Free Republic

I belonged to a photography forum that has a section where members can discuss politics. About a 50/50 mix of right/left with the leftists being the usual hate filled, nasty, TDS sufferers.I loved getting the better of them with facts and logic. After one really personal, insult filled rant against me, my temper got the better of me and I responded in kind and me not him got banned. I tried rejoining under a new name and was barred. I deleted all my browsing history and cookies, but was still banned.Then I decided to try a VPN, but was still...

Each year we have more privacy violations and security breaches. And each year, VPN popularity grows with them. To keep track of all the changes, we decided to collect the most sought-after VPN statistics and put them under a single roof. Below, you’ll find the most recent information about VPN users, popularity, market size, and legality.How much do VPNs cost?The average cost of a VPN varies from company to company. Any product that belongs to more popular brands costs an average of $3.69 a month for their discounted 1-3 year deals. Regarding monthly prices without discounts, it averages at $10.45.How...

MOSCOW, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Russia's communications watchdog plans to block Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) from March 1 next year, a Russian senator for the ruling United Russia party said on Tuesday. Demand for VPN services soared after Russia restricted access to some Western social media after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Senator Artem Sheikin said an order from the Roskomnadzor watchdog would come into force on March 1 that would block VPNs. "From March 1, 2024, an order will come into force to block VPN services providing access to sites banned in Russia," Sheikin...

Several vulnerabilities that affect most VPN products out there can be exploited by attackers to read user traffic, steal user information, or even attack user devices, researchers have discovered.“Our attacks are not computationally expensive, meaning anyone with the appropriate network access can perform them, and they are independent of the VPN protocol being used,” claim Nian Xue of New York University; Yashaswi Malla, Zihang Xia, and Christina Pöpper of New York University Abu Dhabi; and Mathy Vanhoef of KU Leuven University.“Even if the victim is using another layer of encryption such as HTTPS, our attacks reveal which websites a user...

Cookies. Fingerprinting. Tracking. Surveillance. Spyware. Geostalking. It's a rough neighborhood out there for denizens of the web. Whether you want to anonymously provide whistle-blowing details on a corrupt business operation or you just want to check today's weather, simply logging on is fraught with threats to your privacy. This week, two major players in the field of online privacy joined forces to release a super-private browser that they say will "make life harder for those who collect data from you." Mullvad VPN, a highly respected service based in Sweden, where providers are legally protected from being forced to collect traffic-related...

Would the RESTRICT Act—a.k.a. the TikTok ban bill—criminalize the use of VPNs? That's the rumor floating around about the legislation, which was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mark Warner (D–Va.) earlier this month. Warner's office has said his bill wouldn't do this… but its broad language leaves room for doubt. And the act is still insanely far-reaching and could have a huge range of deleterious effects, even if it doesn't criminalize people using a VPN to access TikTok. VPN stands for virtual private network, and there are several different kinds, but their general aim is the same: keeping your...

In its short 6 year lifespan Beijing based company Bytedance's Tik Tok has surpassed google.com with well over 2 billion downloads worldwide. From the outset, the Chinese Algorithm Source code had been collecting the habits and inner intent of every single user. Building a psychological profile of each user while addicting them to content promoting self harm by catering to their preferences and habits. Most of them children.Meanwhile, privacy policy moderators and employees answering directly to the Chinese Communist Party have access to private chats and all collected personal information. Four Employees at Bytedance were fired in 2022 for doxing...

Iran has shut down WhatsApp and Instagram in an attempt to stifle the discontent growing across the nation, following the death of 22 year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in custody after being arrested by morality police. Internet shutdowns are fairly commonplace in authoritarian societies on the eve of change, where governments may seek to gain control of the narrative by trying to stop communication and the sharing of information which can fuel protests and uprisings . ... Citizens tend to circumnavigate such crackdowns by downloading virtual private networks, or VPNs, which allows them to get around restrictions to certain blocked...

On Feb. 8, gold medalist Eileen Gu posted on Instagram to announce her win at the Beijing Winter Olympics. As social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are banned in China, many Chinese have questioned why she, but not the general public, could use Instagram in mainland China. “Anyone can download a VPN its literally free on the App store,” Gu replied, according to a screenshot of her now-deleted post. Gu, who was born in San Francisco and raised by a single mother, has made headlines for her decision to compete for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) despite...

