- Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
VPN software, which you may have to install on your PC or mobile device, provides a secure tunnel between you and a VPN server on the Internet. All of your Internet traffic will be sent through that tunnel before being routed to its destination.
As long as your VPN server is located somewhere that is not subject to filtering, this will allow you to access blocked content. Trust is still important, as your VPN provider could easily maintain a list of the websites you visit, but at least they will not be able to access the traffic send to (or receive from) encrypted services like HTTPS websites.
Important Points to Highlight for VPNs:
•As with all proxies, your connection is not fully secure unless you are visiting a secure service, such as an HTTPS-encrypted website.
•Your connection is not anonymous – your VPN service can see and record what you are requesting.
- Anonymizing Proxies
Anonymity networks typically “bounce” your Internet traffic between various secure proxies in order to disguise where you are coming from and what you are trying to access.
Tor is the most well tested and widely used anonymizing proxy network. By tunneling your traffic through a randomly selected series of encrypted relays, Tor offers a secure, reliable, publicly accessible means of circumvention that saves you from having to worry quite so much about the extent to which you trust your ISP, the organization that runs your proxy servers, or the filtered websites themselves.
Important Points to Highlight for Anonymizing Proxies include:
•You must still ensure that you have an encrypted, HTTPS connection to a secure website before exchanging sensitive information, even if you are using Tor.
•Unfortunately, in countries where Internet speeds are slow to begin with, some users find that Tor has a significant impact on the performance of complex websites and other Internet services.
Related
