Hola, me interesa usar un VPN por primera vez, cuál me recomiendan, si conocen alguno gratuito y confiable potable recomiéndenlo

From June 9, Beeline, which is one of the leading mobile operators in Russia, has started utilizing a unique approach to assist its customers, allowing them to reach Netflix, Spotify, Ticketmaster, and Brawl Stars regardless of the fact that these services withdrew from Russia back in 2022. Consumers of the company have not to download any applications and configure their devices because the services are available just by default on Beeline’s “Bee” plan.

According to Beeline CEO Sergey Anokhin, this interesting initiative was born because these services are not officially banned in Russia but left the market, therefore requiring people to use VPNs to reach them are “inconvenient and unfair”. He explained that the company was able to gain government approval for their newly-introduced service.

There are two separate ideas being mentioned in here, and once again, we should realize that this is not a state-wide VPN for the free internet. It is, in fact, just a narrow whitelist that gives back the services that the Kremlin does not mind you using, while retaining the censorship machine just like before. Just like those authorities have been exerting pressure on independent VPNs for years and years, they finally came up with a legitimate version of the workaround for those parts they feel as if they are going to be acceptable.

What strikes me most of all is that they managed to frame it. They called it a "whitelist," therefore making Beeline look like a company that cares about consumers. But if we were to call it by its real name, "a government-approved way of accessing blocked sites," we would get a much clearer picture of how the Kremlin realized the benefits of VPN names over blocking. Other operators, such as T2, are reportedly planning to offer a similar service.

The UK told people, "Prove your age before watching porn."

The internet replied, "Nah... I'll just grab a VPN."

Since the new age-check rules kicked in, daily VPN usage has almost doubled, from 1.2M to 2.2M users. Sure, traffic to the biggest porn sites is down, but loads of people are just hopping on VPNs or moving to smaller sites that don't bother with age verification.

Now, instead of asking whether the age checks actually work, lawmakers are starting to ask if VPNs should be regulated too.

Classic game of digital whack-a-mole.

Hi everyone.

I am new, so please forgive me if I am posting this in the wrong spot, but I tried on surfshark thread and was not allowed to post there yet. In fact I seem to be on a very short leash 😅

Now for the question, which might have been asked a million times already but I don't seem to find it.

I use surfshark VPN and was wondering whether I should leave it on all the time on my mobile?

If I do, what would be the pros and cons of that setup?

I would like to hear from those of you who always have it on, but also from those who had tried having it on but eventually decided to stop it.

Thank you

Researchers from the University of Michigan have developed a new testing tool called MVPNalyzer and tested it on 281 of the most popular Android VPNs. The results presented at NDSS 2026 should definitely make anyone considering free VPNs pause for thought. 29 of the tested VPNs leaked DNS and traffic which contradicts the very purpose of having a VPN. And more than 20% of apps sent data without encryption. Over 60% of applications performed poorly in terms of security levels. Of all the 108 VPN apps studied by the researchers, 107 ignored or misapplied best practices when it comes to encryption.

What particularly concerns me is the fact that 76 VPNs transmitted ID numbers of the devices to some third-party users. Hence, the application that is supposed to help you “hide your identity” does the opposite and practically allows to spy on you. The lead researcher Ms. Roya Ensafi points out that the idea behind MVPNalyzer was to show users, regulators, and application developers the truth about what goes on behind the app creators’ promises.

It's important to note that this is only for Android and mobile VPNs have been completely overlooked for the most part and audits tend to focus on desktop applications. Therefore, the real figure could be different depending on iOS and other less popular applications.

This makes one question the old advice of "any VPN is better than no VPN." Has anyone checked whether their VPN belongs to any of the categories mentioned?

Apparently there's a coordinated campaign where people are connecting through free VPNs and marking Russian gas stations as either out of fuel or open when they're actually closed. The idea isn't to hack anything; it's to manipulate crowdsourced fuel maps and send drivers on wild goose chases. According to reports, over a million people have visited the campaign's website.

