Online Privacy Protection Software

We shouldn’t need it but I’m afraid we seem to live in a world where privacy is no longer guaranteed. It’s a lot to do how the internet has developed (of course it’s also the way society has developed too!) – in that I mean technically. HTTP is the core of internet communication. Unfortunately it’s also completely insecure and transports all our data in clear text.

That’s how it sits at your local ISP, in their logs – your internet diary, every move you have made online for the last two years. Governments, agencies routinely use this information in their various enquiries. Ask me again if you need something to maintain your privacy then !

Do we need online privacy protection software when we’re online ?

A Polish Proxy from Krakow

The internet used to be pretty open but unfortunately there are now a huge amount of filters and blocks applied from every level. This has led obviously to a huge amount of tools and software designed to bypass these filters primarily based on a core of proxy and VPN servers. But they can get expensive if you want any flexibility purely because you often need more in different countries. Think of my friend who is from Krakow originally but now lives in the UK – he often likes to connect back to websites in his home land for obvious reasons. But increasingly he will get blocked because of his location. What he needs is a Polish proxy in order to access these sites – for instance the Polish media channels.

But my friend also likes to watch some strange American series which is only available in the US, plus he likes a show on Canadian pilots on Canadian TV. So to watch all these he’d need a Polish, US and Canadian proxy or VPN service. You’ll notice that many of the proxy providers will sell you access to specific servers but they usually charge extra for each location. But there are a couple who just charge a single subscription and give you access to their entire network.

Here’s how one of my favorites works – first I connect to Google with my normal address.

But unfortunately this means I am tied into a UK location, which is fine if you just want to access UK related sites but what if you want to access sites that are restricted to Poland, Russia, USA or anywhere else on the planet? I need to be able to fool these sites that I am located somewhere else which I can do through using either a proxy or VPN server. For this demonstration I am going to use a Poland based proxy from a company called Overplay.

Here’s what I do – just connect up to my Overplay software and scroll down their list of available proxies. From the screenshot you can see I have a polish proxy server available so I just connect through that. It takes about 10 seconds to connect and to extablish the connection after you put in your username and password.

Then you’re connected – at this point you have a VPN tunnel connected between you and the Overplay server in Krakow, Poland. In plain English this means that you will now appear to every web site you visit to be from Poland. For instance here’s what you see if you visit Google whilst using the Poland proxy. The geo location checks your IP address and delivers the Polish version of the search engine.

Of course this isn’t particularly useful if you aren’t actually in Poland. However if you are getting blocked from a specific site because of your location it can be an incredibly useful tool. It means all Polish content is available to you whilst connected, any look ups will reveal your location to be Krakow because that’s where the server is located.

That’s What I Call a Video

Cracking Video !!

Update on the Australian Internet Filtering

There has been an update (28th, June 2011) on the Australian Government’s internet filtering scheme and I’m afraid it still suffers from the usual limitations of such censorship schemes. To be fair they have made a few changes after the huge wave of crticism from the initial prototype scheme which frankly was ill conceived, badly implemented and well pointless to be honest.

So what has the Internet Industry Association (Australian Internet body) come up with this time?

Well it’s probably not surprising considering the current economic climate that it’s definitely pretty cheap. In fact there is virtually no new equipment required, nothing more than a few tweaks to current infrastructure. It’s important to keep costs down when you’re doing something as pointless as this sort of censorship of course.

Now of course no-one can argue with the basic assumption that we should protect children and restrict access to child pornography. The scheme will effectively implement the blocking of a list of such sites provided by Interpol and the Australian Federal Police. The onus will pretty much be on the ISPs using the big stick of section 313 if Australia’s Telecommunication Act. It’s not much more than a basic framework of a big blacklist of bad sites which are blocked by the ISPs in their routing tables.

The sites will also be blocked by the even more pointless method of modifying DNS tables. Just to clarify this method involves changing the DNS tables on Australian servers so that the ‘bad’ sites don’t resolve to their correct servers properly. It’s a very crude method, easily bypassed and one I’ve never liked. Messing around with the way the internet works is never a good idea but of course as well as being pointless and easily circumvented – it does have the advantage of being CHEAP!

Needless to say this probably won’t end here – lists of stuff you can’t do rarely get shorter. We’ll probably end up seeing lots of committees and groups lobbying for other web sites to be added to the list. Just as now you see some web sites about evolution being blocked in restrictive Muslim countries.

It’s an almost complete waste of time in my opinion. It’s headline grabbing nonsense that has very little real affect other than allowing a Government to pretend it’s doing something about a problem. The blocks and filtering will only be effective against people who don’t want to access these sites anyway – the vast majority of us. These filtering techniques are so easily bypassed by anyone with a mind to, there are literally thousands of security programs, secure VPNs and private proxies that just make these methods completely ineffective.

The other main issues is that the vast majority of this material is not stored on standard web servers. It’s shared by email, P2P and FTP – it’s stored and distributed on private networks and areas like the darknet. None of these filtering will effect these distribution points. Censorship is being implemented against the wrong people – innocent users of the internet. It will have no effect on sophisticated rings of technologically savvy paedophiles across the internet.

