If you're concerned about online privacy, a virtual private network (VPN) will help keep snoopers at bay. We round up the six best VPN services for hiding your location online and allowing you to access blocked content and blocked sites.
Before you even start looking for the best VPN to suit your needs, you should consider if it is a Virtual Private Network service that you actually require. The term VPN is today frequently bandied around as a means to geolocate oneself elsewhere, usually to counter businesses that restrict their online services to users from within a particular region.
Many people use such countermeasures in order to enjoy the BBC’s iPlayer streaming services while outside the UK; or to make use of the expanded catalogue of film and television offered by US Netflix, in contrast to the more limited selection in the UK.
However, for simple virtual geographical relocation to gain an IP address in the required region, a proxy server is all that is required. Proxy servers can be found more readily and cheaply from various free and commercial providers, sometimes using as little as a basic web browser plug-in.
But it’s the ‘P’ in VPN that is of most benefit to those that really need it. VPN was originally devised for enterprise businesses to allow communications beyond the company firewall that could not be easily eavesdropped while traversing the public internet. As well as connecting various outposts of the company based in different cities or countries, it allowed staff to work remotely away from the office, whether from home or while on the road. Yet they could still connect securely to the company intranet transparently as if they were within the same physical building. Also see: How to use a free VPN: A step-by-step guide.
Now VPN is becoming increasingly useful for anyone that wishes to surf the internet with an element of anonymity, by helping to disguise their originating home IP address. VPN connections are also put to use for political safety; for example, in order to avoid state censorship and persecution, busting through filtering and logging at the ISP or state firewall level.
Another application may be to help sidestep the relentless tracking by commercial corporations such as social media and online advertising brokers. They now consider every net user fair game for tracking and profiling, collecting personal data and targeting advertising at us for profit. Or a VPN link may be used to minimise surveillance by the US and UK intelligence agencies that we now know record all of our online activities and personal communications.
There is the darker side of VPN use too, associated with criminals and others who try to stay off the radar of law enforcement.
In between the two opposite ends of political and criminal applications of VPN is the greyer area of peer-to-peer file sharing, for which some users prefer to avoid any possible retribution from big-media trade associations such as the MPAA by using encrypted VPN connections.
Best VPN services 2015 UK: Free VPN services
Everyone likes good value, and nothing looks quite as invitingly good as free. But as with any online service that is billed as free, beware that you’re as likely to be selling your soul as getting a good deal. Offers that promise free VPN connections may have dangerous strings attached.
An example is HotSpot Shield, a popular free VPN service that installs unwanted toolbars, third-party applications, corrupts your default search provider settings and then bombards the hapless user with in-line, pop-up and pop-under ads. Depending on your viewpoint, such weaponised ‘free’ software will be classed as unwanted applications at best, or malware at worst. Also see: Why you need a VPN.
It pays to read carefully the terms of service. AnchorFree, the developer of HotSpot Shield is good enough to warn you in its terms of service: “AnchorFree may deliver third-party Advertisements within the content of any web page accessed… You hereby acknowledge and consent that AnchorFree may alter the content of any web page accessed for the purpose of displaying advertisements.” (This might help: How to use a VPN: set up VPN for private browsing.)
Best VPN services 2015 UK: Trust and state surveillance
The use of any VPN service entails some degree of trust, since the provider is in a privileged position to see all your online activity, and you only have their word that they won’t sell you out to third-party marketers, other malefactors, or worse.
If your use of a VPN service is to thwart mass surveillance by the UK and US governments’ intelligence collectors at GCHQ and NSA, you need to be sure that the level and application of encryption your VPN service employs has not been compromised by said agencies.
While publicly known protocols such as AES, TLS, SSH and the IPsec suite are officially believed to be secure, the exposure of the Bullrun and Edgehill programs illustrate that back doors and crackable protocols have been deliberately introduced in some security protocols. RC4, part of SSL, is likely wide open to FVEYS eyes.
The current problem is that we don’t know exactly which protocols are compromised, and how badly. Also see: How to watch US Netflix on an Android phone or tablet.
The New York Times discussed the crucial revelations made in Edward Snowden’s documents. “By 2010, the Edgehill program, the British counterencryption effort, was unscrambling VPN traffic for 30 targets and had set a goal of an additional 300. A 2010 document calls for ‘a new approach for opportunistic decryption, rather than targeted’. By that year, a Bullrun briefing document claims that the agency had developed ‘groundbreaking capabilities’ against encrypted web chats and phone calls. Its successes against Secure Sockets Layer and virtual private networks were gaining momentum.”
Even if the core crypto is still secure, you must also rely on the developer of proprietary VPN software for your Windows, Mac or Linux PC, or your mobile device. If your VPN provider is based in the US or UK, they may have been ordered to introduce a backdoor, and be subject to a secret court order that forbids them from warning their customers.
