What is Peerblock and how does it work?

Peerblock is software that is available for free and BitTorrent and P2P users often use it to make downloads anonymous by preventing peer connections from specific IP addresses.

The software enables users to select blocklists provided by 3rd party. The thought behind this is that if you’re able to identify specific IP addresses that are undesirable, such as those being used by monitoring agencies, governments, or malicious users, who may sell the data to third parties, these connections can be blocked, supposedly making torrents downloading safer.

Is Peerblock good for torrenting?

Downloading torrents may be dangerous: your activity may be tracked, your computer may get infected with malware, spyware, ransomware. That is why you need to learn how to torrent safely.

Using Peerblock is a good idea, but it is not enough. There are a number of shortcomings when using Peerblock.

Data is not encrypted

Peerblock does not encrypt data, which means your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will have full access to your data stream and will be able to monitor what you’re doing.

They can see which websites are being visited and which protocols are being used, including BitTorrent. 

It is not possible to block all undesirable IP addresses

Peerblock uses blocklists that contain different types of IP ranges. Some ranges belong to the government, some to research institutions, etc. The reality is however that blocking every potentially malicious peer means you’ll have to block all IP addresses available, as you can never be certain who is using which IP, especially which IP addresses are used to monitor torrent activity. This would leave you with no peers to connect to.

Peerblock blocks too many IP addresses

If the 3 most popular blocklists available for Peerguard are used, more than 1.1 billion IP addresses would be blocked. This is more than 25% of all available IPv4 addresses globally.

As a vast number of these peers will actually not be undesirable or malicious, users are left with a relatively small number of peers to choose from, reducing download speeds substantially.

Peerblock vs VPN

Peerblock is clearly not an alternative for a VPN. It is more a complementary solution.

VPNs hide internet traffic

A VPN encrypts online traffic meaning it can’t be monitored to see what is being done on the Internet – not by any torrent monitoring agency, ISP, or government.

PeerBlock does however not offer any encryption, meaning your torrent traffic is not secure against surveillance. It can also not block ISPs to prevent them from monitoring traffic.

A VPN hides your real IP address

Although PeerBlock blocks unwanted IP addresses, it does not hide your own IP address to keep it safe.

On the other hand, VPNs replace your address with the server’s IP address the moment you connect to the service.

Peerblock can be circumvented 

If you, for example, use PeerBlock to block a copyright agency, there is nothing stopping them from simply using a different IP address to evade that ban, and then tracking you.

PeerBlock hasn’t been updated regularly

The last update for PeerBlock was apparently done in 2014 and there have been no improvements since.

The good VPNs, however, are updated regularly ensure there are no potential bugs or issues that may ruin your torrenting experience.

Peerblock alternatives

There are several alternatives to PeerBlock available:

VPNs

A VPN is a far better option than PeerBlock. 

Using a VPN while downloading torrent is, in my opinion, a must. Even though they come with a price (as there are no good free VPN services that you can use for torrenting), the benefits are far more important. Here is a list of recommended torrent VPN providers.

As VPNs hide the user’s real IP address, they don’t have to always worry about hackers and cybercriminals finding personal information. (Don’t forget to check your torrent IP while downloading in order to make sure your VPN is running properly.)

Simplewall

Simplewall is an open-source firewall that blocks incoming and outgoing and traffic based on the user configuration.

It is more lightweight than Peerblock and offers better capabilities for network monitoring, even blocking Windows spying and telemetry by default.

BeeThink IP Blocker

BeeThink IP Blocker is a firewall that is user-friendly and offers more control over the IP addresses to be blocked compared to PeerBlock. 

Summary

In theory, Peerblock sounds like a good option to make downloading torrents safe, as it will prevent undesirable IP addresses from connecting to you and then being able to see what you’re doing online.

In practice, however, Peerblock has many flaws that in reality makes the software unsuitable for its intended purpose. There are a number of alternatives to PeerBlock available that will, in fact, help you make torrenting safer by preventing monitoring agencies from being able to see what you’re doing online.

Of these, using a VPN is probably the best and safest option (see the arguments presented above in the Peerblock vs VPN section) as it encrypts your data and hides your IP address.

VPNs are perfect for solving many online privacy challenges as they hide your IP-address, encrypt your data, and unblock content protected by IP-addresses. This allows them to provide internet users with safety and anonymity.

There are, however, some potential disadvantages that come with using a VPN. In this article, I will describe some of those disadvantages, while also highlighting the stark difference between paid and free VPNs.

Common disadvantages of VPN services

The VPN usage is clearly beneficial, but VPN connections may affect Internet usage in various ways, with the most common disadvantages of VPN listed below:

• Slows down the Internet connection.
• Some VPN services are specifically blocked.
• VPNs may be illegal to use.
• The encryption used by a VPN may not be strong enough.
• Some VPNs log and may resell user’s internet habits to third parties.
• Some free VPNs are in fact worse than using none at all.

A VPN can slow down your Internet speed

VPN servers use an additional layer of security by routing an internet connection to a VPN provider before taking it to the website being visited. This means all data have to use a longer route than normal and complexity is added to the connection.

If a VPN provider that is not powerful enough is used, the Internet connection will become extremely slow. These effects will be most noticeable when high-speed internet is used for downloading or streaming. This is probably the most common of the disadvantages of VPN.

Although there is always an internet speed reduction when using a VPN provider, this is not really a problem when a reputable one with lots of power is used. In this case, it is quite likely that you will still easily get up to 95% of the original speed. 

You may get blocked by certain online services

Services that distribute content to specific target audience groups discourage the use of a VPN. One example of this would be a government blocking certain content for their citizens for whatever reasons. VPNs can be used to bypass these restrictions and will allow users to access the content anyway. In some cases, this results in a general ban on all VPNs.

Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, have contracts with movie distributors that only allows them to show content in specific countries. As VPNs can once again be used to bypass these restrictions (unblock Netflix, watch Hulu), the streaming services are always actively looking for the VPN services that are used to do so and will block them. There are however still some VPN providers that will ensure they always have servers available that can still be used to watch Netflix.

VPN services may monitor your browsing behavior

When using a VPN provider your internet traffic is routed through their servers so that your data is encrypted and your IP address is hidden by one of their many servers. When doing this, you essentially buy safety and anonymity and you need to trust your VPN provider to not abuse the data that is routed through their servers. Many VPN providers (aka, logless VPN providers or zero-log VPNs) stick to their end of the deal and will ignore your personal data completely. They will not store your data or log what you do.

There are, however, VPN providers that do log your data, especially ones that offer their services for free. In the license agreement of some providers, it is even clearly stated that they may do this. This scenario defeats the purpose of using VPN services in the first place and it is one of the fundamentals of the disadvantages of VPN.

These are however not the worst offenders.

The real problem comes in when a paid VPN provider claims they don’t have logs, but it later turns out they do in fact log everything.

One publicized case involved HideMyAss, a VPN provider that was requested by the FBI to make information on one of their customers available as they were suspected of conducting illegal activities on the dark web. Although initially refusing to do so, the company eventually handed over very specific logs about the user’s activities.

Free VPNs can put your privacy in danger

Before selecting a VPN provider to protect your online data, you need to do your research, or risk picking one that does the complete opposite. 

Inexperienced and free VPN providers can inadvertently land you in trouble as their encryption is often not configured properly and they may even expose you to malware.

Your privacy will also be endangered if you use a VPN provider that logs your online activities.

This can, however, be avoided easily by using a paid VPN service that does not keep logs and offers high-end security.

VPN can be illegal in your location

In some countries, using VPN services is illegal. In countries that consider private networks to be illegal, most VPN services will, in fact, be blocked. If this is the case for you, the risk of using a VPN is unfortunately too great to consider.

Summary

Although they are great for providing internet users with safety and anonymity, there are a number of potential disadvantages of VPN.

Fortunately, most of these risks can be mitigated easily by doing your research and only using reputable VPN providers. Although this generally means that you will have to pay a bit more for the service, is it really worthwhile compromising your online safety and anonymity to save a few bucks?  

