Internet censorship is a form of government surveillance. Surveillance is popular in the world; almost all nations have got its own surveillance on their citizens or visitors who travel to such states to ensure the safety and security of the country. But no matter what the reason is, it is fact that surveillance is not only an issue of safeguarding the countries from being threatened, but also a matter of privacy and freedom invasion. So how to bypass government censorship and surveillance on Internet in countries like China to protect our privacy and freedom?
When you travel to China, you will find that such popular websites as Facebook, Twitter, Google search engine etc. are not accessible in this country. All these websites are all blocked by the facility named GFW, abbreviation of Great Firewall of China. It is a tool used by the government to implement Internet censorship and restrictions to regulate the Internet domestically. It is the combination of legislative and technological actions taken by the government of Mainland China to achieve Internet censorship in China by criminalizing certain online speech and activities, filtering sensitive key words out of searches initiated from visitors whose computers are located in Mainland China, preventing users in China from visiting selected websites and so on. That is why when you try to access Facebook or any other blocked websites in China; you are just informed of an error message which is something like this site can’t be reached.
Censorship and Surveillance of course have made an important contribution to the safety and security of a nation. But it is a success in the sacrifice of the privacy and freedom of the users. It causes a lot of inconveniences for visitors who use the blocked websites so much but have to travel and stay in China for several months without being able to access them. For example, if you use Twitter a lot in USA to keep in touch with your friends, families, colleagues and any other acquaintances, but when you go on a trip to China and try to use Twitter in the country as before, you will only receive an error message stating something like The Twitter page isn’t working. For Chinese citizens or residents, it is also a matter of freedom invasion. It blocks Chinese people from legally using these websites, reaching the world and broadening their vision.
Different countries may implement their surveillance and censorship with different tools. While usually, many tools share similar principle and can be circumvented with the same method. Many Chinese residents and visitors who travel to China are using a technology called Virtual Private Network, VPN in short, to break the block of the GFW. It is an old technology but has proved to be effective and efficient. With only one VPN service, you can bypass all kinds of similar tools and access as many blocked websites and services as you want.
It works like a middleman between the user and the Line. Access requests of the user are transferred by the server of the VPN service provider, and results of the requests delivered back to the user by the server again. During the process, your original IP in Mainland China is replaced with a new one provided by the VPN service provider. In this way, the user will manage to circumvent the GFW and successfully access the blocked websites in China again.
The detailed guide consists of three steps.
Step 1: First, it is needed to go to sign up for an account from a VPN service provider. Usually there are various service plan available, pick up the one that you think it best for you. After that, you will be provided the options to make the payment. Choose the payment method and fill in all the information to complete. An email will be sent to you to confirm the account upon payment being completed. After confirming, the next step is to download and install the software onto your system.
Step 2: Download and install the VPN software. Usually, a link to download the software will be provided in the confirmation email. You may be presented with a list of software where software for different operating systems or devices are listed. Select the one for your systems to finish downloading. The installation is easy, just click through the procedures as prompted all the way to complete.
Step 3: Connect to a US-based server or other appropriate server location on VPN. When the software is ready, the left you need to do is to start the application and fill in your account detail and choose a proper location. You can select any server located in US. If you like, you can also choose other locations like Canada. It is all up to you. Now everything is done. Yare ready to use the VPN to bypass government censorship and surveillance on internet now.
Is it worth the extra money we pay for a specific VPN service? Here are some facts that may help you make the decision.
• Apart from Facebook and Twitter, such popular websites as Netflix, Pandora, Youtube, Hulu and so on are inaccessible in China, either. And it is reported that more than 3000 foreign websites are not accessible directly from China without applying such technology as VPN to circumvent the geo-restrictions and censorship. But a good VPN service will help you successfully access these websites as many as possible.
• An excellent VPN service will allow the user to access the whole content on devices as many as possible, including Android devices, Windows PC, Google Nexus Player, Smart TV, Blu-ray Player, iPad, iPhone, AppleTV etc.
• By applying the VPN technology, you will not need to take hours to download “free” streaming content like a movie without good quality guaranteed at the risk of introducing viruses onto your devices. It is known that free downloads are the most often-used ways by malwares to distribute themselves.
• Access more content. As mentioned, the wonderful movies and TV shows on such services as Netflix are not equally same available for all countries and regions all over the world because of the copyright issues. With the help of the VPN technology, you are able to watch a movie that can’t be accessed from India by choosing a location where the movie is available there.
For users who are looking for reliable brands of VPN services, the following three can be listed among their best choices. Although none of these brands is good enough to be considered as perfect in all aspects, they are very competitive in many aspects compared with their competitors.
Private Internet Access is regarded as one of the most trustworthy VPN service providers in the field of VPN technology. The most impressive aspect of their VPN service is the affordable pricing. They are able to provide the customers with the most efficient services of the most reasonable prices. Apart from reasonable prices, the number of servers and various useful tools like ad blocking and one click termination for all applications connected to the internet in case of a VPN failure are all powerful tools they use to compete with their competitors.
Headquartered in Panama, a country where people scream for freedom from NSA snooping, NordVPN is one of the most popular VPN services in the world. Even though its pricing is slightly expensive, it doesn’t prevent the company from being one of the most favored VPN service providers at all since it is a company that can ease the user’s safety concern to the most degree.
Apart from vast pricing options, multiple server choices and a bunch of impressive tools, KeepSolid VPN is doing better in many aspects compared with other providers. Unless you are looking for a service with faster speed and simpler UI or higher speed of file sharing across all servers, there is no reason to remove it out of your list of best VPN services.
Kindly Reminder: If you have any question regarding how to Set up VPN on your device, please live chat with Yoocare online expert for help.
Published by on May 13, 2017 5:00 am, last updated on May 13, 2017 5:02 am
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