Should parents spy on their children? South Korean Smart Sheriff law

A new law in South Korea dictates that smartphone spyware is installed on  children’s phones – yes,
you heard right! One smartphone spyware app, “Smart Sheriff” which was developed and funded by the South Korean government was originally designed to block access to pornography and other inappropriate content unfit for children’s eyes. However, last month the country’s telecoms censorship watchdog South Korea Communications Commission (KCC) upped the ante, making it mandatory that all new phones have government-approved smartphone spyware installed. There are at least 14 smartphone spyware apps, including Smart Sheriff, that will do the same job.

According to South Korean governmental data, 80 per cent of children in South Korea aged 18 and below own a smartphone, and the spyware app Smart Sheriff has already been downloaded around 500,000 times!

Smartphone spyware apps like Smart Sheriff allow parents “to monitor how long their kids use their smartphones, how many times they use apps and which websites they visit.” The app is supposedly to protect children in South Korea from bad language and inappropriate web content, but is this really South Korea’s main objective or is it yet another government masquerading under the guise to protect children, when in fact, it’s more about their ability to spy on millions of users?

The new measure stipulates that the smartphone spyware app will be pre-installed on all new smartphones for children under the age of 19, but existing phones will be spared. When I cast my eye back to when I was a teenager the very idea of having smartphone spyware, like Smart Sheriff, pre-installed on my phone would drive me crazy. In fact I wouldn’t have bothered owning one and wait til I was 19. Wooo I’m 19 – I don’t need smartphone spyware on my phone and I don’t need a governess.

Of course, there are pro’s and con’s to this new regulation. An obvious pro for parents is being able to communicate with their children and ensure their safety. But for parents who restrict and perhaps mollycoddle their children a little too much, is this an open invitation to suppress a child’s right to freedom and privacy?

Another point to consider, which may perhaps come across slightly conspiracy theory-esque, but is this a teaser to what is coming next in South Korea? Could the South Korean government make it law for ALL phones to come with pre-installed spyware?

In the Western world, many parents install smartphone spyware on their child’s phone (mostly without their knowledge) but the difference is that it’s theirs, the parents’ decision, it’s not some ridiculous law forced on parents. Yet!

These types of spyware apps can tell a parent all sorts of information, from the types of conversations their child is having, with some spyware apps flagging words such as “sex” “beer” and “pregnancy”  to the whereabouts of their child.

But what happens if a parent in South Korea doesn’t download Smart Sheriff or one of the other smartphone spyware apps? Well, Techdirt reports that parents who ignore the new law will be badgered by mobile phone providers to download smartphone spyware.

Article 37-8 (Methods and Procedures for Providing Means to Block Media Products Harmful to Juveniles, etc.)
(1) According to Article 32-7(1) of the Act, a telecommunication business operator entering into a contract on telecommunications service with a juvenile under the Juvenile Protection Act must provide means to block the juvenile’s access to the media products harmful to juveniles under the Juvenile Protection Act and the illegal obscene information under Article 44-7(1)1 of the ICNA (“Information harmful to juveniles”) through the telecommunication service on the juvenile’s mobile communications device such as a software blocking information harmful to juveniles.
(2) Procedures prescribed below must be followed when providing the blocking means under (1):
At the point of signing the contract:

1. Notification to the juvenile and his/her legal representative regarding types and features of the blocking means; and
2. Check on the installation of the blocking means.

After closing the contract:
Monthly notification to the legal representative if the blocking means was deleted or had not been operated for more than 15 days.

Is it a parent’s fundamental right to know where their child is 24/7? Their age is a definite factor, but let’s take a teenager, 17 years old. How many parents know where their teenager is and what they are up to, all the time? Surely part of growing up is to slowly cut the apron strings, to venture out into the big wide world, to get street-wise (but not to the point of tearing up neighborhoods or getting into all sorts of trouble!) It’s a gradual learning process to explore, to mingle with friends, to grow up. When you place strict boundaries, children tend to rebel, especially when they hear ‘you’re not going out,” or “you’re grounded” and as we often see in movies, they sneak out of their bedroom window anyway. Is freedom of expression and a right to privacy not p   art of the process of finding your feet, and exiting adolescence and entering the adult world?

