I hate to ambush you with a request first thing on a Monday morning, but Congress and corporate lobbyists are trying steal your digital privacy once again! Please call your House of Representative member immediately and tell him or her to vote NO on H.R.-1430, which would repeal internet privacy rules and allow your internet service provider (ISP) to sell your personal information to other corporations without your permission or your notification.
Today at 5pm E.S.T, the House is scheduled to vote on H.R.-1430; so, this is the time to let our representatives know, loud and clear, that we take our privacy seriously. Unfortunately, the Senate already voted 50-48 last Thursday to eliminate the privacy rules that currently prevent ISPs from selling your information. This is our last chance, from a political perspective, to stop this loss of privacy (fortunately, there is a crypto tech solution that doesn’t require any government permission – more about that in a moment).
Here is a link to lookup your Representative based on your zip code: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
And here is a great article by Ars Technica explaining the bill in detail: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/03/how-isps-can-sell-your-web-history-and-how-to-stop-them/
For those of you have been following me for a while, even before I started www.CryptoTech.Solutions late last year, you know that, while I believe it is important for us to influence laws toward greater digital privacy, I don’t have a lot of faith that the American political system, as it stands today, can be counted on to protect our rights. That’s why encryption technology is so revolutionary; it frees us from needing anyone’s permission to take back our digital privacy.
If you want to protect your internet usage so that even your ISP can’t see the websites you visit, you have to use a virtual private network (VPN). VPNs also provide the added benefit of adding an extra layer of security to your laptop or cell phone if you’re connecting untrusted networks such as public wifi.
The trick, however, is finding a VPN you can trust. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to use a VPN if you are simply trading being spied on by your ISP for being spied on by your VPN. That’s why you should follow the following rules when selecting a VPN provider:
- Do Not use a free VPN service. If someone tries to give you something for free, there is a good chance you aren’t their customer – you’re their product and they’re selling your information to the highest bidder.
- Do use a VPN service that is has a sterling reputation in the digital privacy and security community. Good references to judge a VPN’s quality can be found at http://www.privacytools.io/ and https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart/
- Do use a VPN service that doesn’t require any personal information (name, address, phone number, credit card number, etc.) to setup an account or establish service. VPN providers that understand privacy don’t log any of their server traffic so there is no record of usage, but the best VPN providers will simply give you a random account number or will you to sign up for an account with a made-up e-mail address so that they don’t even know who you are in the first place.
- Do use a VPN provider that will allow you to pay anonymously using Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to avoid registering your personal information with a VPN provider if you are just going to turnaround and give them your credit card for billing. Cryptocurrencies allow you to purchase goods and services over the internet anonymously, just like if you were using cash in person.
My personal favorite VPN service at the moment is Nord VPN. Nord meets all four of the above criteria; plus it is easy to use, it’s available on any platform, and it has some of the fastest and most reliable service I’ve seen. And if you signup now using the link www.CryptoTech.Solutions/Nord, Nord is offering 72% off of 2-years of VPN service – that’s VPN service for only $3.29 per month (over $207.80 savings from their regularly offered price)!