There is also the issue of logging. Many overseas VPN providers make a strong statement about not logging their users’ connections, which could be turned over to state intelligence or law enforcement agencies on request. In the UK, for instance, logging was once at the discretion of the provider but since last summer’s DRIP Act 2014, communications providers must hold logs that can be requested on demand by government offices.
Many European countries have had similar mandates to log customer data, making privacy supporting nations such as Romania and Sweden a popular home for new VPN startups, while ironically the US does not at present.
If your needs for VPN only extend to keeping your Facebook session cookies safe, and thereby your login details, while surfing in Starbucks then any of the tested services should keep you clear from casual hackers. If you are looking for a VPN service to help reduce the amount of unceasing online tracking by data harvesters and advertising companies, then you may wish to avoid the proprietary software of service providers which dial out to Google servers or rely on Google APIs.
When we asked about this, CyberGhost told us it was moving away from using Google Fonts; HMA! was satisfied that user privacy was not being compromised; while Private Tunnel told us that it is now closing the leak in a new version due to be released later in March 2015.
If you’re looking for a VPN service that is less subject to government surveillance, the US-run services are in some respects a surprisingly reasonable choice since the USA does not mandate that these service providers must keep records of users log in/out times or worse. So most US VPN providers will declare they do not log. This includes the IPVanish and Private Tunnel services reviewed here. However, US companies are bound by federal law such as the Patriot act, which allow wiretaps on their customers, and are forbidden from telling anyone that this is happening. So doing business with any US internet or communications company always carries this risk.
In Europe, the Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC has been overturned by the European Court of Justice, and nations are no longer required to log user activity. They must ensure they do not implement any law or procedure that infringes our rights to privacy given in the European Union of Fundamental Rights. The UK is an exception after the DRIP Act of 2014, which requires UK companies to log their customers’ activity and turn over these logs on demand.
With jurisdictions in Panama and Italy, the services from NordVPN and AirVPN would seem to offer a more assured service of privacy, and should be better placed to make the ‘P’ for private in VPN mean something.
6 best VPN services 2015 UK
1. Hide My Ass! Pro VPN
- Reviewed on: 3 April 15
- RRP: $11.52 per month
- Rating:
Hide My Ass! Pro VPN is a versatile VPN services with a large number of servers listed all over the world. It has attentive technical support staff to help with setup issues, which might help justify its high price. The company is based in the UK and abides by our unique data-retention laws that deny anonymity to VPN users, and has demonstrated it’s ready to inform on its users when asked. For local network security and placing yourself virtually anywhere for shopping or entertainment purposes, Hide My Ass! Pro works as advertised, but the cost is high.
2. CyberGhost
- Reviewed on: 2 April 15
- RRP: $6.99 per month (£4.73)
- Rating:
CyberGhost relocated itself to one of few European countries that took personal privacy seriously, providing a good base for commercial VPN services. Its software is easy to use and many other connection options are available for other devices too. If your motivation for using a VPN service is personal privacy, you may be heartened to hear the Google API issue is also now being resolved.
3. Private Tunnel
- Reviewed on: 8 April 15
- RRP: $12 (£8.12) per 50GB
- Rating:
Private Tunnel provides a minimalist software client for its users of Windows PCs and Mac, or you can use the client profile on your choice of system. Server selection is sparse but those we tried were suitable fast. Its business model of paying per GB could be a very useful asset for those that only need intermittent secure internet connections. If you value your privacy, you may like to avoid the OS X issue until its data leak has been plugged.
4. IPVanish
- Reviewed on: 6 April 15
- RRP: $10 (£6.77) per month
- Rating:
IPVanish offers a speedy connection at no more cost than other services, with an easy to use and administer interface in its own software. It is a US company that tells us it keeps no logs. If your needs are to secure your surfing from criminals while using a Wi-Fi hotspot in a coffee shop, IPVanish is a versatile and above all speedy service available for many different platforms.
5. NordVPN
- Reviewed on: 7 April 15
- RRP: $8 (£5.42) per month
- Rating:
NordVPN servers are operated under the jurisdiction of Panama, a country that does not require internet providers to monitor user traffic, and the company tells us it does not keep any logs at all. Combined with the competitive pricing and unique privacy and security options, NordVPN has one of the most attractive offerings for internet users looking for some needed privacy. Its Windows client is easy to set up and use, and the service was quick enough in our tests for most user applications.
6. AirVPN
- Reviewed on: 1 April 15
- RRP: 7 Euro per month (£5.10)
- Rating:
AirVPN is a poweful VPN service using the OpenVPN protocol, with a strong privacy policy and community following. It’s not the fastest available but we’re told that it ignores DMCA and European equivalent notices, respects the ECHR and keeps no logs that can be exploited to reveal customers’ personal data during connections, including real IP address.
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