Betternet is a popular free VPN service that hides your public IP address and encrypts your Internet traffic. But, is Betternet safe for regular usage? Is your data secure while using Betternet? Let’s find out.

What is Betternet VPN?

Betternet is a relatively new free VPN service founded in 2015 and based in Canada. Betternet offers VPN functionality without any costs involved.

Although there is a paid version available on iOS and Android, the free version will run on Firefox, Chrome, Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. The VPN Betternet apps are really easy to use.

How is Betternet free?

Betternet is totally free and, as registration is not required, you don’t have to give a name or even an email address.

Although this sounds good, VPN providers have to generate revenue in some way, and this is not always done scrupulously.

For several years, Betternet made money by relying on affiliate videos and apps served through the app.

At one point, Betternet was acquired by AnchorFree, another VPN provider – the parent company of Hotspot Shield, and started to switch from an ad-based to a freemium business model.

A premium version of Betternet was launched late in 2017. This version allows users to access dedicated servers, a bigger IP selection, and location options, and customer support (live chat and tickets). There is a free 7-day trial available that will enable users to try out the features without having to pay first.

Betternet main features

IP address

Betternet masks users’ real IP addresses by using one of their own IP addresses. Servers are located in Asia, Europe, and the US, and users can connect to these and appear as an Internet user from Germany or Hong Kong. This prevents anyone from knowing what you do online.

Data Encryption

Data and personal information are not safeguarded by the masking of an IP address. Betternet provides state of the art encryption for reliable protection of any info shared online. The IPSec protocol protects data with strong 128-bit AES-CBC encryption. Betternet also uses the OpenVPN protocol with military-grade 256-bit AES encryption.

OpenVPN is seen as the best VPN protocol, and it is exceptionally adaptable and can work on any port.

Betternet also uses its own Hexa protocol, which is almost impossible to break. To use the Hexa protocol, you need to use the HexaTech app, by downloading it from Play Store or iTunes.

Additional Security Features

To use Betternet, no personal information is required for downloading or activation as it is free. This offers privacy and security, keeping you safe even before actually activating the app.

For extra safety, Betternet has a strict no-logs policy, which means it doesn’t save any of your activity logs, ports, or personal information. This is very important because if the authorities ask for any information, there is no information to give.

Platforms

Betternet VPN works on most major platforms. The free VPN service is compatible with Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. Computers, tablets, smartphones, and iPads can be protected and used safely whenever needed. Proxy extensions for Chrome and Firefox are also available to protect browsers for free separately.

Betternet VPN cons

Online anonymity

Although popular, Betternet may not be secure as advertised. An academic study of VPN apps conducted in 2017 revealed that the Betternet VPN Android app embedded 14 tracking libraries.

Further, the study shows that the Betternet app was seen as dangerous for users by anti-viruses solutions.

Although there seemed to be no evidence that Betternet VPN injects malware or does anything else disreputable in this study, the mere fact that they have been identified as being suspicious is worrying.

Ads

With any free service or product, ads are inevitable. They need to pay for expensive servers and bandwidth, thus the need to make money somehow. If you use Betternet’s free version, you will have to accept seeing ads.

Betternet’s privacy policy clearly states that some of the users’ data is employed to serve personalized ads.

There are, however, many reasonably priced VPNs available that don’t show ads, making it difficult to tolerate them in an app that is free.

Speed

Although it is unrealistic to expect much from free VPNs, the download speed achieved is sometimes quite low.

This means that the Betternet VPN service is not suitable for torrenting. Betternet IPs are also blocked by Netflix, so even if the speed was fast enough, users wouldn’t be able to use it for this service.

Betternet is just about only useful for P2P file-sharing, but downloading anything but tiny files would have you waiting for a long time.

Kill Switch

Another downside of Betternet VPN is the fact that it does not offer automatic Kill Switch. Thus, in case of unexpected disconnects IP leaks are possible.

FAQ

Can Betternet be trusted?

Unfortunately, the answer to this question is NO. The Betternet VPN apps, even though they are easy to use, are using third parties tracking libraries and they monitor user behavior.

Does Betternet hide your IP?

Yes, Betternet desktop and mobile applications work as regular VPN apps that hide your public IP address by tunneling your Internet traffic through a VPN server.

Conclusion – Is Betternet safe for use?

This is not a complete Betternet review as the article only focuses on the question: is the Betternet free VPN service safe?

It is not safe to use Betternet VPN. This opinion is based on the following findings:

• The Betternet VPN service was hacked in 2017, and Chrome extensions were used to spread malware.
• Betternet VPN apps have been found to contain tracking libraries.
• Betternet apps are seen as suspicious by anti-virus solutions.

To sum up, you are using the Betternet free VPN on your own risk. Also, make sure you know what the disadvantages of VPNs are.

VPN companies can see and store various types of information related to their users’ identity and behavior. Some VPN providers keep logs for troubleshooting, others for improving their systems. However, some VPNs do not keep any user information. Such a service is called “logless VPN,” or “no-log VPN,” or “zero log VPN.”

What are VPN logs?

Typically in Virtual private networks (VPNs), incoming and outgoing data is encrypted to protect users’ online privacy, anonymity, and personal information transmitted via a network. A record of customer activities while using VPN services is called a VPN log. Logs can be found in various categories and forms.

Usage logs

Both ISP (Internet Service Provider) and VPN can see and store users unencrypted data including:

• Records of visited websites;
• Accessed internet resources such as downloaded files;
• Passwords entered into non-HTTPS secured sites.

Many times these records may request by court orders. As an example, in the UK, it is required to store these usage files for 12 months so that various government departments can be accessible to them. 

Connection logs

Connection logs include:

• User IP address;
• Timestamp – when an internet connection was started and finished;
• Bandwidth usage.

Real-time logs

All network devices, including VPNs, generate real-time logs which may last within few milliseconds. They can be monitored in real-time, and VPN services monitor them to identify issues related to the connection. Nevertheless, real-time logs can be less harmful to user privacy.

Server logs

Almost all VPN service providers indeed hire third-party servers spread over the world. These server data centers may not have committed to protecting user privacy, though VPN service providers do. But anyway, it can be identified that the greatest threat is log files which keep by VPN providers, not third-party server centers. 

From a logged IP address, the VPN provider is able to match a corresponding email address and other personal information of the users.

What is a logless VPN?

No log VPN or logless VPN means a VPN that does not collect or log any user information exchanging through the network. Therefore, it protects user privacy and anonymity even from the VPN service provider. No log VPN service providers are more trusted because users choose their service to encrypt sending and receiving data and no-log service ensures that these service providers will not collect user personal data and sell to third parties.

VPN logging policy   

Before selecting a VPN service, it is worth to go through logging policies. The logging policy can be divided into three parts as below. 

Error logs

Some personal information like username, IP address, etc. can be considered as error logs. VPN service providers use these data to identify problems related to their services and to enhance them.

Connection logs

Type of logs which users to track records of user online activities. When digital privacy companies need to monitor their multi-login features, these records become useful. 

Activity logs

VPNs can monitor each user’s activities including web requests, what kind of files are downloading etc. in other words, VPN servers can route all web traffic comes through their network.

5 Eyes, 9 Eyes & 14 Eyes Countries

5 Eyes, 9 Eyes & 14 Eyes are standard terms involving the VPN and other privacy tools. These are international surveillance alliances countries that work to collect and share mass surveillance data. On the other hand, these countries acting as one global surveillance entity and spy on users and their activities (as examples documents, location data, calls, etc.).

It is worth knowing that in many countries, data retention is legal while in some countries like Australia, it is mandatory. Unless a user does not use an excellent VPN service, it is easy to log all user DNS requests and collect the data (BTW, I recommend using a no-log DNS as well).

• 5 Eyes countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States;
• 9 Eyes countries: 5 Eyes + Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway;
• 14 Eyes countries: 9 Eyes + Germany, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Spain.

