Welcome to our second VPN News roundup!

In this article, we found all of the best news for you to get caught up in the VPN world. If you need a VPN, check out this great top 5 list.

KickAss Torrents CEO Captured

KickAssTorrents is one of the largest torrent websites in the world–if not the largest. According to our research, they even get more search queries than the ThePiratebay.

This Wednesday, Owner Artem Vaulin, was arrested by Poland on charges of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement–charges of money laundering–and two counts of criminal copyright infringement. Some sources believe that one reason Vaulin was found and arrested was because of Apple cooperating with authorities and giving out information such as his IP address received in iTunes transactions.

This provides a good precedent on how your information can be leaked even from good companies like Apple that value privacy. However, while–this is a criminal case, you should still rely on a VPN to hide your privacy from snoopers or other malicious entities even if you aren’t a criminal.

According to the official press release, “Vaulin is charged with running today’s most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials… To evade law enforcement, Vaulin allegedly relied on servers located in countries around the world and moved his domains due to repeated seizures and civil lawsuits. His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cyber criminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice.”

Vaulin is now to be tried in Chicago, Illinois since KickAssTorrents use to operate their servers there.

Netflix Stock Drops 13%

This week Netflix stock dropped 13% causing a lot of people to wonder if proxy blocking could be the cause. A recent price increase might be the reason causing slower client acquisition (less new customers) due to the higher price.

However, VPN companies might have a slight bias. NordVPN commented on the issue explaining that they have had a ton of customer inquiries about how to access VPN. No one know it better than Best10VPN however, as we have tons of articles (like this one) on how to access Netflix with a VPN–despite the proxy block. However, there are bound to be customers choosing Netflix alternatives (as seen here) rather than deal with the issues which could be costing Netflix, some valuable customers.

The question remains–will Netflix stock continue to drop, or will it rise to new heights since it has secured valuable deals with Disney?

China Changes Ads

While China already controls how many of its citizens access the internet and what they can see, they haven’t been aggressive with how ads work. Now, China is seeking to control ads more to prevent business malpractice. China aims to create a more regulated ad network to avoid monopolized ads. Here are the prohibited acts from Article 16:

(1) Providing or using applications, hardware, etc. that intercept, filter, cover, fast-forward, or otherwise restrict data used for advertising by others;

(2) Using network access, network devices, or applications to disrupt the normal transmission of advertising data, tampering with or blocking other businesses’ advertisements, or loading of unauthorized ads;

(3) Using false statistics or broadcasting of false results, including misleading values, to pursue illegitimate benefits or harm the interests of others.

Turkey Seizes Social Media in Military Coup

Turkey has been in a constant state of turmoil with the military trying to overthrow the government. The result has been significant censorship on multimedia fronts and social networking sites to prevent discussion and controversy. Sites like Twitter and Facebook have been blocked.

Make sure to use a VPN to get around blocks like this if you’re in Turkey, or living somewhere else where these things happen more than they should.

If you need a good VPN for Turkey, I would check out some of these.

France Issues Complaint to Microsoft

Chairwoman Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin of the French National Data Protection issued a statement yesterday to Microsoft to “stop collecting excessive data and tracking browsing by users without their consent.” Now, Microsoft has three months to comply with France’s data privacy laws since they are outside of the law collecting data. France is concerned the way Microsoft operates could cause potential privacy leaks, lack of security, and lack of individual consent.

Need a VPN for France?

European Supreme Court Likes Mass Surveillance

In a recent preliminary ruling, The European Court of Justice has concluded that mass surveillance might be necessary on a state by state basis provided conditions are met. It’s ironic since it was only two years ago that the ECJ contested the Data Retention directive that required mass surveillance. This new surveillance determined by the courts in each state can only be used to prosecute serious crimes.

Thanks for reading our second VPN news roundup! Come back next Friday for our third edition, or subscribe to our newsletter to get it emailed.