Privacy-focused ‘ Kik Messenger ‘ Passes to MediaLab’s OwnershipByBill Toulas-October 19, 2019, 1577 The Kik Messenger should live on in MediaLab’s loving hands who want to refine the program. The app endured days of negative advertising and criticism that ruined its market value. Kik Interactive sold “Kik Messenger” to MediaLab after the privacy-focused app’s developer decided to focus on crypto-currency only. On the other hand, MediaLab already owns related items such as the anonymous social network called “Whisper,” so it makes perfect sense to add Kik to its portfolio. Over the past couple of weeks, the app had sunk into a pit of confusion and ambiguity but an official announcement about ownership change removed the cloud and users should stop worrying about finding an alternative. They wanted to invest in Kik according to MediaLab because first of all they found it to be a very unique product faithful to the early promises of the internet. They see Kik as a free sharing and reconciliation forum, and align with the ethos of their unique community. Kik’s community will forge their plans for the future as they call on everyone to share their ideas and proposals at “[ emailprotected ].” This clearly shows that MediaLab respects the group but it’s not to say they have no plans on their own. For example, it adds easy 1-1 and community chat channels and eradicates spambots to make the device quicker and more stable by debugging. The video chat toggle and the 3rd party bots network (with the exception of the RageBot) will be removed as the team wants to focus on the basics rather than on features that need a lot of polishing right now. There is also the intention to continue supporting the Kin integration (crypto-currency token) as well as supporting the project further. Finally, MediaLab promises to remain committed to Kik for the long term so that they don’t just wrap the package in order to sell it elsewhere. Kik is distinct from other instant messaging clients as it does not ask for telephone numbers or addresses for the names of the users upon registration. However there is the issue around logging Ip addresses that can be used by someone who wants to determine a user’s identity. During 2016 there were some incidents related to child exploitation and inappropriate use of the app by minors that hurt the product’s image and resulted during strong rivals and media bashing. An article in The Wall Street Journal in January 2019 reported that the value of Kik had fallen by 99 percent. Here’s What Vpn Services Won’t Tell You About Your Link Use Logs
BySeptimiu-Vlad Mocan-January 10 2020 1578 You expect to keep the privacy intact when you use a Vpn? Okay, some of you might just use it to unblock geo-restricted web content, but let’s face it in that case, privacy also plays an important role. It makes sure that your Isp doesn’t see what you’re doing online because they can’t block your bandwidthreport for bypassing firewalls from the authorities. Pretty simple Use logs and link logs should not be kept which are essentially information about your online browsing.
What are Use Logs in Vpn?
Usage logs store sensitive data regarding browsing behaviors of a Vpn user. They will usually contain information such as: What Web applications and apps did you use Your Ip address Different metadata What files did you upload and/or download. Pretty much data right? A kind of make it useless to use a Vpn to protect your experience online.How many times you connect to a website Your inbound Ip address (when you connect to the internet) Your new outbound Ip address (when you connect to the web via the browser) How many data you use per link.
Why Do Some Providers Keep Logs and Connections?
The troubleshooting / optimizing services bit has already been mentioned, but Vpn providers may also store logs to:
If Vpn providers have their Hq in a country that has no problem trampling on online privacy rights, they will have to comply with the laws of the country no matter how draconian they are. Of example, if the Vpn you’re using is located in the Us, you probably keep logs that you’re sharing with surveillance agencies like the Nsathey have already done that with Google and Yahoo, so a Vpn provider needs to take special care. 1579 Australia the UK Russia Ireland France and Germany are other examples of countries with extreme data retention laws. And oddly enough, many of these countries make up the Eyes Alliance on 5/9/14. Sell user data to vertisers
By selling it to marketers, certain companies may be using the data they collect from usage logs and link logs to make a profit. In addition, advertisers have said that they use the data to create customized profiles so they can monitor you with web ads. Back in 2017 Hotspot Shield was at the heart of such a controversy. And if you review several free Vpns ‘ privacy policies you can typically see that they discuss sharing user data with third parties (usually that means advertisers).
It is often used by Free Vpns to ensure users don’t reach the data limit allocated to them. Paid Vpns could also impose bandwidth limits during free trials, or ensure that consumers fulfill their money-back guarantees. Clearly link logs about how much data you use when running the Vpn is a must in such a situation. If the company claims they don’t use any limits of bandwidth though you don’t have to think about that.
A Vpn provider might not wish to keep logs. Nevertheless, Vps (Virtual Private Servers) could be leased from data centers. Currently, many companies do that because it’s cheaper than getting bare-metal servers and opening new locations around the world. But the issue is that some data centers may be located in countries that have complicated privacy legislation. If that is the case the data center may keep logs without asking the provider to comply with the law (or for many other reasons). A good example of that is what happened to an EarthVpn user he assumed that he was using a Vpn no-log so he was doing what any other reasonable person would do: make bomb threats. Okay so not “fair” but “highly irrational and absolutely crazy.” But that’s not the emphasis. What matters is that by using a no-log policy Vpn, the police still had no trouble pressuring the Dutch data center (whose server the guy used) to turn over logs with relevant information. Apparently, the data center kept Ip transfer logs as a way to protect servers from DdoS attacks and that was not reported to EarthVpn.
Are the Lesser Evil logs in Vpn Connection?