A new court filing by special counsel John Durham reveals that Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz concealed crucial information from Durham in connection with the ongoing prosecution of Michael Sussmann, a former attorney to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. The filing also reveals that Horowitz failed to disclose that his office is in possession of two cellphones used by former FBI general counsel James Baker. The phones may contain information that’s important to the Sussmann case, as well as to a separate criminal leak investigation of Baker that Durham personally conducted between 2017 and 2019. Horowitz first...

After being arrested for using a VPN to bypass China’s Great Firewall, 24-year-old Chen Yuzhen (pseudonym) was finally able to flee China. In an interview with The Epoch Times, Chen shared details of his ordeal.In the early morning of June 10, 2020, Chen, sleeping soundly, was suddenly awakened by sharp and intense knocks on the door. Several plainclothes police officers broke into his small, shared rental apartment, and started checking all of his electronic devices. Everything was turned upside down in no time.Chen had never expected that such a disaster would befall him.“I asked what department they belonged to, but...

It's amazing how different the best web browsers actually are. While you may think that every internet browser is the same, there are actually plenty of differences between them - from cosmetic changes to speeds to the way each browser handles your personal data. As such, we've tested a whole bunch of them to see what the best web browser could be for you. With privacy and data management becoming an increasingly important issue, it's vital to know how your web browser is handling and showing your browsing data and history. So we've reassessed our list, taking things like data...

Many on the left are promoting a recent video created by novelist and left-wing activist Don Winslow, which calls upon citizens to become cyber detectives to monitor and report fellow citizen Trump supporters to authorities while comparing the work of this “army of citizens” to that which led to the capture of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

Do you get this message on your home screen as well? What the heck, nobody leaves you, or me, alone anymore?

The title pretty much says it. I need a recommendation for a good VPN to use to ensure my privacy on the internet. Specific requirements: 1. It can't conflict with the VPN I use for work. 2. It must be reasonably priced. 3. It must work on my Windows computer and iOS phones, iPad, and Apple TV.

Dear fellow FReepers, likely the majority of you use a VPN along with more secure browsers and also add-ons like Ghostery. Every time my computer boots up, the first thing that I see is my VPN asking to secure. Then I click on the secure tab and it logs on and secures my internet browsing. But yesterday morning a very official-looking notification (a pop-up) appeared with the exact same logo as my VPN, informing me that my subscription had expired and that I needed to purchase a new plan. It also said that my current subscription would expire in January...

I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, but it’s a LOT. 2020 is the year that “they” are going for broke. They’re all in, and I mean ALL in. The takeover of the US by globalist elites is in full progress. And most people just think this is about a silly Presidential race, how sad. My stance is pretty simple. I believe 100% that Trump won this election in a pretty big way. I believe that the “fix” was in from the get-go with the ballots and the machines to flip it to Biden. It’s a pretty simple...

Coronavirus NSW: Dossier lays out case against China bat virus program China deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak in an “assault on international transparency’’ that cost tens of thousands of lives, according to a dossier prepared by concerned Western governments on the COVID-19 contagion. The 15-page research document, obtained by The Saturday Telegraph, lays the foundation for the case of negligence being mounted against China. It states that to the “endangerment of other countries” the Chinese government covered-up news of the virus by silencing or “disappearing” doctors who spoke out, destroying evidence of it in can also...

The overall best VPN services encrypt all your internet traffic and pass it through a private tunnel to their own secure servers so that no one can see what you're reading or downloading - not the government, not your ISP, not even the VPN service itself.Very simply, a VPN (short for virtual private network) is an app you can download for your mobile or laptop that allows you to hide your location, identity and IP address from the rest of the internet.All internet content is completely encrypted - securely jumbled so no one could read it even if they intercepted...

I was at TheLayoff.com website using NordVPN. Interestingly enough they claim anonymity but in reality you cannot post any comments if you are connected through NordVPN. You get a real nasty little message. So if anyone is posting there beware, it is NOT secure.