According to The Associated Press the smartphone spyware app, Smart Sheriff, is currently only available on the Android operating system, – so two ways to escape mass surveillance for the time being at least, is to buy an iPhone, or wait til you’re 19.

Is South Korea on its way to producing a new generation of people who won’t fight for their right to privacy, and expression of freedom – because they never knew such rights ever existed?

Do you think spying on children using smartphone spyware like Smart Sheriff is a good idea, or does this infringe on their right to privacy? Has South Korea gone too far?

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Targeted TV ads coming to your TV set!

Targeted tv ads are coming to your television set to help advertisers rejuvenate flagging sales by
targeting viewers’ likes and viewing behavior. Remember the reports a few months back where Samsung TV admitted that their television sets were recording our conversations? Well, now, our television sets could start to watch us watching them using targeted tv ads, to learn more about our tv viewing habits.


Television advertising revenue has nose-dived compared to that of internet advertising for the first time ever according to IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report 2013 who found that internet advertising earned $42.billion, whereas television advertising revenues yielded $40.1 billion. To inject life back into the television advertisement industry a number of media companies are fighting back by using television tracking software to deliver targeted tv ads based on our likes, dislikes and interests. Companies such as Google – who generate huge amounts of money by charging companies for all-important keywords found in emails and search terms, is one company who recently tested their Fiber TV ads in Kansas to get a more precise idea on the number of people who actually watch television advertisements, and which adverts they are interested in – to turnover bigger profits in television advertising.

Google already collects colossal amounts of data on us, from our likes and dislikes to our behavioral information by tracking our online activities by way our our browsing history using cookies, so Google is able to know the websites we visit to make online purchases. Google is now pushing to make television advertising work like an internet advert which of course, will enable them to collect even more data on us!

When there’s a gap in the market – where advertising and media companies are losing money – the gap must be filled!  More input!

“TV has lost the quality of being a one-way thing where you watch it but it doesn’t watch you” –  Lee Tien Electronic Frontier Foundation
Unfortunately, many of us are pretty much desensitized to the fact that our online activities are tracked, using cookies, by companies and third party websites– of course, you can use a VPN so your online activity isn’t tracked as they will be tracking a VPN server’s IP address. We’re bombarded with targeted tv ads from our browsing history, we’re tracked by facial recognition technology deployed in airports and football stadiums, and so it’s no real surprise that media companies are bringing targeted tv ads to our living rooms.

Google is not alone. Earlier this year, NBCUniversal launched its Audience Targeting Platform (ATP) to access viewers’ data from set-top boxes owned by America’s largest cable operator, Comcast. And Turner Broadcasting uses its “Audience Now” product to capture and collect viewer data. Media companies hope that getting to know their audience on a more personal level by collecting viewers’ data from television set-top boxes, they will be able to know a lot more about them, and therefore make more money!

NBCUniversal’s television tracking software is able to show viewers targeted tv ads based on their viewing preferences. For example, a family who loves fast food could see more targeted tv ads for burgers and fried chicken. But targeting a number of households who may like a burger too much is not good news – a recent study found that those who watched a television advert for unhealthy foods consume more calories! However, this study proves that television advertisements produce the results they need!

So, our web browser already knows us by accessing our browsing history, and now our television will know about us by way of television tracking software! There’s no escape – unless you live in a cave!

Privacy concerns with television tracking software
One of the biggest concerns is privacy. What exactly are these media companies doing with our personal information using television tracking software? According to Comcast, they’re simply using the television tracking software to allow media companies, such as NBC, to find out our viewing preferences and likes. Yeah, sure they are!

