Safe internet browsing using VPN and Tor browser

Access to information is critically important to human rights defenders. However, accessing needed information can sometimes be censored, and can often be surveilled. For these reasons, it is helpful to know about your options to circumvent internet censorship and how to protect yourself from being surveilled online.

Using a VPN helps to circumvent censorship and protect yourself from surveillance

VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network.” When you connect to a VPN, all data that you send (such as the requests to servers when browsing the web) appears to originate from the VPN itself, rather than your own ISP. This masks your IP address, which can be an important tool for protecting your privacy, since your IP address provides an indication of your general location and can therefore be used to identify you.

In practice, VPNs can:

• Protect your Internet activity from prying eyes, especially if you’re connected to an unsecure Wi-Fi network in a café, airport, library, or somewhere else.
• Circumvent Internet censorship on a network that blocks certain sites or services. For example, when you are working from a school’s Internet connection or in a country that blocks content. Note: It’s important to keep up to date on security news for specific countries’ policies on VPNs.
• Connect you to the corporate intranet at your office while you’re traveling abroad, at home, or any other time you are out of the office.

Resources that introduce you to VPNs:

• Here's a video that introduces how VPNs work.
• Here's another helpful video explanation.

It's important to know if VPNs are illegal in your country

Current VPN bans (as of Sept 19, 2022)

1. Belarus
2. China
3. Iraq
4. Myanmar
5. North Korea
6. Oman
7. Russia
8. Turkey
9. UAE

Currently, a handful of governments either regulate or outright ban VPNs, which include countries like Belarus, China, Iraq, North Korea, Oman, Russia, and the U.A.E., to name a few. Still, others impose internet censorship laws, which makes using a VPN risky.

Depending on the country, governments may impose fines on both the citizen and the VPN service provider for using an unsanctioned VPN. Although using VPN is completely legal in India, there are some cases where the government or local police have punished people for using the service.

More information: https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/are-vpns-legal/

Resources on how to use VPNs

• How to bypass internet censorship (online course by the Totem Project) - This online course explains concepts like tunneling, encryption and VPN. It also guides you through how to choose a secure circumvention tool (e.g. VPN or Tor browser). This course is available in EN, ES, AR, FA.
• Choosing the VPN That's Right for You (guide by the Electronic Frontier Foundation) - So do you need a VPN? And which VPN should you use? The answer to these questions are packed with various considerations and nuances. This guide will help you think through what tools are right for you, and what factors you should consider in your search for a VPN. This guide is available in EN, ES, FR, AR, RU and other languages.
• Techsplanations: Virtual Private Networks (by the Center for Democracy and Technology)
• What is a VPN? How Do I Choose a VPN? (guide by the Digital Defense Fund)

  Recommendations of VPNs for human rights defenders

• Mulvad
• IVPN
• TunnelBear - EngageMedia (who works with HRDs in South and Souteast Asia) has been distributing free VPN vouchers to civil society and activists for the last three years. You can contact them here: https://engagemedia.org/contact/

More information:

• [Article] Mullvad, IVPN, and Mozilla VPN Top Consumer Reports’ VPN Testing (Consumer Reports, Dec 2021)
• [Article] The Best VPN Service (New York Times, Wirecutter, Jan 2022)

  Using Tor Browser helps to circumvent censorship and protect yourself from surveillance

Tor is a volunteer-run service that provides both privacy and anonymity online by masking who you are and where you are connecting. The service also protects you from the Tor network itself—you can have good assurance that you’ll remain anonymous to other Tor users.

For people who might need occasional anonymity and privacy when accessing websites, Tor Browser provides a quick and easy way to use the Tor network.

The Tor Browser works just like a regular web browser. Web browsers are programs you use to view web sites. Examples include Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Unlike other web browsers, though, the Tor Browser sends your communications through Tor, making it harder for people who are monitoring you to know exactly what you're doing online, and harder for people monitoring the sites you use to know where you're connecting from. (source: EFF)

This video is a helpful introduction to Tor browser. (Note: you can access the subtitles in many languages by clicking on the settings button ⚙️ and selecting "Subtitles")

Resources on using Tor browser

• How to use Tor for Windows (guide by EFF) - available in EN, ES, FR, RU, AR and other languages
• How to use Tor for macOS (guide by EFF) - available in EN, ES, FR, RU, AR and other languages
• How to use Tor for Linux (guide by EFF) - available in EN, ES, FR, RU, AR and other languages

  Download Tor Browser: https://www.torproject.org

Tips on desk research

If you don't want to use the Google search engine for your research because of privacy concerns, a good alternative is DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is an internet privacy company. DuckDuckGo offers a number of products oriented towards helping people protect their privacy online, most notably, a private search engine, a tracker-blocking browser extension, email protection and app tracking protection for Android.

Desk Research for journalism (and human rights) - a free online course by Totem. You will gain knowledge on best ways to use the Internet to collect data for investigations, including: finding documents and numbers; optimizing your Google Search results; and searching for specific sources. Available in EN,