So simply above countries monitor online activities of all users and regularly share them. Therefore, better to avoid choosing VPN services that have their headquarters in the above countries — in addition to those below countries also acting as spying agents on online activities.

• South Korea
• Singapore
• Israel
• Japan
• United Arab Emirates

The best logless VPNs

As mentioned earlier, before choosing a VPN provider you should be aware of the disadvantages of a VPN and you should go through their logging policy and focus on the following factors:

• Jurisdiction;
• Should have shared IP addresses;
• No traffic logging and source IP logs;
• Bitcoin payment option.

And here are the logless VPNs that I recommend:

NordVPN

• VPN provider based in Panama, so there is no influence from USA NSA and copyright holders, servers in 47 countries. Perfect at your logless VPN service. NordVPN was the subject of several independent audits.
• Six simultaneous devices.
• Accept anonymous payment in Bitcoin.
• Route traffic through two servers (double-hop VPN chaining), so this has excellent utility.
• P2P permitted.
• OpenVPN encryption with perfect forward secrecy.
• Supports obfsproxy technology to defeat censorship.
• User-friendly apps for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux.
• 30-day money-back guarantee.

ExpressVPN

• VPN provider registered in the British Virgin Islands.
• For practical purposes, this keeps minimal anonymous usage statistics excluding IP and connection timestamp. 
• Fast performance, 24/7 customer support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
• Servers located across 94 countries enhancing the speed, privacy, and access to geographically restricted data. An impressive number of IP addresses offered.
• A new free smart domain name system (DNS) helps to run streaming services smoothly on a VPN (Ex: unblock Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu).
• Simple and effective Kill Switch.
• IPv6 leak protection.
• Available as a desktop tool as well as Android and iOS apps.
• Works great on routers.
• Three simultaneous connections, peer-to-peer (P2P) permitted (learn how to torrent safely).

ibVPN

• VPN provider based in Romania.
• It does not keep user logs. 
• Multiple usages on up to 5 devices.
• 1-day free trial plus a 15-day money-back guarantee.
• Full IPv4 and IPv6 DNS leak protection. WebRTC leak protection.
• HTTPS and SOCKS5 proxies available.
• Access to Double VPN, Stealth VPN, Shadowsocks.
• Advanced Kill Switch functions.
• Excellent customer service.
• Great for torrenting, file sharing.
• Read our complete ibVPN review here.

How to be sure your VPN provider does not keep logs?

Read VPNs privacy policies and terms of service

Although “no logs” mentioned in the VPN web site or advertisements, it is worth to read printed terms of services to make sure the same replicate in there. 

Warrant Canaries

Sometimes companies must hand over customer details for legal purposes when they require by gag orders, without alerting customers. Some VPNs operate warrant canaries that help customers to identify this kind of thing that has not happened to them.

Summary

Although many VPN providers advertise as “no log,” most of them keep some logs for troubleshooting and to enhance the connection.

When choosing a no-logs policy VPN service users have to go through VPN logging documents as well as have to look at the based countries. We recommend NordVPN (the best VPN in my opinion) or ExpressVPNbut you may also go for Private Internet Access (PIA), HideIPVPN, IPVanish, CyberGhost, Surfshark, PureVPN.

Because in some countries it is entirely legal to access user log files (in other words to spy on user activities), countries where VPN is illegal.

PFS or Perfect Forward Secrecy offers an additional security measure for encrypted communication. VPN services may use PFS to increase data communication security between VPN clients and servers.

What is Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS)?

Perfect forward secrecy is a feature of Internet communication protocols that ensures the security of data exchanged between a client and a server.

What is a session?

The time a user spends from initiating the connection with the server to the end is called a session. As an example, a user starts uploading a file to a particular server and disconnects the connection once it is finished. That time period can be identified as a session.

Along with that file some other technical data, which helps server to contact users, are also exchanged, like IP address, metadata and connection type. With the use of secure connection protocols like SFTP or TLS, these exchange data are encrypted and hence only the client, and the server knows the incoming and outgoing data. There is an encryption key, a shared secret code known only by communication parties, to decrypt the data. Therefore, when a hacker steals data, he will get some useless scrambled data.

Perfect forward secrecy is more than just encryption

Perfect forward secrecy is a step forward security measure than regular encryption.

PFS is encryption with a temporary private key which is produced in VPN client and the VPN server.

A unique session key should be used for each session to protect the transmission of data, and that key exchanged must not be used to derive any additional keys. Also if that key is derived from any other keying material, then that material should not permit to derive any more keys. Since there is a unique session key for each user session, even the compromise of a single session key will not affect any past or future data other than exchanged in the specific session protected by the particular key. 

How does PFS work

In general encryption, a master key, the same private key, is used to encrypt and decrypt all session data initiated by a user between client-server sessions. But if the master key is compromised, all client-server data is also compromised.

However, in PFS, a unique key is provided for each session, and it disappears once the session is over. Therefore, although it is compromised, other session data will be safe. As an extended security feature, within a single communication session, PFC encryption keys can be refreshed. So it limits the amount of data that can be stolen by the cybercriminals if the key is compromised.

The below list shows the key agreement protocols that can be used by PFC encryption.

• DHE-RSA
• DHE-DSA
• ECDHE-RSA
• ECDHE-ECDSA
• ECDH

PFS & VPN

VPN services create secure connections over the public networks and home networks by encrypting user data and routing them through specified servers. It is worth to note that PFS is not enabled by default in VPN, so if a user is looking for PFS VPN it should be clarified that the chosen provider uses PFS encryption by default on certain protocols. The below list shows the specific VPN protocols which use PFS.

• OpenVPN
• SoftEther
• L2TP/IPSec
• IKEv2/IPSec
• SSTP
• Wireguard

PFS in VPN client-server communication works similar to the regular PFS, but both VPN client and server should have PFC enabled interfaces.

Once a user makes a VPN connection with the servers (tunneling process) and the client-server authentication is verified, it develops a unique encryption key via key-exchange (simply at handshaking stage). In case termination of the connection, the VPN re-generate dynamic encryption keys. In this way, every VPN connection has a unique key that prevents any other to steal data even if the server has been hacked.

Drawbacks of using PFS in VPN

PFS enabled VPN needs a stronger encryption layer to hide data of each session separately. So it requires more processing power, and hence it will make a potential delay in a VPN connection. If the user devices do not have more processing power, there will be a potential delay in the VPN connection, and it will slow down the internet speed. But some VPN service providers have overcome this issue by using high-end technologies.

Why is PFS important 

It is true that regular encryption can protect user data, but having a single master key is vulnerable. Because once it is compromised, a hacker can access all session data. As an example, the USA national security agency (NSA) has used this vulnerability to gather data before.

PFS is an additional security measure that adds an extra layer of protection which ensures that user data is more secure on the internet and the possibility of compromising data is lower than conventional encryption methods.

Heartbleed vulnerability – this is a vulnerability found in some implementations of OpenSSL which allows an attacker to read up to 64 kilobytes of memory per attack on any connected client or server including encrypted content, usernames, passwords, and private keys. PFS is the best way to avoid using data from Heartbleed vulnerability. 

Summary

PFS is an additional security measure than traditional encryption methods. It uses a temporary private key for each session to encrypt and decrypt data, and hence it assures the security of past and future data although a private key is compromised. Not all VPN services are PFS enabled, but PFS enabled VPN services can increase the data communication security furthermore.

Due to the required more processing power, users may experience a little delay in internet connection.

The Incognito browser mode or private mode is a web browser feature built to maintain (some) privacy to the browser users. However, it does not hide your public IP address, nor it provides any level of online anonymity.

What is the Incognito mode & how it works?

When someone browses the Internet the web browser (like Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Microsoft Edge) usually saves all kind of data like search history (learn how to protect yourself from search tracking), login details, automatic form filling data, cookies, cache, downloads, so that browser or user can retrieve them when needs.