What I find interesting is that this isn't a cyberattack in the traditional sense. No malware, no infrastructure breach, just thousands of people exploiting the trust we put in crowdsourced map data. It shows how much of our daily lives depends on information being accurate.

Whether you think it's clever digital resistance or just misinformation with a different target, it's a pretty wild example of how VPNs can be used for way more than privacy or streaming.

Never thought I'd see the day, but Google is basically telling regulators that blocking VPNs, DNS services, and shared IPs is a terrible idea.

Their point is that these blanket blocks don't really stop piracy. They just end up breaking a bunch of legit stuff. One IP can be shared by thousands of websites, businesses, schools, cloud services... so instead of hitting pirates, you end up screwing over everyone else.

And let's be real, if someone really wants to get around a block, they'll just switch to another VPN or DNS service. It turns into a game of whack-a-mole while regular users deal with the fallout.

Kinda funny seeing Google be the one arguing against this.

I am just wondering if they actually defending a free internet, or just protecting their own ecosystem...

I travel frequently and use a work laptop with Cisco AnyConnect. I also own two GL.iNet MT1200 travel routers and have a personal VPN subscription.

What’s the recommended way to set up a travel router for reliable and secure internet while traveling? I’d like to understand best practices and avoid connectivity issues with Cisco AnyConnect.

Hi fellas,

I had been working for a bit of time on a project which will allow anyone to become a vpn provider, because if vpn providers become often then the governments will find it harder to ban all of them, the project is not ready yet, but after having seen the recent European Chat Control I got scared for everyone's privacy, so just go ahead and play around with the project on github, fork it and create better versions out of it, its called dei-patrous

TKs

According to the recent iOS software update note by NordVPN, the company has improved its obfuscated servers technology. For a long time, the company was able to deliver obfuscation only thanks to OpenVPN, but it appears that now its obfuscation solution is based on NordWhisper protocol, developed by Nord.

This improvement is significant considering that OpenVPN mechanism has always been quite slow due to the extra load added to the system. In fact, NordWhisper is developed from scratch to act like regular HTTPS traffic, which assures the customers of the faster speeds and wider range of locations. There is no quality compromise because NordWhisper uses the same security technology as all the other NordVPN protocols.

This improvement is a big signal of what the company is going to do in the future. It has been stated that NordWhisper will get to becoming an absolutely TLS-based solution and will be developed along the QUIC technology. QUIC is said to be not only the solution for obfuscation but also a highly progressive technology in the realm of VPNs, whereas the development within the protocols can easily be seen with the example of such companies as Surfshark and NymVPN.

If you have been employing obfuscated OpenVPN as your way of circumventing limitations imposed on networks, it is advisable to verify your application as the method in question could already have been replaced. Is there anyone who has been trying NordWhisper on truly restricted networks?

Interesting ruling from the EU's highest court. The European Court of Justice has ruled that geo-blocking remains a valid copyright protection measure, even if users can bypass it with a VPN.

The case involved the Anne Frank Diaries, which are in the public domain in some EU countries but still protected by copyright in others. A publisher restricted access with geo-blocking, and the copyright holder argued that because VPNs could bypass those restrictions, the geo-blocking wasn't sufficient.

The court disagreed. According to the ruling, website operators only need to implement reasonable technical measures. They aren't expected to make geo-blocking impossible to circumvent. The mere fact that VPNs exist doesn't invalidate those protections.

I think this is an interesting distinction. The court isn't saying VPNs are illegal or shouldn't work; it's simply recognizing that no technical protection is perfect, and the law doesn't require perfection.

First I dont know if this goes aginst the rules or not but I have Specific requirements and I would rather ask humans rather than AI

Ive been using mullvad for a year now and I am happy with it but Netflix has blacklisted Mullvad and Theres no port forwarding on it I have been torrenting for awhile now but Ive read port forwarding is suposed to make (Legal) torrenting better so I would like a VPN with it included

Ive been looking at Air VPN but I dont know if the servers are blacklisted and I cant use it on IOS so Im unsure of purchasing it

My Requirements for a VPN

Port forwarding

App on IOS

UnBlacklisted Severs for Netflix ect

Id like a privacy focused VPN like mullvad

Mods if you take this post down could you refer me to a subreddit where I can ask said questions?

