Private VPN Service – Online Security and Anonymity

A private VPN service is crucial to masking your IP address and being anonymous online. You might be in a country that censors the internet.  You might be sending and receiving private documents.  You might need to change your IP to unblock sites from another country.  You might even just care about your privacy online.  Whatever the reason, virtual private networks out-perform any other type of privacy tool online.  There are of course, a variety of privacy policies, user agreements, and Terms of Service.  Here’s my take on some of the VPN services I’ve personally tried and dealt with over the years.

 

VyprVPN

If your goal is privacy, there’s quite a few reasons why VyprVPN is number one on my list for private VPN services.  Of course, before signing up, one of the most important things you need to do is to read through the Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and other Legal jargon.  One thing I like about Golden Frog (which owns VyprVPN), is that they’ve presented this in a pretty simple manner.  They’re very clear about what they do, what they don’t do, and what VyprVPN is used for.  This takes a load off my mind, and makes understanding what I’m signing up for a lot clearer.

Second, they own their own network and servers.  Now, other services are not specific about this point, but one thing is clear with Golden Frog – everything is done through them, and there is no 3rd party involvement.  Golden Frog provides a variety of services, including online storage called Dump Truck, Usenet Newsgroups called Giganews, and a Usenet browser called Mimo.  Everything is done through Golden Frog servers. Everything is private.

This self-contained system of online tools is reassuring.  But aside from complete privacy, Golden Frog, and specifically VyprVPN have great customer service. I’ve been in communication with one of their representatives for some time now, and no matter how many annoying or small questions I have, support is fast, clear, and friendly.  Remember that no matter how great technology is, something always goes wrong, or there’s always something new to be investigated.  Fast and friendly customer service is just as important as having a product that works as advertised.  24/7/365 support means that you’re never more than a couple hours away from getting your questions answered.

Reading privacy policies sucks, so I’ve taken some highlights from their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service pages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To basically sum things up, any VPN service does have limitations to anonymity online.  Illegal things like child porn, illegal hacking, monitoring other users without permission, spam, and downloading/distributing copyrighted material is not supported.  Doing so could get you account discontinued, and if the authorities find out, any VPN service is going to have to comply with LOCAL laws.

 

 

 

 

>>> Go to VyprVPN

 

Hide My Ass

Hide My Ass actually had their privacy policy put to the test in recent years.  There was a group of hackers called “Lulzsec” that used HMA’s service as part of their hacking bonanza on places like Sony, the British Government, NATO, AT&T, Viacom, Disney, EMI, NBC Universal, British newspapers, and other law enforcement agencies.  Eventually the guys were caught.  Their getting caught was in part thanks to HMA having information about users on their network.

The backlash from advocates of online privacy and HMA users was intense.  How was it possible that a service designed to keep you anonymous online could give you up so easily?  Would HMA cave at the threat of any government or private organization demanding user information?

Hide My Ass’s response was quick and concise, and I think this even did more good than harm for their company.  First, it made it clear that VPNs are not to be used for illegal activity. As I mentioned above, some of the more common offenses VPN services are used for are credit card fraud, spam, and hacking.

The other thing that came from this is that is clearer as to what “privacy” or “anonymous surfing” means.  HMA’s policy is that they do not monitor your online activity. They don’t even keep record of it.  What you do online is private.  However, if something illegal happens, and the IP is traced back to a Hide My Ass VPN server, they have ways of finding out who it was, and finding you.

Why? Well, for the obvious reason of keeping the integrity of the service.  Did you really think there could be some kind of service to that makes illegal activity legal? No way.  Not just from a legal standpoint, but from a technical standpoint as well, knowing how many users are logged into a server and what time they log in, is important for making a VPN service run efficiently.

Their Privacy Policy and Terms Of Service are a bit long, and a bit more detailed. Here are some highlights.

 

 

 

 

 

>>> Go To Hide My Ass

 

12VPN

This is another professional private VPN service.  They haven’t got anything new to add that I haven’t covered above.  No spam, no hacking, no copyrighted material, no illegal stuff. Subject to local laws/court appeals. These guys have a great support team, and they’ve got a wider selection of VPN protocols and security features than Hide My Ass.  If 128 bit encryption isn’t enough for you, how about 4096 bit encryption? Yes. Check it out.

 

>>> Go To 12VPN

 

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