Incognito or, in other words, the private mode (or private browsing mode) allows the user to browse the web without storing browsing data. Once the user closes the window the web browser in Incognito mode deletes cookies and keeps the browsing history empty. However, bookmarks and downloaded files are kept, and it does not hide user traffic from third parties like network admin, Internet Service Providers, or government. Almost all popular browsers have similar behavior in Incognito/private mode.

Benefits of the Incognito mode

There are several significant benefits in using the Incognito mode:

• Keep user data private – When using a public computer Incognito mode helps to prevent any other to see or use your data.
• Save money – to book hotels and air tickets Incognito mode is very helpful because it is well known that hotel and airline web sites use cookie data to find the travel dates and other information from the browser and to increase prices accordingly.
• To log into multiple accounts – Incognito mode is an entirely isolated session so that the user can access multiple accounts (like more than one Facebook accounts) at once.

Recommended reading: Tips for leaving no trace when using someone else’s computer

How to activate the Incognito mode

To start web browsing in incognito mode, Open the web browser, select File and then Choose a New Private Window or New Incognito Window (This name will be vary depending on the browser.)

Incognito Window – Keyboard shortcuts:

• Chrome: Control/⌘ + Shift + N
• Firefox: Control/⌘ + Shift + P
• Internet Explorer: Control + Shift + P
• Safari: ⌘ + Shift + N

To end the session user can simply close the window. Also, it is worth knowing that incognito mode can be set as default in your browser by changing the browser settings.

Is the Incognito mode really private?

When you open the Google Incognito, it states that

“Your activity might still be visible to:

Websites you visit, including the ads and resources used on those sites

Your employer, school, or whoever runs the network you’re using

Your internet service provider”

Apart from those if the user opens a Google app like Gmail, Chrome, they record your cookies and history just like in regular browsing.  The below list shows the things that can be seen by other people although the user is in incognito mode.

ISP can see what a user is doing or where a user is going

Your ISP can see your internet traffic, can track the web sites you visit or files you download, can record online activities. And also it is complete transparency can be seen in illegally downloaded data when it is using incognito mode. Therefore, the ISP can even sell this data to a third party. Can you trust your ISP?

Network administrator/company admin

They can see what is going on although the user is in incognito mode. This is not only limited to the company machines but also they can monitor other devices of the user when it is using the company Wi-Fi. For example, when you are accessing a particular web site server in your office/school can see when this traffic comes from and to where it is going similar to the ISP.

Websites can recognize you

The user may feel anonymous when he is in the incognito mode. But still web sites can see when you are coming and how long you stay in the particular web sites and they can store and utilize those data for their advertising campaigns etc.

Incognito mode does not affect apps

Apps like Gmail can trace the user online activities although the user is in incognito mode. In simple words when it is running an app, there is no difference between incognito and regular browsing.   

Parental control applications/ spyware applications and keyloggers

Private browsing or safe browsing does not protect the user against parental control type applications installed on the user computer which takes screenshots and monitors the web sites you access. Also, spyware applications that are running on the user computer can monitor the browsing activities.

Can my IP address be tracked while using the Incognito mode?

Incognito mode hides users browsing history but still your public IP address is visible to the web sites you access. Because incognito mode primarily uses to hide the browser history and it doesn’t have security features to prevent malicious attacks or attacks from retrieving your personal data.

How to check? Open a private window and load an IP locator website (like XMyIP.com). If you are not using a hide IP tool, you will see your real IP address and an approximate location.

A virtual private network (VPN) is the best method that is used to hide the personal IP address. Easy to use VPN apps are available. VPN servers act in between user devices and websites. So, when someone performs web browsing, downloading web sites cannot trace the private IP address and user locations. As an example, by using VPN services, everyone can access blocked web sites in a particular region.

Conclusion

Incognito/private mode is not a complex security feature. It can merely hide browsing history and delete cookies when the session is over. But still, ISPs, network administrators, websites can monitor what is going on and user behavior.

Despite that when someone logged to an app like Gmail, despite deleting the history, there is no difference between incognito and regular browsing.

Also, in the incognito mode it does not hide your private IP address, so to hide IP address user must go for other options just like by using VPN services or using the Tor browser.

Stealth VPN is a term used to describe a VPN protocol or server that makes VPN traffic look like regular web traffic through obfuscation, even when deep packet inspection (DPI) is performed on the traffic by a firewall or network administrator. Learn about StealthVPN, the way it bypasses VPN blocking, the available implementations, and the best Stealth VPN providers.

What is the DPI (Deep Packet Inspection)?

Deep packet inspection (DPI) is an advanced technique used to examine and manage network traffic. It employs packet filtering to locate, identify, classify, reroute or block packets with a specific code or data payload. Conventional packet filtering can’t detect DPI, as it only looks at packet headers.

Deep Packet Inspection tools

Network administrators often use DPI as a security tool to detect and intercept viruses and other types of malicious traffic. However, they can also use it for disreputable activities, such as eavesdropping.

Deep Packet Inspection is also used to streamline the flow of network traffic. A message that is, for example, flagged as a high priority can be sent to its destination before low-priority packets or messages. DPI can also be used to improve network performance by throttling data transfer, thereby preventing peer-to-peer abuse.

DPI has sparked concern among proponents of Net Neutrality and privacy advocates, as it is possible to identify both the recipient and originator from content enclosing specific packets.

What is Obfuscation?

Obfuscating means to make something obscure. When applied to Internet traffic, obfuscating implies that you are trying to hide its real purpose, similar to putting on a disguise.

Obfuscation techniques

Obfuscation is often used to hide TOR or VPN traffic (VPN obfuscation). As some governments and ISPs block connections to these services obfuscation prevents anyone from seeing that your internet traffic is encrypted. It is also used to bypass firewalls so that restricted websites can be accessed. While these objectives may be slightly different, the same method is used to achieve both.

When special tools obfuscate Internet traffic, its original form is changed to a discrete structure that makes it look like regular Internet traffic. When users connect to a VPN, encrypted traffic is altered to look like regular, unencrypted internet traffic. However, the encryption will still be present, and your data will not be readable. Thus, it results in undetectable VPN traffic.

Obfuscation and ISP policies

Whether or not obfuscation will help with the loss of net neutrality remains to be seen, as it depends on what ISPs decide to do in the future. If they choose to block VPN and TOR traffic, then obfuscation will be useful, but if they start charging different rates for using specific services, then your options are limited.

In the latter case, all you’ll be able to do is to make it appear as if you’re using a cheaper service than what you are. One example will be if an ISP charges $1.50/Mb for normal browsing and $2.50/Mb for gaming. Internet traffic could be obfuscated to look like regular browsing instead of gaming to pay the lower rate.

What is Stealth VPN?

A Stealth VPN is a VPN protocol that can let VPN traffic appear as if it is regular web traffic, even when a network administrator activates a DPI firewall.

Firewalls are commonly used to block VPNs in countries where Internet access is restricted or censored. Some examples would include China, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, countries where VPN is illegal. Network administrators also often block VPN access for a company or school network to improve monitoring and control of network activity.

A StealthVPN service will allow you to quickly bypass these blocking mechanisms to create VPN tunnels through a firewall, including the Firewall of China.

How Stealth VPNs work

Though people commonly use the term ‘Stealth,’ it would be more accurate to describe the technology as ‘VPN Camouflage.’ A ‘Stealth’ VPN disguises VPN data packets as regular Internet traffic. The most advanced implementations obfuscate the VPN traffic into HTTPS traffic.

What is HTTPS traffic?

HTTPS connections are crucial for secure data transmissions on the Internet where credit card numbers, passwords, etc. are used. That’s why most firewalls, even if they are very restrictive, won’t block HTTPS packets, making stealth VPN technology very efficient.

SSL or TLS encryption secures the HTTPS traffic. Online banking and credit card transactions use it to increase security, as well as sites like Facebook and Google. If you see the ‘lock’ icon in your browser bar and ‘https’ before the ‘www’ in the URL, you know that your browser uses https. Routers and firewalls identify HTTPS traffic because it always uses port #443.