Lee Tien from the Electronic Frontier Foundation has several concerns, speaking to International Business Times he said  “I would ask them, ‘How are you technically implementing that?’ Exactly what data is generated in the process, and then how do you process that data in a way that it does not or cannot reveal the things that you say that you’re not trying to reveal?”

Television tracking software doesn’t necessary mean that when you switch on your television set, you will see targeted tv ads staring back at you, it will be a lot different to browsing the internet where you see an irritating advert pop up at every webpage you visit. Television tracking software will be used to find out more about a household’s viewing preferences.

What could the future hold using television tracking software? Well, it doesn’t look like television tracking software will deliver tailor-made individual adverts, but it could work in a way that if you watch a lot of sport shows, then you could see more adverts for beer. There is also a possibility for viewers to control the adverts they receive. For example, if you’ve just bought new bedroom furniture you probably won’t want to see adverts for home furnishings for a while – so you could opt out, which would save advertisers a vast amount of money by not showing an advert that a viewer is no longer interested in.  And of course, we really want to help television advertisers to save every cent they can!

Getting to know you – getting to know ALL ABOUT you…..!

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Facial Recognition – goodbye to privacy?

Facial recognition is already being used and tested by a number of businesses, including educational
institutes to stop truancy, at airports to fight terrorism, and it was used in all stadiums during the FIFA World Cup 2014 to gain information on potential hooligans and trouble makers.
However, facial recognition technology has got a lot of privacy advocates concerned, and rightly so.


What is Facial Recognition?
So, what is facial recognition technology? Facial recognition is a biometric (like fingerprints or iris recognition) capable of identifying a person from a digital image stored on a database of known faces. It’s unique, just like an individual’s fingerprint, or a person’s social security number or credit card number.

There are a number of facial recognition software companies such as the Japanese multinational corporation NEC’s Face Recognition system which helps retail companies to track shoplifters, but the technology could also make the everyday shopper feel like a VIP.

In 2013 facial recognition technology was tested in a number of stores and hotels in the UK, the US and in the Far East to detect celebrities. NEC’s facial recognition technology was able to recognise celebrities from a database of their images, and could even identify a person if they were wearing a hat, or wearing sunglasses, or if they changed their hair colour.

Feel like a VIP!
Imagine visiting your favourite store, your face could be matched to information held in the store’s database, and when you walk into a store you could be greeted by name, by a sales assistant. But would this make you feel special, like you’re a VIP, or would this concern you? But wait! How would our images end up on their databases in the first place? Well, there are a number of different ways, for example, when you ‘like’ a brand on Facebook, let’s say Nike (who currently have over 22 million likes) all those who ‘liked’ the Nike Facebook page could find their image uploaded onto the facial recognition system.

Jennifer Lynch, legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), speaking to business magazine Fast Company said “Oftentimes with data collection in retail, the customer doesn’t know how that data is being used. The customer might be offered five bucks off if they give the retail company their email address, but with a face template, it’s data that follows you: It’s tracked in-store, tracked in the checkout counter, it might be linked to your credit card data…and all that might be sold to a third party.”

Facial recognition systems placed in stores would specifically target shoppers, bribing customers for their data with offerings such a free coffee, and then pestering you to spend, spend, spend!

Facial Recognition is creeping into our everyday lives!
Facebook uses facial recognition, its controversial “DeepFace” system to identify people in photos uploaded to their site, which when you see permission to “tag” requests pop-up.  Facebook knows who you are, who you’re with, and what you’re doing using its facial recognition technology which scans users’ faces and matches them.

Of course, facial recognition poses a tougher issue with regards to privacy. Our faces are out in the open, we may not know exactly when and where our data is being collected and if our data is being sold to a third party. Day by day George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984 is becoming a reality.
In China, facial recognition was recently introduced in two Chinese universities to curb truancy, and to prevent students from registering their friends on their behalf.  According to Want China Times, once the facial recognition was up and running 100% of students turned up. There’s a surprise!
Facial recognition software will soon be implemented in Australia’s international airports to match travellers to their passports in a bid to thwart terrorism and threats at their borders. Australia has been tightening its grip on on its netizens, recently rolling out its data retention plan, a controversial scheme which threatens every Australian’s fundamental right to privacy.

