VPN News of the Week 3
Welcome to our third week of exciting VPN News! If you’re looking for a VPN, check out our top 5 VPNs!
Using a VPN in the UAE can Get you $545k Fine
The President in the United Arab Emirates has now issued federal laws that prevent ANYONE from using a VPN. A VPN or proxy user can be imprisoned and fined between $136,000 and $545,000 if they are found using VPNs fraudulently.
Previously the law only prosecuted people who used VPNs as part of internet crime, but now the law allows police in the UAE to go after anyone who uses VPNs to unlock blocked services–which is considered the fraudulent use of an IP address.
This is a massive attack on users who use applications that exist outside of the UAE. Apps like Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber or Snapchat are all accessed by using VPN. Some critics speculate that the laws are made to enhance the viability of expensive telecom services that have been granted licenses from the UAE to operate.
Zenmate Showing Adware
Zenmate VPN has sold out with their latest version of the browser extension which acts as a simple proxy. Zenmate’s Google Chrome extension is now showing Smartprice adware. This is a monetization method for Zenmate to make money off the Chrome extension. However, this adware functionality added by Smartprice is having some adverse effects.
Users are reporting that deals from Smartprice are mostly a scam, and some users are even claiming even after removing the extension that ads are still showing up on their browser–even after deleting cookies, running malware programs, and cleaning their temporary files.
This is an excellent example of the importance of choosing a good VPN. Sometimes using a bad VPN can even jeopardize your privacy and security on the internet.
VPN and Pokemon Go?
Pokemon Go is still popular as ever with millions of users now accessing the app and catching Pokemon throughout the world. However, a lot of users are playing Pokemon Go with questionable methods–including the use of GPS spoofing apps and recently even VPN. A lot of users have been using VPN to access the app early if it wasn’t available in their geo-location, but now there is some speculation on using VPN in conjunction with GPS spoofing techniques.
Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, has been known to ban users using GPS spoofing techniques in their other game, Ingress, and now it appears that the same might be happening for Pokemon Go users using GPS spoofing techniques without the additional security of a VPN to make their virtual location more realistic.
Paramount Pictures Gives up On Geoblocking
On July 26th, a press release by the European Commission detailed Paramount Picture’s new stance on geoblocking. Geoblocking is the act of restricting content to a particular geographic location. Companies like Netflix and Hulu are two examples of businesses that use geoblocking. The result is widely disparate content libraries across the world. If you’re in Australia, for instance, you won’t have access to the US version of Netflix which includes more titles.
Paramount Pictures has now agreed to stop geoblocking restrictions when licensing its film output for Pay-TV to a broadcaster. Paramount Pictures also decided not to enforce any existing contract causes that involve geoblocking.
The reason behind Paramount’s action is that certain clauses in contracts made by companies like Paramount breach EU antitrust rules.
Join us next Friday for more VPN news!
