It’s a well-known fact that something like privacy on the internet can only be achieved with a lot of effort. It’s created and used in a way that doesn’t allow anything to stay private, and websites, ISPs, governments, and different agencies all work as hard as they can to keep track with everything that’s going on. People have just recently realized exactly how endangered their privacy is, and so, they started searching for a way to enhance it and to reduce their chances of being spied upon.
Let’s take Britain for example. There have been reports that the British government is secretly consulting and planning a scheme that would allow them to outlaw encryption. Encryption is used for keeping your actions online hidden from the prying eyes, and so this act would help increase online surveillance dramatically. What they’re planning is a proposal concerning the technical capabilities under the Investigatory Powers Act. Basically, telecoms would need to allow the government to get access to certain people’s data per their request.
What are they proposing?
What the British government wants, is to force the communication companies like ISPs and phone networks to let them access all of the someone’s data at any time. They wish to simply come to the data archives with a name and get all there is to get about a person and their communications. Even the secondary data about the individual won’t be spared, but instead, needs to be submitted, and the companies will only have one day to provide it all.
The next thing that the government is hoping to achieve is a permanent ban of what they call ‘electronic protection’. And it makes sense that they’d want to do such a thing because they want your data. If you’re using VPNs, that give you a new IP address and encrypt all of your traffic anyway, nobody can crack it, and the government doesn’t get anything. So first, they must outlaw such tools. Also, the ISPs are being pressured to create backdoors on their networks, and give full access to the intelligence agencies.
The government even requires that the ISPs start and continue monitoring od 1 in every 10,000 customers at the same time. This proposal was leaked on May 4, and it was received by the Open Rights Group. The President of the Liberal Democrats, Sal Brinton, has stated that this is regarded as a full-frontal assault when it comes to privacy of the British citizens, and their civil liberties.
All was done behind the closed door
The problem with this Act is not that the government is trying to get it legalized, but the fact how close they came without anyone even noticing it. The governments are pretty much always trying to get more power over their citizens, and another attempt on that isn’t that much of the news. However, this document has already gone through the technical advisory board of the UK government, and it consists of no less than six telecom giants. Those involved include BskyB, Vodafone, O2, and more.
Even the government agencies like GCHQ and the MI5 were involved in this, and yet, there was almost nothing about it mentioned anywhere. If there wasn’t for the leak, people wouldn’t even know about this until it’s said and done. That can only mean that this was done extremely fast since the deal and understanding between all of these agencies and institutions already existed. A closed consultation has had everyone’s agreement, and since the government doesn’t have the obligation to announce the draft regulations publicly, they choose not to. It still needs to be approved by the Houses of Parliament if they want it to become a law, but they don’t have to announce it publicly.
It’s said that these measures serve as an upgrade to the 2016’s Investigatory Powers Act, or the Snooper’s Charter, as it’s commonly known. Once again, this was an attempt by the government to increase surveillance. So basically, the government wants even more power, and now they don’t want to fight for it but are trying to get it by tricks and secrecy.
What to do to protect yourself
You can always send an email to the government with your views on the situation and the new legislation. If this proposal becomes law, you still shouldn’t panic, since it will only apply to companies based in the UK. For the regular internet users, it’s enough to prepare yourself and bypass your ISP, just in case. For this, we recommend a VPN service, and it’s best to use one that’s not based in the UK.
VPNs are a great way for you to remain protected from tracking, and they’re helping you by encrypting all of your data, as well as by hiding your real IP address and replacing it with a fake one. You can even convince the internet that you’re located in a different country via VPN. The ability to do that has several practical uses.
All you need to do is decide which one to use. We can recommend several of them, which make our top three choices. Those are TorGuard, PIA, and GhostVPN.
They’ll provide you with great speeds, they keep no logs, encryption is very strong, and the number of servers spread out in the world is amazing. Many more features await you if you decide to use one of these providers. And if you decide that you don’t like those, feel free to explore on your own, just be careful not to choose a free one. Free ones are bad for you, since they’ll either bombard you with their sponsor’s ads, or they’ll record and sell your data.
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Conclusion
Online privacy isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Many will try to rob you of it if they can, and that makes you the only one who can stop them. The hackers aren’t the only threat, there are also the ISPs and the government that controls them. Use VPN and protect yourself, or have your personal data studied and analyzed. There’s no other result.