While in the United States, facial recognition technology is being tested in Washington D.C’s Dulles airport. Facial recognition technology is being used to identify criminals, and potential terrorists by running travellers’ mugshots through software and comparing it to the picture on their e-passport chip. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) part of Department of Homeland Security (DHS), were quick to point out that the photos won’t be shared to any other agency and will be deleted once the 19 month program is over.

A CBP spokesperson speaking to Motherboard said “The technology is a stand-alone system and will not communicate with any other parties, databases or systems…CBP remains committed to protecting the privacy of all travelers.”

Well that’s reassuring!
Although the US government haven’t exactly earned themselves a medal for honesty in the past, so why would we believe them now?
Will deleting the images be enough to protect our privacy?

David Maass from the Electronic Frontier Foundation told Motherboard “Today, it’s testing at the border, tomorrow it could be facial recognition deployed in public places. “Today, the photos taken are being kept segregated from other departments and agencies, tomorrow they could be shared for a whole host of other purposes.”​

On a lighter note, facial recognition is being used to find lost pets. Miami-Dade Animal Services in Florida will become the first shelter to use the app, Finding Rover, which helps reunite pet owners with their lost pooch. Owners simply download the app and take a snapshot of their dog on their smartphone. If your dog wanders off ‘Littlest Hobo’ style, the dog owner can press a button on the app, the dog’s image is scanned by facial recognition software and hopefully owner and dog are reunited. Check out the other ways in which facial recognition is being used!


So now you know what facial recognition is, how do you feel about it? Does it concern you that every move you make, every breath you take, someone could be watching you?

الحقوق الرقمية في مصر

انتهاك الحقوق الرقمية يمكن اعتباره بمثابة “الجديد”الذي يضاف إلى قائمة الانتهاكات التي ترتكبها الحكومة المصرية.و ما بدأ كثورة مع وعد بالحرب علي المشاكل الاجتماعية تحول الي اعتداء منهجي علي حقوق الإنسان ليمتد مؤخرا إلى العالم الافتراضي. زيارة بعض المواقع التي تمت مؤخرا بطرق غير مشروعة جرت بموجب سياسة الاتصالات الجديدة التي أنشأتها وزارة الداخلية المصرية. جاء هذا البروتوكول علي خلفية تهديدات الإرهاب المتزايدة والتي تعصفت بالبلاد ردا علي عزل الرئيس الاسلامي في أواخر صيف عام 2013.