Stealth VPN techniques can efficiently use this characteristic of HTTPS traffic to impersonate HTTPS data and bypass firewalls undetected.

StealthVPN protocols

OpenVPN

OpenVPN has the best combination of cross-platform compatibility, security, and speed. Therefore, most Stealth VPN servers use OpenVPN encryption to reap these benefits. A local stealth proxy (called obfsproxy) modulates and obfuscates the OpenVPN traffic into regular Internet traffic.

SSTP

SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol) is another stealth protocol that VPN enthusiasts use. But, this protocol is only available on Windows, and not all VPN providers offer it. As SSTP uses SSL encryption as its primary encryption algorithm natively, it does have a significant advantage.

Softether

The relatively new Softether protocol provides the third approach. Due to its SSL-VPN Tunneling on HTTPS, it can ‘penetrate’ highly-restricted firewalls.

StealthVPN vs. OpenVPN

The most common SteathVPN implementations are using OpenVPN and obfsproxy.

A typical data packet used with OpenVPN consists of a header that contains packet identification and routing information. The payload is the strongly encrypted part of the data packet which is forwarded to the correct web address. The header information is used to identify the source of a package, including the port # and the fact that the container contains OpenVPN data.

A stealth VPN uses obfuscation to strip the metadata that identifies the data as belonging to a VPN protocol from the packet header. The disguised packet looks like regular HTTPS encrypted web traffic by using the fact that https uses SSL/TLS Encryption and port #443.

The obfuscation is done by wrapping the OpenVPN data packet (using the obfsproxy local proxy) in a secondary layer of encryption, and assigning the data to port #443 or any other port.

When stealth technology has these two steps, the data packet can’t be distinguished from regular https data or regular Internet traffic, and it is virtually impossible to block.

When and why do you need StealthVPN?

Avoid VPN blocks, and access blocked websites

For some, a Stealth protocol is an absolute necessity. For people located in countries such as the UAE, China, or Iran, it would be difficult (or virtually impossible) to access specific websites without making use of stealth VPN technology. In some countries like Iran, using a VPN is a crime, so it is critical that you make sure your VPN is undetectable.

Avoid throttling and protect your privacy

There are also those that choose to use Stealth VPNs to protect their privacy or to avoid throttling. Although some firewalls don’t block VPN traffic, they do throttle it, slowing it down dramatically. You should know that even major ISPs like mobile providers do this.

Stealth VPN providers

Several excellent VPN providers offer StealthVPN (secure VPN) connections on their servers (check the list below).

ibVPN

ibVPN is one of my favorite VPN services as it provides a lot of exciting features (take a look at my complete ibVPN review), including a variety of servers or protocols. Regarding StealthVPN, ibVPN includes access to all three implementations (OpenVPN with obfsproxy, SSTP and Softether). The first two options are available within the Windows application, while users may install Softether on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS as a standalone client app.

IPVanish

IPVanish can obfuscate the OpenVPN traffic on two ports: 1194 and 443 (HTTPS). Choose the port and check the Obfuscate OpenVPN traffic option. It is available for the Windows application.

VyprVPN

VyprVPN has developed its proprietary stealth VPN protocol known as ‘Chameleon Protocol.’ The VyprVPN Chameleon uses a 256-bit OpenVPN encryption obfuscated and transmitted via TLS port #443. Thus, Users that live in or travel to countries such as China, Russia, India, Turkey, Iran, and Syria can access the Internet unrestricted. The Chameleon VPN is available for Windows, Mac, Android, and VPN routers.

TorGuard VPN

TorGuard bases its stealth VPN implementation on dedicated ‘Stealth’ VPN servers. Users can access these servers from the Windows, macOS, and Android apps. Also, the Stealth Proxy feature inside the TorGuard VPN apps adds a “second” layer of security that connects your standard VPN connection through an encrypted proxy layer. When enabled, the Stealth Proxy hides the “handshake,” making it impossible for the DPI firewalls to determine if VPN software is being used. A plus for TorGuard is that it offers dedicated IP address options in many locations.

Perfect Privacy

Perfect Privacy uses OpenVPN to implement Stealth VPN technology. You may obfuscate your VPN traffic by tunneling it through stunnel, ssh or obfsproxy2/obfsproxy3. Also, you can choose the connection ports #22 (SSH), #53 (DNS) and #443 (SSL). Perfect Privacy offers the StealthVPN protocol into the Windows client, or you may set up the obfuscation manually with OpenVPN on Linux and Mac.

VPN.ac

The VPN.ac ‘Stealth VPN’ secure protocol applies a technique called XOR obfuscation on the OpenVPN traffic. The OpenVPN XOR is similar to OpenVPN 256-bit regarding key strength. However, the symmetric cipher is different, AES 128-bit being faster and less CPU intensive than AES 256-bit. Running the OpenVPN XOR over port TCP #443 should bypass most firewalls/web-filtering engines. It is available on the Windows application.

Conclusion

Using stealth VPNs will camouflage your VPN and make it appear as regular web traffic. Stealth VPNs are mainly used for privacy purposes, or to bypass firewalls in countries where Internet access is restricted or censored.

ZenMate is a VPN provider well-known for its proxy browser extensions. ZenMate VPN service offers easy-to-use apps and high speed. Keep reading my (ultimate) ZenMate review to find out more about the pros and cons of ZenMate VPN!

ZenMate review 2020 in a nutshell

Headquarters & jurisdiction

ZenMate is a VPN provider based in Berlin, Germany. As a member of the Fourteen Eyes group of countries, Germany shares intelligence to avoid breaking domestic laws. A VPN service provider located in one of these countries might share user data with intelligence services in some instances. You should keep this in mind when using a VPN provider located in Germany.

Update 10/2018: According to recent news, ZenMate was acquired by Kape Technologies, a tech company that also owns CyberGhost.

ZenMate VPN review – Log policy

The ZenMate homepage states that there are no logs kept. However, the Privacy Policy page presents several cases when some data (IP address, aggregated usage) is stored:

In order to prevent attacks against ZenMate your IP address will be saved temporarily on the server without being stored permanently or used for any other purposes. […]

… you may consider which server to choose to use ZenMate and to which country therewith you want your IP address and site request to be transmitted and possibly used and saved temporarily in order to establish a connection. […]

If your account’s data volume is limited we will measure the data you transfer and receive. However, we will not collect or store the content of the data. We will only record the mere volume of the data.

You should take a moment and take a closer look at the privacy policy and decide for yourself if it is convenient for you or not.

GDPR compliance

I have contacted ZenMate support team regarding the GDPR issue. They stated that:

We are GDPR compliant, and as Germany already had one of the strictest laws in regards to data privacy before the GDPR, we did not have to change a lot – all of our processes are in place and all legal requirements are met.

As it is ZenMate’s mission to protect the people online, we are fully welcoming the EU-wide rollout of stricter laws and the global increase of awareness of internet user’s rights.

Servers & locations

ZenMate offers unlimited bandwidth on 300+ servers in 30+ countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States.

Dynamic & static IPs

All ZenMate VPN servers have dynamic IPs. It means that every time you connect, you will get a different IP address. For a specific location, you will get connected to a server from the server pool, which assigns you a random IP address.

ZenMate security review – VPN protocols and security

ZenMate VPN implements the strong AES-encryption with a 256-bit key for its applications. However, the Zen Mate browser extensions use the 128-bit AES encryption.

A shortfall of ZenMate regarding VPN protocols is that it does not implement OpenVPN and does not allow protocol switches. L2TP and IPSec are the protocols used by the Zen Mate applications.

P2P & torrent policy

ZenMate does not seem to be designed for P2P and torrent traffic. Their Terms of Service states that:

(4) You agree not to commit any copyright infringement when using ZenMate, for example by downloading copyright protected files or granting other people access to those. Such use is prohibited.