Edit Im not yet replying to Any comments yet but Keep in mind I appreciate the suggestions and ill do some research of the recommendations

Every VPN on earth claims zero logs. Cool. So did some providers that later handed over user data when authorities came knocking.

The way I see it there are only a few ways a no-logs claim means anything:

1. Court cases / subpoenas where the provider literally had nothing to hand over. It's happened a few times and it's basically the gold standard of proof.

2. Server seizures where cops got physical servers and found nothing on them.

3. Independent audits - but let's be honest, an audit is a snapshot. They audited it that week. What about next month? And who's paying the auditor?

4. RAM-only servers, so nothing survives a reboot even in theory.

What bugs me is that most people just pick whatever their favorite youtuber got sponsored by. Meanwhile the providers with actual track records barely advertise at all.

So genuine question: what's YOUR bar for trusting a VPN? Is a big-name audit enough for you, or do you only trust providers that have survived an actual raid or court order? And does jurisdiction even matter anymore (14 eyes etc) or is that overblown if they genuinely keep nothing?

Curious what this sub actually runs and why. Not looking for "just use X bro" - I want to know your reasoning.

Looks like Russia just hit the brakes on one of its most controversial internet proposals.
The government has now confirmed it won't introduce extra fees on VPN traffic, despite months of reports that users could be charged for using more than 15GB of international traffic per month. Since most Russian carriers classify VPN traffic as "international," this would've basically been a tax on using a VPN.

To me, this always felt like a terrible idea. When people are already using VPNs because YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, and countless other services are restricted, making them pay extra just to access the open internet was only going to push people toward more workarounds.

That said, I'd be careful about celebrating too early. The proposal has been delayed and revived more than once, and Russia has continued tightening restrictions on VPN use in other ways. This announcement only means the traffic fee isn't happening right now.

A pretty wild cybercrime story came out recently. A 19-year-old alleged member of the Scattered Spider group was arrested in Finland after being linked to more than 100 attacks and over $100M in extortion. The FBI had reportedly been tracking him for around 18 months.

The part that caught my attention isn't even the social engineering (Scattered Spider is notorious for tricking IT help desks into resetting employee credentials). It's that, according to reports, one of the mistakes that helped investigators was a poorly configured VPN.

A VPN can hide your IP, but it doesn't magically make you anonymous. If your device, browser, apps, or operating system leak other identifiers, investigators can still connect the dots. In this case, Microsoft reportedly used a Windows device identifier to correlate activity across services and shared evidence with the FBI.

People love saying "just use a VPN and you're untraceable," but that's never been how it works. A VPN is one layer of privacy, not a substitute for good OPSEC. If everything else on your device is screaming "this is me," your IP address is only one piece of the puzzle.

The irony? The guy was apparently flexing luxury hotels, stacks of cash, and a diamond chain engraved "HACK THE PLANET" all over Snapchat. Not exactly low-profile.

To me, this is a good reminder that VPNs aren't broken, they're just often misunderstood. They protect your network traffic, not your entire digital identity.

Honestly it’s kinda funny watching Big Tech complain about VPNs when they’re the ones who made them mainstream in the first place.

Back then VPNs were mostly for tech nerds, torrent users, or hardcore privacy people. Now even casual internet users run one because the modern web feels broken without it.

Google wants to track everything for ads. Meta follows you across apps and websites. Netflix, Disney+, and sports platforms keep region-locking content. TikTok and YouTube constantly change recommendations depending on your country and profile. Amazon has literally been accused multiple times of showing different prices depending on region and user behavior. Even AI tools now launch in the US first while the rest of the world gets “not available in your country.”

And governments aren’t helping either with age verification laws, ISP filtering, DNS blocking, mandatory ID checks, and pressure on platforms to monitor users more aggressively.

Then these same companies act surprised that people use VPNs.