لقد تم استحداث المجلس الأعلى لأمن الإنترنت من قبل رئيس الوزراء، إبراهيم محلب، في ديسمبر عام 2014 لمكافحة الهجمات الالكترونية. وتأتي هذه الخطوة في تناقض صارخ مع الأولويات الأمنية في البلاد حيث ان أكثر من 90٪ من الهجمات ضد الحكومة المصرية جرت في صورة مجموعة من الانفجارات والقنابل محلية الصنع في شوارع العاصمة. وعلاوة على ذلك، تظهر الخطة ان عقلية الدولة تهتم بتكنولوجيا المعلومات والاتصالات اكثر من اهتمامها بجوانب الخصوصية للمواطنين. ومن المفارقات الأخري والتي تأتي تمهيدا لإطلاق سراح سياسة سيبرانية الدولة، جري الكشف مؤخرا عن قيام الحكومة المصرية الاتصال بشركة (مقرها الولايات المتحدة ) طلبا للمساعدة في جهود المراقبة على المواطنين المصريين.
الخصوصية هي حق أساسي من حقوق الإنسان المنصوص عليها في الإعلان العالمي لحقوق الإنسان والتي وقعتها مصر وتنكرت لها بصورة متكررة منذ الثورة.و الأهم من ذلك، تنص المادة 57 من دستور الدولة المصرية علي حماية خصوصية الاتصالات. وهي أساسية لحماية كرامة الإنسان وتشكل أساس أي مجتمع ديمقراطي. كما أنها تدعم وتعزز الحقوق الأخرى مثل حرية التعبير والمعلومات وتكوين الجمعيات. الحق في الخصوصية يجسد السعي في تمكين الأفراد من العمل في مجال التنمية المستقلة والمجال الخاص دون التفاعل مع الآخرين وبعيدا عن تدخل الدولة غير المرغوب فيها والتعسفي.
وبالنسبة لأولئك الذين يرغبون في مصر في استرداد خصوصياتهم وصيانة المواقع ومنع الوصول اليها لأسباب غير مبررة من قبل الحكومة المصرية عليهم استخدام خدمة VPN. تعمل هذه الخدمة من خلال بث موقع جهاز كمبيوتر من أحد المواقع المتوافرة. ان خدمة HideMyAss! VPN تقوم بهذه العملية ،كما هوالحال مع التكنولوجيا الحديثة دون التأثير علي سرعات الإنترنت. وعلاوة على ذلك، يمكنك الاختيار بالتواجد في أكثر من 700 موقعا كما ان HideMyAss! لديها “سيرفر”في أكثر من 140 بلدا في جميع أنحاء العالم. انها ليست قادرة فقط على تمكينك من ممارسة خصوصيتك في الانترنت فحسب بل و من تصفح الإنترنت بحرية والحماية من المتسللين باستخدام الشبكات العامة(واي فاي) المنتشرة في المقاهي وفي الجامعات التي ترغب في سرقة البيانات
الخاصة بك.

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Find out how to pay for HMA! Pro VPN using Bitcoins

Bitcoin, the once super mysterious currency which most of us had never heard of until recently, is
now an extremely popular way to make anonymous online payments, and you can use Bitcoins to pay for an HMA! Pro VPN subscription with no billing information required!
It’s easy to purchase an HMA! Pro VPN subscription using Bitcoins, as we explain in this tutorial.


Please note: If you already have a Bitcoin wallet, you can skip down to step 3.

1. How to create a Bitcoin wallet
Before you can pay for HMA! Pro VPN using Bitcoins, you will need to create a Bitcoin wallet. Check out the easy-to-follow guide from WeUseCoins which will quickly help you to set-up your Bitcoin wallet.

2. How to purchase Hide My Ass! Pro VPN using Bitcoins
Once you have created your Bitcoin wallet following the instructions in step 1, you can add funds which you can use to place an order for HMA! Pro VPN.

3. Bitcoin checkout process
If you’ve already created an HMA! Pro VPN account, you just need to login to the VPN control panel, where you can renew your subscription under the ‘Order/Renew’ tab and select Bitcoin as your payment method.
If you haven’t already signed up for an Hide My Ass! Pro VPN account, you will need to create an account, before you can pay with Bitcoin.
To purchase Hide My Ass! Pro VPN using Bitcoin:

• Enter and confirm your email address
• Select “Bitcoin” as your preferred payment method
• Select a subscription package (1 / 6 / 12 months)
• Click  “Continue to Payment“

You’re now on BitPay, the payment processor for Bitcoin payments. An invoice and a unique Bitcoin-address for sending the payment has now been created.
Please note that the payment page (including the generated invoice and bitcoin-address), are only valid for 15 minutes before they expire. If the payment page has expired, you can just go back and repeat the order process.
You are now ready to make the payment using Bitcoin. Open your wallet and send the correct amount of Bitcoins to the Bitcoin-address.
If you are using Bitcoin Wallet on a smartphone that supports scanning QR codes, you can simply scan the QR code displayed on this page and the Wallet does the rest for you. Or if your Wallet supports the Pay with Bitcoin buttons, click the “Pay with Bitcoin” button:


Otherwise just copy+paste the displayed Bitcoin-address into your wallets “Send payment” form, enter the value to send and submit the payment.


