Pay for the privilege of having your rights sold!

[Zabuza825]

I've actually been shopping around for more VPN services and can offer some advice.

First of all, if all you want is the most barebones of VPN's, you can try SoftEther's VPNGate. SoftEther and VPNGate are projects started by the University of Tsukuba as part of one of their student's doctoral thesis research. This will give you free access to VPN servers elsewhere using the OpenVPN protocol.


Here's the link: http://www.vpngate.net/en/

However, there are upsides and downsides to consider when using this. Consider them carefully. They are:

Pro's	Con's
Completely free No limits to use Available on iPhone and Android as well	Fast speeds not guaranteed, in fact there will definitely be servers that have ridiculously slow speeds. Not all servers are guaranteed to be online all the time, there will be times when you wake up to find the server you use is gone for good and you'll need to reconfigure it to use a new server. All of your activity will be logged on 99.99999% of the servers available. On top of that, a lot of their servers are run by people you don't know. Even if they say they won't log you, they might do so quietly in the background anyway. On top of that, even if they do tell you that they log you, you have no way of knowing what they do with said logs.

As for me? Well, ever since the passage of that law I have been using a VPN called Windscribe. I used it off-and-on before but that was because I used it mainly to get around geolocking and watch stuff from Japan that I otherwise wouldn't be allowed to watch (namely the web-based TV sation AbemaTV). I bought myself a lifetime pro subscription to it for $40 when they had a special deal going on (they have a similar deal that I can confirm is happening as of 03/29/2017, however the current deal ends on 3/31/2017 and is about $100 more expensive than when I first bought it). Oh and yes, there was a catch when I bought the lifetime subscription, keep reading if you want to know what that catch was.

I've been having a great experience using Windscribe, but there are things to note about it.

Pro's	Con's
They are based in Canada - which has a good record when it comes to privacy laws though there are some exceptions (look up 5 Eyes for more info). They have servers in many countries on many continents Decent speeds - they aren't the fastest but I can work with these speeds Available on iPhone They also have standalone apps for certain browsers that block ads and do other things to ensure privacy They also have a very limited free trial They don't maintain any activity logs	They support Android, but only through a third-party app that is a pain in the ass to set up. As of 3/29/2017, they do not have a standalone Android app (hopefully this changes in the future). I've heard people complain about limited customer support options - I haven't had to deal with their customer support so I can't really comment on how it is overall. Very expensive compared to other VPN services - especially if you get a monthly or yearly subscription. They might not maintain activity logs, but they do log how much data you have used on their server. This is a level of logging acceptable to me personally, but for some people even this level of logging may be unacceptable. Some servers aren't located in the best of countries (eg Vietnam). The lifetime subscription I bought from them is actually a 10-year subscription that's freely renewable by contacting their customer service - my guess is that the company is betting (probably correctly) that most people didn't read the fine print and thus will let their "lifetime" subscriptions expire after the 10 years.

If you want to look for other VPN options on your own, here is my advice.

• If you want the best of the best VPN service, be prepared to pay monthly or yearly.
  
• ALWAYS look at reviews of the VPN service before you buy from them. Make sure they provide the sort of privacy and speeds that you want before you dish out any cash. Also make sure that others have had good experiences when using the service.
  
• If you are willing to go a tier lower in exchange for a "lifetime" subscription, try looking at places like the Digg Store (link) for lifetime deals.
  
• Especially when looking "lifetime" subscription deals, always, ALWAYS look up reviews for the VPN service. I know that I already mentioned this, but I cannot emphasize it enough. Companies that own some VPN services, such as VPN Unlimited, keep logs of your activity (link) when you use their services (EDIT: reading the article closely, this is for things other than the VPN, but my point still stands) negating any privacy benefits from using their service.
  
• When looking at "lifetime" subscription deals, ALWAYS read the fine print. There will most likely be a catch. For example, right now there is a lifetime subscription to TigerVPN available on the Digg Store, but it seems like that is a "lite" subscription that only gives you access to part of their service (the Digg Store advertises 15 server locations in 11 countries, while the TigerVPN homepage advertises 63 locations in 43 countries). You don't want to be fucked over if it ever comes back to haunt you.
  

If you want to get a VPN and don't know where to start looking, you could start with TorrentFreak's list of VPN providers and their answers to questions concerning privacy. Every year they ask different VPN providers on their privacy, I only linked to their 2017 edition.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.