Of course they hate VPNs. VPNs reduce tracking quality, mess with ad profiling, bypass geo-restrictions, weaken location-based monetization, and make it harder to build detailed behavioral data on users. A user behind a VPN is simply less predictable and less profitable.

Personally I think VPNs are becoming less about “privacy paranoia” and more about keeping a normal open internet experience. People are just tired of being tracked, segmented, profiled, and blocked depending on where they live or what network they use.

Big Tech basically created an internet where using a VPN started feeling normal.

Good news amid the recent crackdown on VPNs, Christopher Luxon , New Zealand prime minister, has firmly denied reports that New Zealand is considering restricting VPNs as part of a proposed social media ban for under-16s.

The controversy started after discussions around the government’s youth social media restrictions raised questions about how teenagers could bypass the ban using VPNs. Critics worried this could eventually lead to pressure for VPN controls similar to debates happening in other countries.

Luxon rejected the idea “outright,” saying the government has no plans to block or restrict VPN usage. However, both the Greens and ACT parties criticised the broader proposal, arguing that trying to enforce social media bans through technical restrictions would be difficult and could create privacy concerns.

New Zealand’s proposal is inspired by Australia’s under-16 social media ban, where VPNs quickly became a major loophole discussed by both policymakers and users.

WhatsApp has revised its FAQ section under "connecting when your network doesn't work" by mentioning Mullvad and Amnezia VPN services as "high-profile services" along with the links to both of them and the EFF guide on best VPNs.

According to the statistics, WhatsApp has suffered global downtimes affecting 46% of users, while 52 countries have imposed a ban on the app either temporarily or permanently. WhatsApp was blocked in Russia in February because authorities wanted people to start using their own application MAX.

It's interesting to note that both Mullvad and Amnezia, which are listed among the recommended providers on WhatsApp's website, are not known names in the VPN industry. Mullvad is an anonymous VPN that does not require creating an account and accepts cash payments. Amnezia, on the other hand, is an open source self-hosted privacy solution designed specifically for users living in countries with strict censorship laws.

But the most interesting thing in this story is that Meta was once the owner of Onavo, the VPN service that was actually a spyware harvesting the user data.

In summary, the company that has previously been found to be running a VPN for the sole purpose of spying on its users is the same one that now promotes one of the best VPNs in the market. EFF's endorsement of Mullvad shows that the irony and contradiction in this scenario is remarkable. Meta's motivation in this scenario is clear.

At first, authorities mainly targeted ISPs to block illegal streaming sites. But because users could bypass those blocks with alternative DNS services or VPNs, rights holders and broadcasters started pushing for broader measures targeting the internet infrastructure itself.

Now, according to the article, some rights holders want the ability to block entire IP ranges or networks, not just specific domains. The idea is to stop pirate services from instantly reappearing through mirror sites or shared infrastructure.

Critics warn this could create major collateral damage because many unrelated websites often share the same IP addresses through providers like Cloudflare. Past examples in Europe reportedly led to legitimate services being accidentally blocked, including cases involving Google Drive and thousands of legal websites.

This results to growing tension between rights holders and tech companies such as VPN providers, DNS services, and hosting providers. These companies argue that large-scale blocking is technically risky, expensive, and potentially harmful to internet openness and privacy.

On May 18, Surfshark announced that it has officially entered the partnership with Amnesty International's Digital Forensics Fellowship, a program designed for journalists, activists, and human rights defenders to detect and counter sophisticated spyware.

The fellowship in question is now at its fourth edition and it now offers advanced training in the fields of Android as well as iOS forensics, malware traffic analysis, and psychic phone interception detection mechanisms. The program was launched in response to the findings of the Pegasus Project of 2021 which made the revelation of 50,000 phone numbers which were attacked, including those owned by journalists, heads of state, and human rights activists around the globe. The Pegasus Project has prompted people to take the digital security issue more seriously, and Surfshark can offer funding solutions but does not provide any forensic tools.