However, it looks like there are no filters to prevent torrenting on ZenMate servers. My advice is to use ZenMate for P2P traffic only occasionally. There are other VPNs for torrents you may use.

Must read: Learn how to torrent safely!

ZenMate review – VPN applications

ZenMate Windows app

The Windows application (as well as the other ZenMate apps) is straightforward, and it does what is supposed to: connects to a VPN server from the desired location.

After login, choose the desired location (you are only able to select a country) and click on the ZenMate shield to connect. Within seconds you are connected. Nice!

From the My Setting screen you can activate the following options (I was not able to find the presentation of these features on the ZenMate site. Thus, they are presented exclusively from my point of view.):

• EverSecure: It maintains the VPN connection active as long as the ZenMate application is working.
• Run ZenMate on startup: It runs the app on the OS startup.
• Kill Switch: It terminates the Internet access/connection if the VPN connection drops (more details below).
• DNS Leak Protection: It offers protection against DNS leaks.
• Enable locations monitoring: It probably monitors the server/location usage.

The ZenMate Windows app uses the L2TP/IPSec protocol. Unfortunately, OpenVPN or other VPN protocols are not available.

Important! I noticed that the ZenMate VPN connections are using the Google public DNS (8.8.8.8). Not a very good choice, as the Google DNS is known to keep logs. Other public DNS servers that do not keep logs would be better alternatives.

To sum up the ZenMate VPN review regarding the Windows application: very easy to use, it does what is expected to do. However, it lacks OpenVPN and info regarding the available features.

ZenMate MacOS app

The ZenMate Mac OS application is similar to the Windows app, and basically, it does only one thing: connects your Mac to the chosen VPN location. Additionally, you may set up the app to run on startup.

The ZenMate Mac OS app uses the IPSec (IKEv2) protocol to connect to the VPN servers.

ZenMate does not have their VPN app listed to the MacOS App Store. You may only download it from the ZenMate site.

ZenMate iOS app

ZenMate offers great apps for mobile devices. The ZenMate iOS app is again straightforward, but it also provides some advanced features like the AdBlocker, Tracking Protection, Malware Blocking, and EverSecure.

The EverSecure (Always-ON) forces the VPN connection to reconnect on demand, every time the device connects to the Internet.

The ZenMate iOS mobile app uses the IPSec VPN protocol. In-app purchases are available if you don’t already have an account.

ZenMate VPN Review – Android app

The ZenMate Android app uses the L2TP protocol. As expected, it easily connects to the chosen location. Additionally, you may turn ON the EverSecure, Malware Blocking, Tracking Protection functions.

If the Always-on / EverSecure VPN feature is enabled and you close the ZenMate app (swipe it from recently used apps), the VPN disconnects for a few seconds, before being reconnected in the background.

Browser extensions and add-ons

ZenMate started as a proxy service run as browser extensions. With millions of downloads and users, the ZenMate extensions are top-notch! You may install them from the Chrome, Opera, Firefox extensions stores.

If you don’t have an account, you need to create one. Next, you can get started: select the desired location and turn the extension ON. It connects smoothly and provides excellent speed.

The ZenMate extensions also provide access to the following advanced features:

• Smart Locations (-> Features) – you may set up the extension to automatically connect to a particular location/server when the chosen site is visited.
• Malware Blocking (-> Features) – when enabled it blocks malicious sites and code snippets.
• Tracking Protection (-> Features) – when enabled it prevents 3rd party services from tracking you.
• SmartPrice (Settings) – it activates on shopping sites and shows you reviews and alternative offers to the product you’re currently searching for.

Important! The Zenmate extensions are vulnerable to the WebRTC IP leaks. However, you may solve the issue by installing the Zenmate WebRTC Protect Chrome extension or disable WebRTC on the other browsers.

Kill Switch

ZenMate implements Internet KillSwitch (the Internet access is completely cut off in case of VPN disconnect until it is manually restored or the VPN reconnects) only for the Windows application. You may turn it on from My Settings -> Kill Switch.

DNS leak protection

ZenMate provides strong DNS leak protection. It can be enabled and disabled in the Windows application, while it is enabled by default on the other apps.

Simultaneous connections/devices

You may use ZenMate on up to 5 devices simultaneously. It should be enough for a medium-sized family. If you need more than five simultaneous connections, you may create an additional account.

Free trial

ZenMate offers a 7-day free trial, but it is not trivial to get one. Here is how I was able to create a ZenMate free trial account. Firstly, I installed the ZenMate Chrome extension. Next, I clicked the ZenMate icon that loaded an activation page from the ZenMate site. After some search, I noticed the Try ZenMate Limited instead link from the very bottom of the page (take a look at the image below). Clicked the link, waited for 10 seconds and then created the account.

Note: To benefit from the ZenMate premium free trial you need to verify your email address.

You may also use ZenMate VPN for free as long as you want. The free version is limited in speed, platforms, and locations. However, your personal data is always protected.

Business VPN accounts

ZenMate VPN for Business offers a management dashboard that allows you to configure and manage all your VPN accounts. The business accounts can be used to:

• Share confidential business data with coworkers and clients.
• Complete financial transactions online with securely encrypted banking.
• Secure and protect your business data while traveling.
• Test appearance and localization of your business from anywhere in the world.

ZenMate Premium review – Pricing

Although ZenMate can be used for free (limited features on Chrome and Firefox), the ZenMate premium account is the one that offers the most value (good speed, locations, extra protection).

The monthly price is $8.99. If you are happy with the VPN service, you may go for the semi-annual plan ($53.99) or the annual plan ($71.99).

The pricing for the Business accounts is not publicly available. You need to ask for a quote if you are interested.

Promos and discounts

If you know someone that is already using ZenMate you may ask for their Refer-a-Friend code. You will get a 10% discount on all plans.

Also, ZenMate continually runs promotions on their website, like the 44% off from the annual plan that is available at this time.

Are you looking for a VPN deal? Here is a site that lists active VPN promotions. If you know other ZenMate promotions feel free to share them in the comments below.

Payment methods

You may pay for ZenMate services using the followings: PayPal, credit cards, Union Pay, SEPA Bank Transfer, Qiwi Wallet. No Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies accepted.

Moneyback guarantee

When you subscribe to the ZenMate service, you have 30 days to cancel your account (no questions asked). You will be refunded in the same payment method that you initially used to pay for the subscription, at no extra fees. However, the following payment methods are non-refundable: PaysafeCard, UKash, BitCoin.

Support

The ZenMate team offers ticket support, but no live chat. You may contact ZenMate 24/7/365.

ZenMate VPN review – Performance/speed testing

You need to know that there are factors that influence the speed of your Internet connection while connected to VPN, factors that are not related to the VPN service, like: the speed of your regular Internet connection (without VPN), the connection from your location to the VPN server, the load of the VPN server (the number of users on the server), the available bandwidth for the VPN server. This is something you need to take into consideration when measuring the performance of a VPN provider.

To get an idea of the ZenMate connection speed, I performed several tests for different locations.

Firstly, I had tested my regular Internet connection and then compared it with the download speed of the VPN connection when the ZenMate app was connected to a US server (useful for unblocking Netflix streaming). Interestingly, the speed connected to the ZenMate server was superior to my regular Internet connection (no VPN).

Secondly, I have set the ZenMate app to the UK location (for BBC streaming):

Lastly, I tried the connection to the VPN server located in Asia (Japan):

To sum up the ZenMate review speed test, I found the performance/speed of the ZenMate servers excellent. The download speed was higher (for US and UK) than my regular connection. However, the upload speed was significantly lower.

Website

The ZenMate site looks very nice and straightforward. However, the technical information is somehow difficult to find. It took me a while to find information in the knowledge base regarding the implemented VPN protocols, about the EverSecure or the Tracking Protection features. The checkout process is simple, and you instantly get access to the VPN service after payment. You may visit ZenMate here.

User reviews

You may find independent ZenMate users reviews on TrustPilot. The leading causes of client dissatisfaction are the auto-renewal subscriptions that are not canceled and the quality of support. However, some users are thrilled with the service.

