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VPN Searches Soar as Congress Votes to Repeal Broadband Privacy Rules


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VPN Searches Soar as Congress Votes to Repeal Broadband Privacy Rules

 

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Last week the US Senate voted to do away with broadband privacy rules that prevent ISPs from selling subscribers' internet browsing histories to third parties. Congress followed suit yesterday, with a 215-205 vote in favor of repeal. But as the news sinks in, US citizens are apparently considering counter-measures, with searches for VPNs quickly going skywards.

 

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In a blow to privacy advocates across the United States, the House of Representatives voted Tuesday to grant Internet service providers permission to sell subscribers’ browsing histories to third parties.

 

The bill repeals broadband privacy rules adopted last year by the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration, which required ISPs to obtain consumer consent before using their data for advertising or marketing purposes.

 

The House of Representatives voted 215-205 in favor of overturning the regulations after the Senate voted to revoke the rules last week. President Donald Trump’s signature is needed before it can go into law but with the White House giving its full support, that’s a given.

 

“The Administration strongly supports House passage of S.J.Res. 34, which would nullify the Federal Communications Commission’s final rule titled ‘Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunication Services’,” the White House said in a statement yesterday.

 

“If S.J.Res. 34 were presented to the President, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law.”

 

If that happens, the US will free up the country’s Internet service providers to compete in the online advertising market with platform giants such as Google and Facebook. Of course, that will come at the expense of subscribers’ privacy, whose every browsing move online can be subjected to some level of scrutiny.

 

While supporters say that scrapping the regulations will mean that all Internet companies will operate on a level playing field when it comes to privacy protection, critics say that ISPs should be held to a higher level of accountability.

 

Whereas consumers have a choice over which information can be shared with websites, browsing history via an ISP is total, potentially exposing sensitive issues concerning health, finances, or even sexual preferences.

 

With this in mind, it’s no surprise that US Internet users are beginning to realize that everything they do online could soon be exposed to third-parties intent on invading their privacy in the interests of commerce. Predictably, questions are being raised over what can be done to mitigate the threat.

 

Aside from cutting the cord entirely, there’s only one practical way to hinder ISPs, and that’s through the use of some form of encryption. Importantly, visitors to basic HTTP websites will have no browsing protection whatsoever. Those using HTTPS can assume that although ISPs will still know which URLs they’ve visited, content exchanged will be cloaked.

 

Of course, for those looking for a more workable solution, VPNs – Virtual Private Networks – can provide a much greater level of encrypted protection, especially among providers who promise to keep no logs.

 

As a result, various providers, including blackVPN, ExpressVPN, LiquidVPN, StrongVPN and Torguard, have weighed in on the debate via social media. NordVPN have also spoken out against the bill in the press, and Private Internet Access even took out a full page ad in the New York Times this week.

 

It’s now becoming clear that while it was once a somewhat niche activity, VPN use could now be about to hit the mainstream.

 

Taking a look at Google Trends results for the search term ‘VPN’, we can see that interest across the United States is now double what it was back in 2012. The significant surge to the right of the chart is likely attributable to the past few weeks of debate surrounding the repeal of broadband privacy rules.

 

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While most VPN providers have been campaigning against the changes, there can be no doubt that the signing of the bill into law will be extremely good for business. As seen from the above, record numbers of people are learning about VPNs and there’s even encouragement coming in from people at the very top of Internet commerce.

 

Following the vote yesterday, Twitter general counsel Vijaya Gadde took to her company’s platform to‏ suggest that citizens should take steps to protect their privacy.

 

Her tweet, which was later attributed to her own opinion and not company policy, was retweeted by Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey.

 

It will be interesting to see how the new rules will affect VPN uptake longer term when the fuss around the debate this month has died down. Nevertheless, there seems little doubt that VPN use will rise to some extent and that could be bad news for copyright holders seeking to enforce their rights online.

 

In addition to stopping ISPs from spying on users’ browsing histories, a good VPN also prevents users being monitored online when using BitTorrent. A further handy side-effect is that they also render site-blocking efforts useless.