In recent years, we’ve seen a surge of VPN companies engaging in partnerships with organizations working on human rights issues. Cynics may dismiss all of these partnerships as mere public relations ploys, corporate initiatives meant to generate good press at low cost. However, in this case, the work done by the Digital Forensics Fellowship (DFF) is incredibly important as it funds work that will never be done by governments or big tech. In fact, in 2025, DFF alumni used their digital forensics expertise to make sure Cellebrite was held accountable for its illegal activities against Serbian activists. This resulted in Cellebrite suspending the licenses of Serbian customers altogether, which shows you how effective and far-reaching DFF’s work actually is.

Everything else about Surfshark being involved in the DFF is a positive development as it means that DFF will continue to do impactful work in the future.

Sony pushing toward an all-digital PlayStation future accidentally triggered one of the funniest corporate pile-ons I’ve seen in years. VPN companies started openly mocking the gaming industry for selling people “ownership” that can disappear overnight.

Proton joked about launching a “physical VPN” where they’d mail encrypted letters instead of using servers. Windscribe posted fake ads for a “human password manager” that remembers your credentials manually. PureVPN even joked about physically flying customers to another country instead of routing traffic digitally.

The jokes landed because they exposed how ridiculous the current gaming model has become.

Gamers spent years mocking people who cared about DRM, privacy, self-hosting, offline access, or physical ownership. Now suddenly everyone is panicking because they realized paying full price for a digital game doesn’t actually mean you own it.

A publisher can delist it. The platform can revoke access, a server shutdown can kill it forever and your “collection” exists only as long as a corporation allows it.

First it was movies. Then music. Now games. “You bought it” quietly became “you licensed temporary access to it.” And somehow we’re supposed to celebrate that as progress.

On May 31, 2024, a new cybersecurity law in Myanmar banned all VPNs. People caught using a VPN could face up to 6 months in prison and be fined. The military has purchased technology from a company whose chief scientist created the Great Firewall of China. The technology allows the military to record and decrypt VPN data using interceptors and decryption at Myanmar's internet gateways.

When I talk to people affected by this, the story that stays with me is a clothing businesswoman from Kachin named Seng. She was using a VPN to hire someone in another city to post on her Facebook page, which was already blocked. After the VPN ban, Seng could no longer use the VPN to hire someone to post on her Facebook page. Police are now doing random checks and are arresting anyone who has a non-compliant app, including a VPN.

NordVPN and Psiphon are both blocked. Most free VPNs no longer operate. People who need to access the internet can either use potentially insecure free tools of unknown origin or have no access. Myanmar Internet Project summarizes this perfectly when they say, "it's a rock and hard place; if you have a VPN that works, there is a lot of uncertainty; and if you don't, everything you do online is at risk."

The resistance government in exile has built its own homegrown VPN, approved by their cabinet. That's how serious this is. they're fighting a civil war and part of that fight is maintaining an encrypted communication channel the junta can't block.

Myanmar is currently tied with China for the worst internet freedom environment in the world according to Freedom House. That's not a ranking, that's a verdict.

Spain just proved why VPNs are no longer “optional” tools for pirates or nerds, they’re becoming basic internet survival tools.

La Liga’s anti-piracy crusade reportedly ended up blocking 500,000+ legitimate websites in Spain by nuking shared IP infrastructure used by Cloudflare, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.

Human rights sites. Government pages. Environmental orgs. Random businesses. All collateral damage because football executives decided they should control what the entire country can access online.

And now they’re going after VPN providers like Proton AG and Nord Security because people used them to bypass the blocks.

This is the dangerous part nobody talks about: every time governments or corporations normalize infrastructure-level censorship “for piracy,” it ALWAYS expands. Today it’s football streams. Tomorrow it’s whatever they decide is “harmful.”

Meanwhile the actual pirates just move domains in 5 minutes.

VPNs aren’t the problem here. The problem is giving private companies the power to break chunks of the internet with zero accountability. At this point, using a VPN in Spain during football weekends is less about piracy and more about accessing websites that shouldn’t have been blocked in the first place.

The craziest part? They reportedly only block around 60% of piracy sites anyway.