ZenMate review – Pros – What I like about ZenMate

ZenMate service is excellent: simple and effective. Here are some of the things I love the most about ZenMate:

• Straightforward applications.
• Exceptional proxy browser extensions.
• Stable and reliable VPN service.
• It seems to work with Netflix and BBC iPlayer.
• Good speed.

ZenMate review – Cons – What could be improved

Several things could be improved:

• Live chat support (at least for several hours) should be implemented. Also, support should be faster and more effective.
• OpenVPN is not available.
• It may not work in China, Iran, Egypt as the L2TP, IPSec protocols are blocked.
• Bitcoin payments not accepted.
• You may not select a server from a particular city or region.

ZenMate review 2020 – Conclusion

To conclude this ZenMate premium review, ZenMate is a top VPN service that I recommend to those interested in a one-click VPN service. The apps and browser extensions are user-friendly, and you may get started in a matter of seconds. However, ZenMate is not suitable for those looking for more control regarding the VPN protocols and other advanced features.

What do you think of ZenMate? Have you tried it? Would you recommend ZenMate? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

There are many VPN services available nowadays, so it stands to reason that using one has advantages. The questions are, “What are these advantages?” and “Are VPNs legal?”.  Learn if VPN usage is legal in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, China, Russia, UAE, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Oman, India, North-Korea. Also, are VPNs legal for torrenting, for unblocking Netflix, and for Kodi?

Before we look at the advantages and legality of VPNs, it will help us to understand how they work and what they do. A virtual private network (VPN) connection does two things:

1. It manipulates your device’s IP address, making you appear that it originates from a different place (machine, location, or country).
2. It encrypts and cloaks your signal, making it impossible for any eavesdroppers to monitor your online activity.

Firstly, is hiding your IP address legal?

Well, that is a tricky question. The answer should be “Yes,” but it is more accurate “It depends.”

In most countries, going through a proxy to hide your IP or using a VPN is perfectly legal. You can’t get in any trouble for this unless you are suspected of doing illegal activities while under hidden IP’s.

Advantages of using a VPN

Although a VPN (Virtual Private Network) slows down connection speed by between 25 and 50% percent, there are some excellent reasons why you might want to change/hide your IP address or cloak your activities.

1. Download and upload P2P files in privacy – P2P is frowned upon by the MPAA and other cinema and music associations. This is detected by eavesdropping on ISP signals, something which a VPN will prevent.
2. Access streaming content from outside your country – Content streaming services such as Netflix are not allowed to stream content outside the US due to copyright agreements. This is enforced by reading an IP and tracing it to its country of origin. With a VPN, the Netflix block can be bypassed.
3. Break out of restrictive networks – There are specific private or public networks (or Internet providers) that restrict access to a particular type of content from the Internet. A VPN connection will allow you to break off a restrictive network at school or work and connect to websites and webmail services that might otherwise be restricted.
4. Using public Wi-Fi with confidence – Public and hotel WiFi is notoriously insecure. A VPN provides a layer of security to the WiFi connection that will protect the user.
5. Cloak VOIP Phone Calls – VOIP services like Skype are easy to eavesdrop on. A VPN will prevent this from happening.
6. Bypass a country’s web censorship – Some states choose to impose oppressive internet censoring on their entire countries. A VPN server will enable you to tunnel out of the censorship restrictions and provides unrestricted Internet access.
7. Watch home-specific broadcasts while traveling – A VPN tunnel connection can be used to force the foreign connection to access your home country as if you were physically there, enabling you to watch local football feeds, TV and newscasts. Don’t forget to read: 7 tips to keep your laptop secure while traveling.
8. Use search engines without having searches logged – Search engines catalog every web search you perform to customize the advertising and future searches for your computer. With a VPN, this is not possible, and it protects your privacy. Also, you may want to use a private search engine.
9. Privacy is a fundamental right – If you are a firm believer in personal privacy and the right to receive and broadcast without being surveilled and cataloged by authorities, a VPN or Tor is the way to go.
10. Avoid reprisals and tracebacks when doing research – If you do sensitive research for your company or don’t want your research details known for any other reason, using a VPN will prevent this.

Are VPNs legal or illegal? VPN is legal in most countries!

In general, VPNs are legal in most countries, but how it is being used will ultimately determine its legality in those countries. There are however many countries where the use of VPNs is illegal, irrespective of what it is being used for. In these countries surfing the Internet may be dangerous, as users’ identities may be exposed to the activity monitored by governmental firewalls.

The legality of VPNs is various countries

Are VPNs legal in the United States?

VPNs are entirely legal in the US and are used by numerous organizations.

You need to, however, be careful what you do with your VPN, as some usages are against the law. If you use a VPN to prevent people from determining your IP address or location, this is legal in the US.

If you, however, use a VPN to download movies illegally, you are committing copyright violation which is a crime in the US.

Is VPN legal and safe in the United Kingdom?

Although VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are legal in the UK, this should not be confused with the legitimate use of VPNs. VPNs could be used for illegal activities, and these typically involve copyright infringements. If you use a VPN to download copyrighted material illegally in the UK, you could face severe penalties.

Are VPN services legal in the European Union?

VPNs are legal in the EU. However, there are some, for instance, Denmark that have introduced laws that enable them to censor internet content. In this case, VPNs could be used to bypass the censorship and users may get into legal trouble.

Is VPN usage legal in China?

VPNs are not legal in China. China continuously tries to close down VPN services by blocking individual providers, but this is not effective as new services keep replacing those the government blocks. With new legislation released by China, VPN service providers need to get approval from the government. This, however, means they have to agree to terms that defeat the purposes of VPNs. Some regions ban VPNs completely.

Are VPNs legal in Russia?

VPNs are illegal in Russia and Putin has signed a new law that increases internet censorship substantially. This is seen as being the beginning of the Russian VPN ban. There is however much confusion about what exactly is banned and how it will be implemented due to media reports not always being accurate.

Are VPN services legal in the UAE?

The United Arab Emirates has recently banned the use of VPNs. Penalties for using a VPN are stiff and range from imprisonment to massive fines of up to £400,000. The law states that:

Whoever uses a fraudulent computer network protocol address (IP address) by using a false address or a third-party address by any other means for the purpose of committing a crime or preventing its discovery, shall be punished by temporary imprisonment and a fine of no less than Dh500,000 [£100,000] and not exceeding Dh2,000,000 [£400,000], or either of these two penalties.

The bill also refers to accessing blocked services or websites, which can only be done with a VPN or proxy. Such blocked services are Snapchat, Viber, and WhatsApp, other VOIP services except for Skype.

However, many Internet users from the UAE (United Arab Emirates) are using VPN apps and services.

Is VPN usage legal in Turkey?

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of the country, has expressed his dislike for social media publicly, and his administration introduced the blocking of various sites. Also, Tor and popular VPN services were blocked by ISPs (Internet Service Providers). The VPN usage is discouraged in Turkey, but not illegal. For Turkish VPN users, it is essential to go for VPN services that provide IP leak and DNS leak protection, in order not to get exposed.

Are VPNs legal in Iraq?

Although VPNs are officially illegal in Iraq, government-owned institutions and government officials casually break their laws and use VPNs daily. Iraq has banned the use of VPNs and blocks chat apps and social media under the pretext of stopping ISIS.

Is VPN legal in Iran?

In Iran, VPNs are illegal unless they have been registered with the Iranian government and they approve them. There is however not much point in using a VPN under these conditions. However, there are remedies to the Iranian block.

Are VPN services legal in Oman?

VPNs are illegal in Oman and are actively blocked as part of widespread media censorship that includes the internet.

Are VPNs legal in India?

VPNs are legal in India despite a recent government warning that internet users could face jail time plus a fine for visiting forbidden websites. A judge however later pointed out that this Internet activity is not illegal.

Are VPNs legal in North Korea?

