In the UK? Get a VPN Right Now
If you’re in the United Kingdom, a new law will soon give the police unprecedented powers to see everything you do online. The House of Commons and House of Lords have both passed the Investigatory Powers Bill. Once it receives Royal Assent, most likely by the end of this year, ISPs and mobile providers will have to keep a full record of the internet browsing history of every person in the country for a full year, and make it available to police, intelligence services and other government departments—without a warrant. No wonder this legislation has been referred to as the “Snooper’s Charter” since it was proposed last year.
Certainly, if police are trying to catch a terrorist or child abuser, it’s important to be able to look at a suspect’s internet history. But it’s a dangerous precedent to allow the government to view any citizen’s entire history without a warrant. The proposed system, where the data is stored by private companies, will also be vulnerable to hacking, which could cause massive security breaches. Even if you don’t have anything to hide, it still makes sense to be concerned about laws like this eroding your privacy rights little by little.
What can you do to protect yourself? Well, there’s good news and bad news. If the police or intelligence services are set on hacking your phone or computer, there’s no real way to keep them out. But if you just want to keep the amount of data about you in their database to a bare minimum, there are a few options to protect your privacy.
Encrypt, Encrypt, Encrypt
So your government is spying on you. Your best friend is encryption. Your first step: install a VPN and use it whenever you’re online. A VPN like Rocket VPN encrypts your traffic and passes it through different servers around the world, anonymizing you to the sites you visit. But some VPNs keep records of your online history, especially free ones, so do your research and be prepared to invest in a premium unlimited VPN.
You’ll also want to keep your messages private with an encrypted messaging app. An app like WhatsApp encrypts messages end-to-end, which is good, but it keeps records of metadata (who you talked to and when) and also shares user data with Facebook, its parent company. If you want your messages to be totally secure, it’s best to seek out a fully private and encrypted messaging app.
Check out this article on The Verge for more ways to shore up your online security and go download Rocket VPN now to protect yourself!
In the UK? Get a VPN Right Now was originally published on Liquidum Blog
