make no mistake, abuse of power by law enforcement extends to the online
world. But there are tools you can use to protect yourself. Here’s a quick
rundown of the three most popular ways to keep your data private.

TOR (https://www.torproject.org/)

The Onion Router (TOR) is a free-to-use privacy platform, which obscures
your IP address and lets your surf the web (almost) anonymously. The only
problem with TOR is that you have to place some trust in the individuals
running the exit nodes which help protect your IP address. Also because
it’s free, TOR frequently suffers from slower connection speeds and is not
suitable for downloading large files.

L2P (http://www.i2p2.de/index.html)

L2P is another free-to-use platform, which helps anonymise your data. L2P
is generally considered harder to use than TOR, mainly because it’s less
common and there’s less support for beginner users. However, L2P is
well-suited to sharing files directly between users and arguably offers
greater privacy than TOR.

Virtual Private Networks

Full disclosure: I work for the Virtual Private Network and privacy service
IVPN (www.ivpn.net). Commercial VPNs offer a privacy service usually on a
subscription pricing-model. There are loads of VPNs out there, but not all
of them are genuine privacy services. Some retain customer data in exactly
the same way as an ISP and are therefore compelled by law to hand over that
data if requested. Before signing-up to a VPN make sure you check their
data retention policy. The benefits of using a VPN over TOR is that they’re
generally easier to set-up and offer faster speeds. You can find out more
on choosing a VPN that protects your data right here (
http://www.ivpn.net/blog/when-law-enforcement-knocks-on-a-vpns-door-what-happens)
and here’s a great list of VPNs that take privacy seriously (
http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-that-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2013-edition-130302/
).

*End Excerpt from *
http://www.copblock.org/33628/the-growing-threat-of-online-surveillance-and-how-to-protect-yourself/


Interestingly enough this post was on "copblock".

>
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