In case you have not been following the news, it is ” Happy National Get A VPN Day ” in Australia. The Australian government has mobilised the metadata retention law that was passed in 2015 as the 2-year grace period given to telecoms and ISPs to get their ready for metadata harvest has ended on April 13, 2017.
Metadata Retention Scheme
Back in 2015, the Australian government passed a surveillance law that obligates all telecommunication companies and broadband service providers to retain their clients’ personal data (metadata) for 2 years without the need for a legal warrant. This means that all of your e-mail correspondence, internet activities (the websites you visit), phone records (mobiles & landlines) are not just monitored, but also stored for 2 years and can be shared upon request with intelligence services or any governmental branch without your consent. Since the passing of this bill, ISPs and telecoms were given a 2-year grace period, until April 13 2017, to start implementing data harvesting. However, some companies have requested an extension of the grace period until they get their systems ready for data retention.
The Communication Alliance’s chief executive John Stanton said, “the resulting timeframe put many service providers under immense pressure to complete the work to enable them to comply with this onerous regime within the deadline” .
The main purpose of metadata retention scheme according to the Australian government is to monitor and limit criminal activities, such as: terrorism, child abuse, child pornography, trafficking, etc. However, this strict type of surveillance violates the Australian citizen’s right to a free and a private electronic environment on and off the internet.
As a result, privacy advocates have named today as “Happy National Get A VPN Day” as a means to evade the metadata police. So what is a VPN, how does it work around the government’s surveillance scheme and what are the best Australia VPNs for metadata protection? Scroll down for more details.
What Is A VPN?
A Virtual Private Network, or a VPN for short, is a virtual tunnel created within the internet to encrypt all of your data before they are transferred to the chosen destination. In other words, every time you go undertake any activity online, you leave footprints or breadcrumbs called metadata which can be traced back to your location identified by your IP address. A VPN provides you with a fake IP address and cloaks your original IP so it would appear as if you are browsing from an entirely different country. For example, if your are located in Australia and connect to a US server through a VPN, you would appear to your ISP and everyone online that you are surfing the web from the US. Therefore, nobody would be able to track your activity and you would be able to maintain your privacy, security and anonymity online.
Best Australia VPNs in 2017
With all the restrictions in Australia, it is wise to be patient when shopping for a VPN service provider. Best VPNs in Australia must provide privacy and security as well as enable users to bypass geo-restrictions to access any blocked web content.
IPVanish
– 40,000+ shared IPs, 750+ VPN servers in 60+ countries (47 Australian servers)
– Unlimited Bandwidth
– Zero Logs
– Super fast servers
– Unlimited P2P sharing
– Unlimited server switching
– 7-day money-back guarantee
VyprVPN
– 200,000+ IP addresses
– 700+ servers in 70+ locations
– 3 day free trial
– Compatible with all platforms and devices
– Extremely high level of security
– Has its own DNS server
– No third parties
– Zero logging
– Fast connection
– Unlimited bandwidth
ExpressVPN
– 700+ servers in 145 cities in 94 countries
– 30 day money-back guarantee
– High level security encryption (AES 256-bit OpenVPN encryption)
– Kill Switch
– 3 simultaneous connections
– Stealth servers
– Dark web website
– 24/7 customer support
– Keeps no traffic logs
Conclusion
With the ever growing threats of surveillance and advanced monitoring techniques towards electronic privacy and freedom imposed by the Australian government. There will always be a beacon of hope to protect an individual’s right to a safe and private environment.
