And maybe access a bigger Netflix!
How to protect your online anonymity
A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, is a service which helps you cover your tracks on the Internet and makes you harder to find. It does this by masking your country of residence while you are surfing the web.
Each Internet user has an identifying Internet Protocol (IP) address. What a VPN does is replace your IP address with another from its network, randomly. An Internet user in Aylmer could appear to be surfing the web from, say, Siberia.
A VPN will add its own level of encryption to your data as it travels across the Internet, in the same way a firewall or anti-virus program protects data on your computer. A VPN protects data as it travels between computers.
Some VPNs provide their service free, and rely on donations, while others have a fee. For-profit VPNs tend to be more reliable than free ones, usually because they are operated by professional companies with a vested interest in protecting their users. Many companies and governments already use VPNs because high-profile individuals can have valuable information and being unidentifiable while online can be a big protection.
There are still copyright and intellectual-property controversies surrounding VPNs.
Many newly-popular online streaming services like Hulu and Netflix are region-based, limiting an Internet user in Canada to Canadian Netflix’s menu or access to Hulu to American users. VPN users can get around these regional locks because a VPN masks the user’s true location. A VPN user can choose to appear in the United States and therefore get access to Hulu even though he may actually live in Quebec.
In January, Netflix Vice President David Fullagar announced the company would be cracking down on anyone using VPNs, or proxies, to view content outside of their region. “This technology continues to evolve and we are evolving with it,” Fullagar said. “That means, in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only access service in the country where they are. This change won’t impact members not using proxies.”
Canadian company UnoTelly is one proxy service targeted by Netflix. In February, UnoTelly announced that the online financial service PayPal had severed ties with their company. “PayPal indicated that UnoTelly is not allowed to provide services that enable open and unrestricted Internet access,” UnoTelly reported on its website.