But the real concern is that it’s simply posturing and blocking access to a problem rather than trying to solve it. It doesn’t help the victims by altering routing tables so that Australian citizens can’t access the material – it’s still there, the victims are still victims. This posturing would be better replaced by concerted efforts to track down arrest and bring to justice the people who are creating and distributing this material. It’s of course much more difficult to do but does actually have an impact. Of course it will create more demand for an Aussie proxies perhaps.

What we’ll end up with is more pointless censorship on the average, law abiding internet users.

Japanese Proxy Server – Where Can I Find One?

Someone mentioned to me they had need of a Japanese proxy server for some online business they were involved in. It started me thinking about the increasing use of these services. I’ve been using proxies and VPNs most of my life, it started off mainly configuring at work but now they are definitely becoming fairly mainstream technology. Sure many people have probably used them for years too without really noticing. If you can use the internet at work or college, it’s very likely being redirected through a proxy server of some sort in order to maintain, audit and control what comes in and out of the network.

But why do people increasingly need proxies and specifically want a Japan proxy or a US proxy etc. Well one of the most common reasons by far is to bypass network or ISP restrictions blocking people from specific sites. There’s a whole host of content filtering software on most networks and increasingly installed at a country or ISP level which blocks access to specific sites. Using a proxy server can bypass these restrictions in many situations. For example, the advanced VPN Identity Cloaker is particularly adept at bypassing these proxy blockers in any situation. It even evades the advanced content filters such as Websense which will easily detect and defeat online proxy sites. Whether this is a priority for you often depends on where you live and work. Trying to access normal technology can be a real pain in locations like Qatar and Saudi Arabia which routinely block useful sites like Skype, Facebook and YouTube for their own particular reasons.

But sometimes in these situations any proxy will do and the location is not that important. Yet there are many instances where people need a proxy in a specific country, which is why those services which can change your IP address easily are so useful.

So Why Would Someone Want a Japanese Proxy Server?

Well it might be that they wanted to access specific services or content in Japan whilst out of the country. Increasingly many companies are blocking access to different content when accessed outside the country. It may be for licensing issues, perhaps to restrict markets or offers to a specific area. It happens with just about all big TV and media companies for instance – they will all block access from outside their home territory. So if you wanted to watch Japanese TV or radio then you’d likely need a Japan web proxy server if you were somewhere else in the world.

Other situation can be found in the world of eCommerce too. Web servers are often designed to filter out connections based on their location to discourage commercial use or worse fraudsters. Want to buy a ticket for a popular concert being held in Japan? You are almost certainly going to need to connect from a Japanese IP address then. Sites like Ticketmaster block proxies and connections from non-local addresses quite routinely. Social media sites are always blocking or filtering accounts based on their addresses too. Which is why people have to use proxies to promote multiple Instagram accounts for example.

Here’s what you’ll see if you connect through a Japanese proxy server for instance irrespective of where you are located.

Google uses similar technology to the companies who block based on location. So here Google has decided that we are based in Japan so it would be best to use the Japanese version of it’s search engine. Of course I am not really there but because I have access to a selection of Japanese proxies and VPNs I can access content there if I so wish.

But it’s not all about watching films or TV and shows online. Many people use proxies for marketing and in their online businesses. For instance I know some Australian businessmen who sell lots of stuff in Japan online but have to appear actually be there to post adverts, use Japanese websites and suchlike. Just like eBay or Craigslist will block certain actions for non-residents, people who use the internet to sell or promote usually are forced to use networks of proxies to hide their real location.

These proxy services used to be very expensive but they have fallen rapidly in price as competition enters the market. Still too many companies try and charge fees for a single proxy or VPN in a specific country though. There are a couple who offer much more flexibility though – my favorite for price and sheer diversity of the servers that they have available is NordVPN.

They an extensive Japan proxy service, plus plenty of proxies in Singapore, South America, USA, Canada, UK and loads of other places. It’s worth noting your subscription includes every single one of them and they’re not additional extras like many companies. Remember though certain websites, particularly some e-commerce sites need residential addresses, VPNs rarely provide these and you’ll need to buy a residential proxy service for those.

Here’s the software in action – it actually make a VPN (Virtual private network connection) to each server simply by selecting the one from a list. This makes it easier to access specific Media sites which are only accessible from certain countries. So you’d select a Tokyo proxy to access Japanese content for example.

It’s a cracking investment which you can use to access whatever country you need. It’s also the best VPN for chrome I’ve found as many are extremely slow when connected to a remote server. I use it in my work online and for watching media sites like the BBC IPlayer, Pandora and Hulu for fun. Check them out especially if you need a hard to find proxy or VPN for a country like Australia or Japan. There’s evidence that more and more people are using geoproxy Japan solutions because of the increasing number of blocks facing people when they travel.

Try them out for a month I’m certain you’ll be amazed at the possibilities it opens up online and there’s no better value believe me I’ve searched !

However if you have any recommendations on other Japan VPN or Proxy providers I’d love to hear about them!

Aside

Do we need online privacy protection software when we’re online ?

So Why Would Someone Want a Japanese Proxy Server?