vpn

The folks at AdGuard created a service called AdGuard Home, a bit of software that creates a DNS server for your home network to block ad tracking. This is for the people who aren't comfortable with every website using their browsing information to serve ads without asking. This isn't just to block advertisements, it's to block companies like Facebook from watching your every move, using your movements without your permission.

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Last week, Verizon announced a new subscription service that promised to protect your privacy when you do anything on your smartphone that connects you to the Internet. Safe Wi-Fi is practically Verizon’s own branded VPN service that uses security company McAfee’s technology under the hood. That collaboration, however, has allegedly given rise to some miscommunication that is rendering this service pointless. Because in agreeing to use Verizon’s Safe Wi-Fi to keep your data private, you are giving it and McAfee permission to use your data for targeted ads, among other things.

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Verizon is launching its own VPN app for Android and iOS, offering it to customers at the price of $3.99/month. The service, which Verizon calls Safe Wi-Fi, is presented as a way to block advertisement trackers and protect one's privacy without having to sign up with a third-party VPN company. The subscription is only available for certain Verizon customers, though.

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It seems that Opera is in the process of shutting down the mostly free services that have actually resurrected its brand in the mobile market. Last year, it shut down the data monitoring and data saving Opera Max app. Now it's doing the same for Opera VPN, its free VPN service for mobile. The announcement ironically comes at a time when the use of and interest in VPNs are on the rise due to recent events in the tech industry.

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Last summer, the team behind the encrypted email service ProtonMail announced its own VPN service, giving the public access to secure browsing. The service came out of beta back in June 2017, though not for every platform. That changed on Monday with the launch of ProtonVPN for Android, bringing secure mobile browsing to smartphones and tablets around the world.

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Internet-related privacy concerns are growing, but many people still haven't signed up for a VPN service. If you received any unwanted gift cards over the holidays -- perhaps ones for a coffee shop you'll never visit or a store that doesn't exist in your region -- now is the time to subscribe. Several VPN services accept gift cards as a form of payment, and using them has the added benefit of being a little extra anonymous.

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Samsung hasn’t exactly been the most religious OEM when it comes to rolling out updates, but when it does, sometimes include some unexpected treats. Take, for example, the Galaxy Note 8, which has just gotten an update that adds a new feature to the phablet, new to the Galaxy Note 8, at least. That feature is the Galaxy J’s “Secure Wi-Fi”, which is just a fancy pants name for Samsung’s VPN service that promises secure and private browsing, even and especially on unencrypted Wi-Fi networks.

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eero's mesh router wants to be your internet watchdog as well as getting all your gadgets online, with the addition of new security tools to the company's eero Plus subscription service. Launched alongside the second-generation eero system earlier this year, eero Plus started out with two of what the company said were users biggest demands: whole-home network security, and parental controls with content filtering.

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Apple has made moves to comply with the Chinese government, as this weekend it's been revealed that the company has pulled nearly all available VPN (virtual private network) apps from the country's App Store. This marks another example of China's attempts to filter and crackdown on internet use within its borders, as VPN apps and services allowed users to get around the country's strict censorship restrictions, often referred to as the "Great Firewall."

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Security-minded company ProtonMail has announced that its VPN service 'ProtonVPN' is now out of beta and available to everyone. Even better, particularly for those who are unable to pay, is that ProtonVPN is free. According to the company, its VPN service improves upon the competing products available on the market, utilizing things like a Secure Core architecture to help protect users from attacks, as well as 'seamless integration with' Tor.

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Opera offers an Android app designed to reduce the amount of mobile data you use throughout the day, and it’s pretty great at doing so. That has resulted in somewhere around 50 million Android users actively using the app every month, and Opera found itself in a bit of a pickle: while the free app shows an advertisement when you’re within the app, there was little reason to actually open the app and thus no one was looking at these ads with any sort of regularity. The company recently introduced a limitation that addresses that issue, and users weren't happy, so now the company is back with yet another change: VIP Mode.

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Everyone has their own reason for using a VPN, but they all share a common element: the desire for privacy. It may be something as simple as wanting to keep your data private while using an open WiFi network, or something as serious as avoiding state-sponsored hackers or bypassing government firewalls. Using a VPN service that keeps a bunch of data on its users and their activities is risky, and thanks to a bunch of companies that don't keep logs, avoiding them is simple.

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