Posted on 10/02/2022 8:22:26 AM PDT by george76
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 sites. These do not work, however, when countries shut off basic internet completely.
In Iran, demand for VPN downloads increased by more than 3000 percent in September...
Sri Lanka saw a 17,000 percent increase in VPN downloads on April 3 2022, when social media platforms Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp were banned. The internet blackout came as the government enforced a curfew, attempting to keep protesters from hitting the streets over a disastrous economic downturn, mainly attributed to governmental mishandling, which led to major food and fuel shortages.
Azerbaijan and Armenia, which saw clashes erupt on the border earlier this month, have also seen people on both sides of the border seek out VPNs this year, with an increase of 751 percent and 84 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, Russia saw an uptick of more than 2,600 percent of VPN demand and Ukraine saw a 600 percent increase since the war started in February. In Russia, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and Voice of America were among a number of foreign news organizations' websites to be blocked for disseminating what it alleged was fake news.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
I always use a VPN (proton), and never use apps. Hope it helps deny the enemy a few bucks.
It is very easy to do, takes a little time, and you can delete and reinstall the OS periodically — wipe it clean. Virtual box is a virtual computer and running Linux is pretty secure.
There is a misunderstanding that running a VPN will protect you from all snooping. It only masks your internet IP address. Your web browser and computer both have ids that can be tracked.
Well, this explains why Google hates VPNs so much. ;)
All conservatives and Trump voters in America should use a strong VPN, preferably from outside America.
Its imperative when Dementia Joe goes about declaring MAGA Trump voters as “fascists” and sends FBI Gestapo thugs to the homes of anti abortion activists to terrorize their children.
Thank you for that.
Is installing linux make your computer a dual boot system? I.e., choose your OS at startup?
Cheers, ‘Pod
“There is a misunderstanding that running a VPN will protect you from all snooping. It only masks your internet IP address. Your web browser and computer both have ids that can be tracked.”
Used to be that way. But good VPNs stay ahead of them.
For starters, they more than mask your IP address. They encrypt the connection between your device and the server it connects to (say, in Switzerland).
It’s End-to-end encryption, meaning that if you use wireless between your phone (with VPN app) and the free wireless router in McDonald’s, while anyone could listen in on the entire transmission, it would be garbage. Nothing they could do.
Also, good web browsers (now) have an option to “prevent fingerprinting,” which hides enough details to make you indistinguishable from everyone else.
And good VPNs allow you to spoof your MAC address, the “computer ID.”
And the BEST VPNs do not log you, in any way, shape, or form. They purposely keep no records of where you go when you exit their (highly secure) servers.
There can be 1,000 clients entering the Switzerland server simultaneously, completely encrypted, nobody tracked, and leaving the server at the same time, all with identical IP addresses.
It infuriates the Control Freaks, who want to make them illegal, of course.
(And you can add extra security yourself on top of all that. Stop all Google tracking, erase your history, etc.)
A virtual computer running linux is exactly that... it is not a real computer and the actual computer behind it is not visible to the outside world. Unlike installing an OS on a computer, it takes 15 minutes to create an new virtual instance of a computer. You can even make multiple instances and use each virtual computer serve specific functions such as one computer being your banking computer, another being your web browsing computer, etc. This can get expensive if you use Windows (a license per each instance) and so Linux is the perfect candidate for the OS to run on the virtual computer.
A virtual computer running a VPN is the best.
No, I use Oracle VM Virtual Box. Then Linux as the OS on the virtual computer. I run Virtual Box on Windows.
thx for the tip. I’ll look into this.
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