Just because you are free to do whatever you want online in your home country doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about how your data is be used. Online privacy rights are varied throughout all parts of the world. You must be cautious when online regardless of where you go.
United States
While much of the online world is open and free for you to explore in the United States, your content could be accessed by the government through the Stored Communications Act. With this, the government can access data through your online service provider. This means that your social media accounts could be accessed. Some national laws like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule protect certain people who are online.
United Kingdom
The Data Protection Act in the UK states that all people who collect personal data online must be open and forward. Any site must inform you about why someone’s going to collect your data and how it will be used. Also, any website that is to issue cookies to you must tell you what they do and why they are needed.
Australia
The Data Retention Bill states that metadata on all people can be collected. This means that you could be easily identified by someone who searches for your information online based on when you visit a site and what you do there. Also, any personal information that a site handles must be managed in a transparent fashion by the Australia Privacy Principles.
Canada
You will be informed by any Canadian site about a privacy policy based on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Data Act. All privacy details must be made public to customers. It must be easy to spot on a site and as specific as possible on how data is being handled.
China
China is notorious for limiting access to websites located outside of the government’s control. The Cybersecurity Law that will be passed in the summer of 2017 will require all companies that do business online to list and detail how their networks operate. This is to ensure that illegal content is blocked. It is done to manage how data flows online and can restrict what you may be able to access or legally provide.
European Union
According to the Data Protection Directive of 1998, you must give full consent to any site that is willing to collect your data. All sites must have direct and sensible purposes for collecting that data.
Individual countries in the EU have their rules too. Poland requires your consent for processing personal data. Any business in Poland looking to collect your info must also provide its name and address, why the data is being collect and who is receiving it as well as whether participation is voluntary.
Meanwhile, Germany states that you must be informed by a business about what it can use your data for. A business must gain added consent from you for any additional purposes that might come about in the future.
Japan
The Personal Information Protection Act in Japan says that any website aiming to share your information to a third party must get consent from you before doing so. You can use this for all sorts of personal data that might be listed in your name.
Overall, the rules that individual countries have for collecting data and managing your online rights are varied. Be sure to look at how these rules apply to you before entering any country or aiming to do business with another country.
Best VPNs to Protect Privacy World Wide?
In each one of these countries, it’s obvious that privacy is not a major concern of the government. However, if you want to make it YOUR concern, you need to use a VPN to encrypt your personal online data so snooping governemnts or malicious attackers on the internet can’t use it for their own ends.
But what are the best VPNs to use?
Simple. Check out this comparison chart that collects some of our top-rated VPNs in comparison.
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| Multi-platform Compatible | ||
| 256-AES Encryption | ||
| PRICE | $5 for 1 month with code "best10VPN" | $6.95 a month |
| Website Rating | 9.9 | 8.8 |
| 24/7 Live Chat | ||
| Residential / Dedicated IP for permanent streaming access | ||
| Has Mobile App + PC / Mac Support | ||
| Stealth VPN / Advanced Obfuscation techniques | ||
| Visit VPN Provider | Visit TorGuard | Visit PIA |