Additional Information!

• Once you see the BitPay order page, an invoice and a unique bitcoin-address has been created. Both the invoice and the recipient bitcoin address are only valid for 15 minutes before they expire.
  Do not send payments to this address after the invoice has expired.
• We only receive and accept payments sent through BitPay using the order .process explained above; please do not send Bitcoins any other way!
• When you see the welcome page instead of the VPN control panel after logging in, it means your payment has not been fully confirmed yet.
• Please be patient, and check the transactions confirmation status in your wallet. Transactions need 6 confirmations before they are completed, this can take between 15-60 minutes.
• New to Bitcoin? Check the Bitcoin official website.
• Don’t have enough Bitcoins? You can easily buy or exchange them at many places like BuyBitcoins, Virwox or MtGox.
• See our article Buying and exchanging Bitcoins for more info.
• Comparison of Bitcoin sellers and exchange services.
• More info about wallets.
• Instead of buying or exchanging Bitcoins, you can of course also ‘mine’ them.

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Want to watch online porn in the UK – ID Check!

Adults who want to watch online porn in the UK could face ID-based age checks thanks to a plan
proposed by the porn industry, and which is fully supported by the Conservative government, in an a bid to protect children from inappropriate online material.

The new proposal means that in order to watch online porn in the UK viewers will need to verify that they are 18 years or older by handing over their personal information before viewing porn online. Porn operators in the UK who do not comply risk their site being blocked by a regulator, likely the Authority for Television on Demand (Atvod.)


It’s unclear at the moment whether overseas sites will require ID based age checks for pornography. Chris Ratliff told The Guardian  “As a matter of international law, I don’t understand how it can possibly work.”

Children in the UK are addicted to online porn according to a survey conducted by NSPCC ChildLine  which found that “one in five 12 to 13 year olds thinks that watching porn is normal behaviour.” The Conservative government, among many others, hope that ID-based age checks for pornography will help to protect children from adult content. However, free speech campaigner Jerry Barnett CEO of Sex & Censorship told Wired that he sees this as “dishonest marketing concocted by PR firms” and views the new proposal as more of a guise masquerading  to “protect children from porn” when in fact it’s a manipulate move to introduce internet censorship. “This should worry anyone who cares about online free expression”
He’s not alone. Many other critics are worried that the UK is aligning itself to strict censorship and privacy measures that exist in China. “This is cutting-edge censorship. We are now becoming the world leaders in censorship…” said Myles Jackman, a lawyer in obscenity law who spoke to The Guardian recently.

Adults who wish to watch online porn in the UK will be able to prove their age by one of many ID based age check providers, such as mobile operators, banks, the post office, credit agencies or even perhaps the NHS.

According to the proposal, an “anonymising hub” would be used that would only confirm a user’s age – no personal identifying information would be stored and that a third party such as a bank or post office would not know the reason for age verification. However, as we know, data breaches do happen. Could this new measure open the door wide open to abuse from attackers and other unscrupulous third parties? Can we really trust this system? Can we really believe what we’re told?
Jerry Barnett, a free speech campaigner, sees this as another control measure being embraced by the UK government. “This is the state, yet again, intervening in people’s private lives for no reason other than good old British prurience and control-freakery.”

The UK government has been working hard to control porn in the UK, from banning a number of sex acts from UK-produced porn, to implementing porn filters which inadvertently blocked a number of sex education sites.

UK laws work in mysterious ways, and while it is important to protect our children from inappropriate material, and other online dangers, when you’re 16 in the UK you can get married (with parental consent), and you can buy a lottery ticket. Males and females 16 and over may have sexual relations, (heterosexual or homosexual), with other people aged over 16. And it’s not illegal for children over the age of five to drink at home or on other private premises! BUT young adults under the age of 18 still need to be protected from online porn?!