Although there are no credible sources that can indicate whether VPNs are legal in North Korea or not, the country has blocked content from major social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The legality of VPNs for various usages

Are VPNs legal for torrenting?

Torrents are legal to download whether you use a VPN or not. When copyrighted material is however shared and downloaded, this is illegal. Make sure that you read our 12 tips on how to torrent safely, and that you use one of the VPNs for torrents. Also, you should ask yourself: is a free VPN safe?  In my opinion, you should not trust free VPN services for your torrent downloads.

Is VPN usage legal for unlocking Netflix?

Is VPN legal and safe with Netflix? Using a VPN for Netflix is against their Terms of Use. When questioning their service department, their official stance is that they don’t encourage the use of VPNs due to potential quality issues, but they don’t frown upon its use either.

Are VPN services legal for Kodi?

Using a VPN for Kodi is legal as long as the use of VPNs is legitimate in your country. There are however Kodi add-ons that may not be legal, and using these can be a crime.

Conclusion

Although VPNs are legal in most parts of the world, care should be taken not to use them for illegal purposes. There are, however, some countries where using a VPN is illegal and breaking these laws could result in stiff penalties.

Cargo VPN is a new VPN service offered by a well-known software producer that you may use on your iOS and MacOS devices. Keep reading the Cargo VPN review to find out what are the pros and cons of CargoVPN.

Cargo VPN review in a nutshell

Headquarters & jurisdiction

The company that offers Cargo VPN, Eltima Software, is based in Germany. As a member of the Fourteen Eyes group of countries, Germany shares intelligence to avoid breaking domestic laws. Thus, a VPN provider located in one of these countries might (not necessarily would) share user data with intelligence services in some instances. You should keep this in mind when using a VPN service located in Germany.

Log policy

According to Eltima Software, Cargo VPN has the following logging policy:

Eltima does NOT collect and log any user activities while using any of their VPN services, except the total amount of web traffic for each session and session dates, for displaying them in the user’s web cabinet and within the VPN client apps. Eltima also stores the encrypted information about the number of connected devices for each account, as the maximum permitted amount is limited. This information can be assessed in the User Office, where any user can delete their devices from their account.

Servers & locations

Cargo VPN offers access to more than 1000+ servers in 52 countries: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine, United States.

Dynamic & static IPs

Cargo VPN servers have dynamic IPs, meaning that every time you connect, you will (most probably) get a different IP. However, you may get a static IP on a location of your choice by subscribing to a Personal IP package.

Dedicated IPs

A strong point of Cargo VPN is that it offers Personal static IP or Personal Server packages. By subscribing to a Personal IP package, you get access to a dedicated IP from an existing VPN server. However, you can buy your Personal Server with dedicated IPs and resources (CPU, bandwidth, connection port).

VPN protocols and security

The available VPN protocols available in the CargoVPN apps are IPSec, OpenVPN, KeepSolid Wise UDP, and KeepSolid Wise TCP. The KeepSolid Wise (proprietary to KeepSolid) is a Stealth VPN protocol that provides higher anonymity (more difficult to detect and block), but medium performance. 

It uses the TCP 443 and UDP 33434 ports, and with the OpenVPN protocol forming its backbone. The KeepSolid Wise is handy for those living or traveling to China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Indonesia, India, Turkey, Syria, Iran.

P2P & torrent policy

Downloading torrents is allowed on specific Cargo VPN servers located in Canada, France, Luxembourg, Romania, United States (California 1). Cargo VPN marks these servers with the “torrents” to the right of the server name.

Must read: Learn how to torrent safely!

Cargo VPN review – VPN applications

Cargo VPN MacOS app

The CargoVPN MacOS application (you may download it from Mac App Store) is simple and does what is supposed to do, plus something extra.

To connect to VPN for Mac, you need to select the desired location from the Servers screen. The app shows the workload for every location/server. Also, you may go for the Optimal server that provides the best performance (usually the closest server from your location), Streaming Netflix, Hulu that unblocks the desired US channels or UK-South BBC iPlayer to unblock BBC. A very nice feature is that you may select the servers from the Touch Bar on MacBook Pros!

To use CargoVPN for torrenting, search the servers marked with the torrents text to the right of server location.

The Cargo VPN MacOS app uses the IPSec VPN protocol by default, but you may switch it to OpenVPN or Stealth VPN (KeepSolid UDP or TCP)  from Account -> Network Settings. Be aware that, by using the KeepSolid protocols, the connection performance may decrease.

Further, to increase the protection while connected to a VPN service, Cargo VPN app offers access to the Eltima/KeepSolid DNS firewall (select Protection from the left menu) with two levels of Internet traffic filtering:

• None – You may access all websites, but the VPN traffic encryption protects you from man-in-the-middle attacks.
• Low – Anti-malware protection: the DNS firewall blocks websites that present Internet security risks.

Also, users can define their black/white lists.

To sum up, the Cargo VPN software works smoothly and offers nice speed. The DNS filtering adds an extra layer of protection.

Cargo VPN iOS app

The Cargo VPN iOS app easily connects to a VPN location seconds after installing the application. The 24-trial is rightly implemented, and it does not require any registration. However, if you already created an account on MacOS, you can sign in with it.

From the home screen, you can turn the VPN on/off and select the desired location. If you choose Optimal the mobile app tries to find the server that provides you the optimal speed. Usually, a server close to your location. Also, you may take a look at the Recommended servers to choose a server that provides a fast connection.

The Cargo VPN mobile app uses the IPSec VPN protocol by default, but OpenVPN and Stealth VPN/KeepSolid are also available. In-app purchases are available if you don’t already have an account.

And … yes, you may control the Cargo VPN iOS app from your Apple Watch. Nice!

Simultaneous connections/devices

The Cargo VPN applications can be used on five devices (iOS and macOS) simultaneously. It should be enough for a medium-sized family, but you may purchase additional slots if you need to.

Free trial

You may try Cargo VPN with a 24-h trial. The trial is beautifully implemented. For the iOS app merely install the app, and you may get connected. For the macOS app, you need to create an account (Eltima ID).

Pricing

Cargo VPN offers the main VPN plans plus additional packages for extra devices, dedicated IPs, and dedicated servers.  Take a look below at the available Cargo VPN packages:

You may subscribe directly from the Cargo VPN iOS and MacOS apps.

Payment methods

As Cargo VPN is only available (at this time) for iOS and macOS, the payments are only accepted through App Store (iOS and macOS).

Moneyback

Cargo VPN is distributed through iOS and Mac AppStore. The AppStore refund policy is applied, and you need to contact the contact Apple Store support directly.

Support

The Cargo VPN team offers 24/7/365 ticket and live chat support. I have tried the live chat, and I received an informative and friendly reply.

Website

The Cargo VPN presentation page (visit site here) looks very nice, and it’s simple and informative.

User reviews

As the service is relatively new, there are not many reviews from the users. Feel free to add your Cargo VPN review to the end of this article.

Cargo VPN review – Pros – What I like about CargoVPN

Cargo VPN looks like a reliable VPN service for the iOS devices and Mac OS. Here are some of the things I love the most about Cargo VPN:

• The apps seem very good;
• It is an excellent VPN for beginners;
• It exposes dedicated servers for unblocking Netflix, Hulu and BBC iPlayer;
• It offers access to dedicated IPs and dedicated VPN servers;
• OpenVPN is available for both iOS and Mac OS apps;
• Good connection speeds.

Cargo VPN review – Cons – What could be improved

Several things could be improved:

• Cargo VPN website does not clearly explain the logging policy;
• KillSwitch for the macOS app is a must;
• There are no Windows and Android apps (yet).

Cargo VPN review – Conclusion

To sum up, Cargo VPN offers very good macOS and iOS VPN apps with a large number of locations and good speed. Further, it can be used to unblock Netflix and BBC iPlayer. Plus, you may get your dedicated IP address or dedicated VPN server.

What do you think of CargoVPN? Have you tried it? What features should Cargo VPN add? Would you recommend it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.