 

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2 hours ago, 46&2 said:

I can see in the near future where anyone using a VPN will be suspect of fowl and dastardly doings!

ISps already were selling peoples data. so really nothing changed

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-04-07/fcc-rules-could-hurt-isp-data-mining

There are even V"PN  that use  stealth techniques to hide their VPN traffic so you're isp dont see that you use one a few  like this  is ExpressVPN and VPN.AC  more vpns would do this if they were a high demand for this. Encryption tech is always  2 steps ahead . HTTPS  v1 is still used on some sites there trying ti get every HTTPS site upgrade too v2  but HTTPS v3 has been out along time . Just people are very slow to embrasure new tech.

 

Congress stop accepting   messages from the   EFF  it seems because  what they say dont seem too do much good since years ago . If you read the news very much it gets very uninteresting quick anything that happens a 1000 sites post about it over and over even if its a over blown turd  like them repealing this bill was . The mainstream media is starting make me sick  after watching them post the same stories  over and over again,  over blown with fake stuff mixed in the articles . I miss these days when the news was just a half and hour program. Now days there is so much news outlets they have ran out anything too talk about and  it gets posted over and over for weeks even if it's fake.

 

Fact is if all websites would switch over too HTTPS and changing you're DNS  they would not be able too see you're data no ways . The reason ISP have been slow at  progressing in the ads game they cant see HTTPS encrypted traffic they can only see the domains you visit not the actual data. If you block active mixed and displayed  content in  Firefox were HTTP cant get trough HTTPS  sites will  protect you from you're ISP . Also TOR even if they was to try too block it you can build a bridge  and get around that too . Were VPN and TOR come in handy  for this is  because part of the internet is still in the stone ages using http.

 

Here is some good research about  this What ISPs Can See Clarifying the technical landscape of the broadband privacy debate.

https://www.teamupturn.com/reports/2016/what-isps-can-see

VPN have been around for years an still many who have them only use them sometimes and many don't want one . The way  they spy on users on https sites is trough dns  .

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Google searches for VPNs have surged markedly in recent times

 

As you might expect, after the US Congress voted to cast aside ISP privacy rules – following the Senate’s lead in overturning regulations that prevent ISPs from sharing users’ browser data – there has been a major surge of interest in VPN services over in the States, with Google searches showing a marked uptick for the term.

 

As you can see in the Google Trends graph below, searches for ‘VPN’ (virtual private network) have witnessed a major spike following these votes, and indeed since earlier in the month when the controversy was merely brewing.

 

As of the week ending March 11, the Trends graph for the US showed the VPN search term at a rating of 79, with it then quickly accelerating up to 100, where it currently resides.

 

That means there are now roughly a quarter more searches being made by people curious about a VPN, likely having heard mention of the term in connection with the US legislation.

 

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Curiouser and curiouser

 

Of course, curious is the key word here – this doesn’t necessarily mean tons of people who previously didn’t bother are going to start using a VPN. It just shows that there’s a lot of interest in VPNs, although exactly how that will translate to increased usage is anyone’s guess.

 

That said, it’s a fair indication that more people are going to be signing up to VPN providers, or considering other methods of keeping their browsing history secret from their ISP (like the Tor browser, for instance).

 

Be aware that if you are considering a VPN, you need to choose a quality provider – remember that while using a virtual private network may cover your surfing history from your ISP, it won’t hide it from the VPN firm itself. So the company needs to be one you can trust (i.e. an outfit with a transparent and watertight privacy policy for starters).

 

Reviews are always helpful, too, and we’ve got some recommendations on the best VPNs to use right here.

 

Meanwhile, the VPN providers themselves are certainly not being shy of taking advantage of this recent privacy storm, with Private Internet Access even paying for a full-page advert in the New York Times highlighting the 50 Senators who ‘voted to monitor your internet activity for financial gain’.

 

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4 hours ago, CrAKeN said:

Reviews are always helpful, too, and we’ve got some recommendations on the best VPNs to use right here.

 

you should not trust only one review, better compare the results of more then one site

 

https://privacytoolsio.github.io/privacytools.io/

https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-section/

https://www.deepdotweb.com/vpn-comparison-chart/

https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/

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