Is Using a VPN in the UK Mandatory?

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A lot of online content would be available to everyone if the freedom to access information was being respected on the internet. As you probably already know, much of the online content is restricted to only certain countries, or regions. This means that not everyone can access that content, which is something that many people don’t see as fair.

In this group, we can often find some sort of online services like Netflix or Hulu that can allow you to watch pretty much any show you want, as long as you pay a small fee. However, Hulu is only available to you if you’re a citizen of the US. Netflix has a lot wider range, however, they also don’t include everyone, and those that are included usually don’t have access to the same shows as the US. This is what we call geo-restriction.

Geo-restriction is present everywhere in the world, and there’s not a single nation that has legal access to absolutely everything online. This is something that bothers people, because, they don’t WANT access to everything, but most of them feel the need to have it. If the internet won’t let them, they’ve found a way to get that access for themselves, and so most have turned to proxies and VPN providers.

The usage of VPNs and proxies in Britain

YouGov’s ‘Incognito Individual’ report revealed recently that up to 16% of adults in the Great Britain use one of these two services in order to get the access they need. That’s almost one in six people only within the UK that has felt the need to turn to a proxy server or a VPN so that they could get access to geo-restricted content. When asked what do they use their VPNs for, and what are they hoping to access, almost half of the respondents said that these region-locked websites are their target.

This is not surprising since these services are only available to the people of a certain country. However, the nature of the internet allows others to get their interest into the blocked content as well, and they also want to get access. In the past, people used to turn to piracy, while these days, they simply trick the internet into thinking that they’re from the region that has access to the desired website.

Most of the time, when someone decides to start using a VPN, it’s because they wanted to enhance their security and safety, or at least achieve as much anonymity as they possibly can. This time, however, they were obviously the minority, with 48% of people saying that they simply want access to blocked content.

Censorship in the UK

Is Using a VPN in the UK Mandatory?

The UK doesn’t have that big of a problem when it comes to censorship. They allow freedom of expression, as well as the users’ right to protect their privacy by the UK law. However, even they had to increase their surveillance measures in order to combat the growing danger of terrorism, and also to prevent child abuse. They openly block child pornography websites, but that’s something that’s praised by the UK citizens, and not the source of their problems.

Some of the problems may include the inability to access certain websites in schools, colleges or at work. These institutions often block social networks in order to help their students or workers concentrate better on the task at hand. However, these measures often go a bit too far, and then student’s can’t access the websites that are actually needed for the independent research. The largest blocks in the UK are reserved for torrenting websites. First of them to get blocked was newzbin.com, back in 2011, and then The Pirate Bay as well in 2012. It would seem that British government has a problem with pirates once more.

Other uses for VPNs, and which one to choose

VPNs have many uses besides the fact that they can provide access to restricted content. They are also able to protect you from numerous ads, which is something that many of those surveyed already realized. Many have admitted to using VPNs to decrease ads, spam, and similar nuisances. However, it’s also discovered that over 65% of surveyed citizens are aware of the dark web. So far, only 6% openly admitted to using it, while the rest claim that they’ve only heard of it. 6% have stated that they might be using it in the future as well.

VPNs have also known their ability to encrypt your content so that nobody can spy on your online activities. They also offer many other features, like the kill switch, DNS leak protection, money back guarantees, and many of them also keep no logs, so that they can’t provide proof of your online actions even under the court order.

When it comes to our recommendation, we have decided to listen to what some of the more experienced users had to say. They recommended using TorGuard, Private Internet Access, IPVanish, and GhostVPN. These are some of the top providers in the VPN world, and all of them have their own strengths.

For example, TorGuard has the most features, and it’s often depicted as the best one that you’ll ever find. IPVanish owns its own network, which allows it to have the best speeds, and almost none other can rival it there. PIA is the cheapest one since it has a very simple app, but it’s still as good as the rest of them at what it does. And lastly, there’s GhostVPN, which is the youngest one here, but it’s still among the best of them. This one is said to have the potential to be the best once it reaches its maximum.

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Conclusion

The use of VPN demonstrates how the people feel about their governments, as well as how they feel about what they’re allowed to access. The citizens of the UK have shown that they do worry about their safety, but even that’s clouded by the feeling that they aren’t getting access to what they want. Anyhow, the number of VPN users is growing every day, and it’s expected that a situation like that is bound to give a headache to services which keep using geo-restrictions.

Passion for Cyber Security and Technology.

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