The sex industry has been around for centuries, it’s not going anywhere – unless of course, the UK has its way and ID based age checks for pornography is made law.

Do you think this proposal for ID based age checks for pornography is about protecting children from online porn or more about censorship?

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Hola VPN sells YOUR bandwidth – remove now!

Users of Hola VPN are justifiably angry and surprised to learn that their bandwidth has been sold
under the guise of a service called Luminati (which Hola owns). It’s not easy to think of a legitimate use or reason for a business to want to purchase Luminati’s multiple user connections, especially without the users’ knowledge but it does seem to be a perfect, although downright illegitimate, ‘botnet-for-hire’. A botnet is a network of computers which can be used for illegal reasons, such as targeting businesses with a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, without the owner’s knowledge, and is powerful enough to bring down even the biggest websites! Just look at what one can do to companies like Sony and Microsoft.


The botnet issue was recently raised by 8chan founder, Fredrick Brennan, who claimed that an attack on his website could be traced back to computers on the Luminati network.
Hola VPN is actually a peer-to-peer (P2P) VPN service which is able to provide its services for nothing by selling Hola users’ bandwidth. However, this leaves the door wide open to spam, malware and potential unscrupulous third parties accessing Hola VPN users’ connections and use it for illegal activities, with the user having no clue as to what is going on.

A group of researchers and coders from Adios-Hola said on their website ”Hola is a ‘peer-to-peer’ VPN. This may sound nice, but what it actually means is that other people browse the web through your internet connection, similar to the way Tor works. To a website, it seems like it’s you browsing the site… imagine that somebody uploaded child pornography through your connection, for example. To everybody else, it seems as if it was your computer that did it, and you can’t really prove otherwise.”

The Adios researchers also found a number of serious security flaws with Hola VPN. Hola claim that they fixed “two vulnerabilities” but Adios-Hola found that “The vulnerabilities are *still* there, they just broke our vulnerability checker and exploit demonstration. Not only that; there weren’t two vulnerabilities, there were six.”
But that’s not all! According to Adios-Hola “…on some systems, it gets worse; Hola will happily run whatever you feed it as the ‘SYSTEM’ user. What this means in simple terms, is that somebody can completely compromise your system, beyond any repair. It allows for installing things like a rootkit, for example.”

In a bid to reassure around 9.7 million users of its free VPN, Hola quickly updated their FAQ’s to ensure that their users (if they have any left), are fully aware that their free VPN service is actually a P2P program.

“We assumed that by stating that Hola is a P2P network, it was clear that people were sharing their bandwidth with the community network in return for their free service. After all, people have been doing that for years with services like Skype. It was not clear to all our users, and we want it to be completely clear.”

The problem here is that their users weren’t aware that Hola VPN were selling users’ bandwidth and, more worryingly, Luminati / Hola didn’t seem to check or care what people were using it for.
“If you’re not paying for it, you’re the product!”, as they say.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch!
When we subscribe to any ‘free’ service, we have to ask ourselves, why is it free? What is the company getting out of this? Companies very rarely give us something for free out of the goodness of their hearts. In this digital age, we’re often giving away our personal data in exchange for products or services or to save money on health insurance – and in this case, Hola VPN users are giving away their right to privacy and security which could be used against them by criminals and other third parties.

Hola VPN are now looking to employ a Chief Security Officer… yep – good idea!
Is it really worth comprising your security and privacy for free VPN?

We at Hide My Ass! Pro VPN take your security and privacy extremely seriously – it’s what we do. We have VPN servers in over 190 countries around the world allowing you to safely, and securely surf the net anonymously, evade hackers and access your favourite sites and services around the world, for as little as $6.55 per month.


If you use Hola free VPN, will you continue to do so?

Name of the Provider	Website Address
Hide My Ass	Visit Provider
Strong VPN	Visit Provider
Switch VPN	Visit Provider
Pure VPN	Visit Provider
IPVanish VPN	Visit Provider
Hotspot Shield Elite	Visit Provider