Great news – Turkey lifts the ban on YouTube!

Hide My Ass! is very pleased to hear that Turkey has lifted its ban on YouTube, two months after blocking the video-sharing website. Twitter was the first site to be blocked by the Turkish government on the 21st March, and a week later a block on YouTube was imposed after it too was used to air accusations of government corruption.  The ban on Twitter was lifted in April, but the block on YouTube remained in place until Tuesday 3rd June, after Turkey’s highest court ruled that the block was against free speech.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has widely criticized social media websites, and this decision to lift the ban is widely seen as a slight to the government.

We at HMA! are proud to have supported Turkish citizens beat the ban on Twitter and YouTube during this period by providing existing and new customers a free extension on their HMA! Pro VPN account.
We greatly welcome the decision to overturn this ban. At HMA! we believe in an open internet; that free speech and communication is a human right and that the internet should be available to everyone around the world, with no restrictions.

The ban on YouTube and Twitter has now been officially lifted. The HMA! free VPN offer is now closed.

The HMA! team

It’s Summer Sale time at Hide My Ass!

We love the summer, bbq’s, beaches and maybe the odd beer – plus the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicks off today, making today the perfect day to launch the start of our summer sale.

Save BIG this summer
You can save a huge 56% discount off the price of a 12 month HMA! Pro VPN subscription which brings it down to only $4.99/month.  A 6 month subscription is now $39.99, and 1 month is only $9.99.

And if that’s not the best news you’ve heard this year – don’t forget that if you order an auto-recurring subscription, the discounted price will be locked in on every renewal!

You can use HMA! Pro VPN in so many ways; to secure your devices when using public Wi-Fi, surf the net anonymously and access videos from any country!
Click here to grab a bargain today!

Google and YouTube blocked in Tajikistan

Over the past few months a number of social media websites including Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube have been blocked (and in some cases, unblocked) in countries including Turkey, and Pakistan. Now Tajikistan can be added to the list.

Reports surfaced earlier last week that internet users were unable to access the video-streaming service YouTube, and now many users have found that Google, including Gmail has been blocked.Tajikistan’s communications chief put the connection issues down to “possible technical problems” but as yet both sites remain blocked or partially blocked, and no further comment has been made.


Tajikistan authorities have blocked a number of websites over the past two years including Facebook, and a number of Russian news websites, yes you’ve guessed it, blocked – due to technical problems!
It is all too easy for governments to demand that blocks be put on websites which they deem a threat to their political standing and beliefs. Countries that deny their citizens the right to voice their opinions and communicate with the outside world are taking away freedom of expression, and that is unacceptable. Period.

Luckily, there is a solution for internet users in countries like China, Pakistan and Tajikistan whose governments deny them the freedom of expression – a Virtual Private Network (VPN) – and of course, I recommend HMA! Pro VPN.

When you select a server from our vast country list, (choose a server in a country where you know the webpage is not blocked) and you’ll be surfing the net in no time at all as you should be able to – no restrictions, no blocks whatsoever.

Save money in our Summer Sale!
We’ve slashed our prices in our Summer Sale – so don’t delay, click here to grab a bargain, and keep your personal and confidential information safe from governments, protect your data when using public Wi-Fi, access blocked websites and surf the net anonymously!

Tajikistan Facts
If you are not quite sure where Tajikistan is located, well it’s bordered by Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China, and has a population of around 8 million. It is a mountainous country – in fact 97% of the country is mountainous!

• Russian soldiers are reported to have seen the Abominable Snowman or the ‘Yeti’ in the Pamir Mountain ranges. The legend of the Yeti still exists in Tajikistan today.
• Tajikistan is amongst the smallest nations in Central Asia, in terms of area.
• Its domain is .tj

HMA! Tip: Receive emails anonymously and stop spam with Hide My Ass!

HMA! Pro VPN protects and encrypts all of your internet traffic by routing it through one of our servers, and of course that includes incoming and outgoing email traffic as well. But that doesn’t mean that you receive less spam when giving out your email address over the web, especially if you haven’t registered your email address anonymously.


There are a number of different ways that our anonymous email service can help you, for example:

1) You may come across a website that won’t let you view its pages until you sign up via Facebook or provide them with an email address. Many of these websites collect your details, known as email harvesting, in order to send out bulk email, aka spam!

2) You’ve scoured the internet and finally found the perfect birthday present for a friend, but when you check out, you’re asked for your email address.  Chances are you won’t be purchasing anything from that company again, so the best thing to do is give them an anonymous email address. You won’t be bombarded with their newsletters, special offers and other deals all clogging up your inbox.

3) “Sign up to our newsletter to get full access to our site!”  Sounds great, and many times, yes you do want to check out their site, but as soon as you hand over your email address,  get constant emails from them, and their partners and their partners’ partners!

Avoid website registration where you can, and use our anonymous email service. As soon as you stop using your ‘real’ email address, and start using our anonymous email account, the sooner you’ll see less spam in your inbox.

The HMA! Anonymous Email service is not just another trash-mail service as it offers much more:

• Complete anonymity – no personal information is required to register
• Full HTML support for displaying emails
• Daily email alerts to your alternative email address (optional)
• Ability to set an expiry date for the account (24h, 7d, 1/6/12m) to ensure secure deletion of account and emails
• Stop spam by never using your real email address on shady websites again

Give it a try – over 800,000 users can’t be wrong!

Internet censorship in Iraq

Al-Qaeda in Iraq used social media channels to spread their extremist views and messages during the War on Terror.
Recently the Iraqi government blocked a number of social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Google, as well as Instagram and Whatsapp in a bid to halt the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS) a group formed in April 2013 and which grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq, from promoting their campaign of terror.
In an attempt to curb the extremist group from using social media to spread their message, the Iraqi government also requested a total block on the internet in a number of provinces. The Wall Street Journal recently reported “The Internet has been shut down in five provinces out of 19” where ISIS have made the most gains.

This decision appears to have been reversed, but ISPs have still been told to enforce bans on a number of websites. The Register recently spoke to Martin Frank CEO of IQNET, which sells internet connection services to ISPs in Iraq says “The internet is back in full capacity, with blocks removed on Facebook, Viber, Twitter and other websites. However, several sites are still blocked. These are generally news-related websites which have been critical of the government.” You can see a full list of sites blocked in Iraq here.

According to Martin Frank, a number of journalists have been on television channels showing Iraqis how to use virtual private networks (VPNs) which helps them bypass any government internet blocks.

A VPN is all you need to circumnavigate government internet censorship. When you select one of our HMA! Pro VPN servers, you are assigned a different IP address (your ISP in Iraq will be unable to detect that you are using it) and, therefore, you will be able to access any web page that your government may have blocked. It’s of utmost importance that journalists, bloggers and NGO’s are able to report the conflict currently taking place in Iraq. It’s also crucial that the Iraqi people be able to tell their stories, voice their opinions, concerns and their fears to the outside world through social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

For the time being, a number of social media sites are back up and running which is great news, but the question remains, for how long?

How to claim – terms of this offer

Iraqis who have new information about internet censorship in the country, will be rewarded with one month free HMA! Pro VPN. Free VPN will only be awarded if the information is published on our blog.
All existing active customers in Iraq who have an HMA! Pro VPN subscription will have one month free VPN added to their subscription, so long as the information is published on our blog.
Iraqis who have not signed up to HMA! will need to open account and one month HMA! Pro VPN will be added to their account, if their information is published on our blog.
This offer is open to those who are based in Iraq only. Our customer support will verify your location by IP address to ensure you are in the country.