Link logs seem much better and less invasive than user logs at first glance. But if you’re trying to enjoy the anonymity they’re not good enough yet. Of example, if a link log includes your IP address that still means someone can find out: Which city you live in Who your Isp is And what your Zip code is. And Ip addresses are the kind of data hackers where love to sell on the dark webuse to break into Pcs remotely threaten your Isp with social engineering or phishing attacks. And here’s another link log problem-many Vpn providers aren’t clear about it. They behave as it is not a big deal to store contact logs because users do not need to know about them. Here is only one case-Speedify. If you search the privacy tab on their homepage you will see a message that: “Speedify does not log Ip addresses websites or data you send or receive while you are connected to the service …” Sounds good but whoops if you review their privacy policy you will get this little paragraph: 1580 Figure 1 Speedify Privacy Policy 1581 Figure 2 Speed clarification If they lie about logs what else would they hide from you?
Ideal solution A Vpn with no logs of link and use!How many times you connect to a website Your inbound Ip address (when you connect to the internet) Your new outbound Ip address (when you connect to the web via the browser) How many data you use per link.
Why Do Some Providers Keep Logs and Connections?
The troubleshooting / optimizing services bit has already been mentioned, but Vpn providers may also store logs to:
If Vpn providers have their Hq in a country that has no problem trampling on online privacy rights, they will have to comply with the laws of the country no matter how draconian they are. Of example, if the Vpn you’re using is located in the Us, you probably keep logs that you’re sharing with surveillance agencies like the Nsathey have already done that with Google and Yahoo, so a Vpn provider needs to take special care. 1579 Australia the UK Russia Ireland France and Germany are other examples of countries with extreme data retention laws. And oddly enough, many of these countries make up the Eyes Alliance on 5/9/14. Sell user data to vertisers
By selling it to marketers, certain companies may be using the data they collect from usage logs and link logs to make a profit. In addition, advertisers have said that they use the data to create customized profiles so they can monitor you with web ads. Back in 2017 Hotspot Shield was at the heart of such a controversy. And if you review several free Vpns ‘ privacy policies you can typically see that they discuss sharing user data with third parties (usually that means advertisers).
It is often used by Free Vpns to ensure users don’t reach the data limit allocated to them. Paid Vpns could also impose bandwidth limits during free trials, or ensure that consumers fulfill their money-back guarantees. Clearly link logs about how much data you use when running the Vpn is a must in such a situation. If the company claims they don’t use any limits of bandwidth though you don’t have to think about that.
A Vpn provider might not wish to keep logs. Nevertheless, Vps (Virtual Private Servers) could be leased from data centers. Currently, many companies do that because it’s cheaper than getting bare-metal servers and opening new locations around the world. But the issue is that some data centers may be located in countries that have complicated privacy legislation. If that is the case the data center may keep logs without asking the provider to comply with the law (or for many other reasons). A good example of that is what happened to an EarthVpn user he assumed that he was using a Vpn no-log so he was doing what any other reasonable person would do: make bomb threats. Okay so not “fair” but “highly irrational and absolutely crazy.” But that’s not the emphasis. What matters is that by using a no-log policy Vpn, the police still had no trouble pressuring the Dutch data center (whose server the guy used) to turn over logs with relevant information. Apparently, the data center kept Ip transfer logs as a way to protect servers from DdoS attacks and that was not reported to EarthVpn.
Are the Lesser Evil logs in Vpn Connection?
Link logs seem much better and less invasive than user logs at first glance. But if you’re trying to enjoy the anonymity they’re not good enough yet. Of example, if a link log includes your IP address that still means someone can find out: Which city you live in Who your Isp is And what your Zip code is. And Ip addresses are the kind of data hackers where love to sell on the dark webuse to break into Pcs remotely threaten your Isp with social engineering or phishing attacks. And here’s another link log problem-many Vpn providers aren’t clear about it. They behave as it is not a big deal to store contact logs because users do not need to know about them. Here is only one case-Speedify. If you search the privacy tab on their homepage you will see a message that: “Speedify does not log Ip addresses websites or data you send or receive while you are connected to the service …” Sounds good but whoops if you review their privacy policy you will get this little paragraph: 1580 Figure 1 Speedify Privacy Policy 1581 Figure 2 Speed clarification If they lie about logs what else would they hide from you?
Ideal solution A Vpn with no logs of link and use!Romania Gibraltar Besides making sure no-log Vpns only operate with secure, trustworthy data centers. So they have no surprises-like the data center keeps records behind their backs. Zero-log Vpns also go to great lengths to keep no logs even if they are in sensitive regions such as the Us or the Uk. It generally involves obtaining checks from third parties to show that they are the real deal. All in all, such a Vpn would ensure that your privacy is not jeopardized even if hackers smash their servers or seize their servers by authorities. 1582 ExpressVpn does the same. Turkish authorities have even confiscated any unneeded data loggingExpressVpn analysis from one of their servers. On the other side PureVpn is in there. They actually shared data logs with the Fbi back in 2017 despite claiming to have a “zero log policy.” True reasons were justified (it was a cyberstalking case) but consider this what if a company like that shared user logs on how you downloaded torrents using their Vpn service to copyright agencies or lawyers in a country like the Us? That would be a pretty grim outcome.
Getting the No-Log Vpn Right Can Be Hard!
With hundreds of vendors on the market which is not at all shocking. You will usually need to round up the most common Vpn providers and check their privacy policies and feedback closely to make sure they have a genuine no-Bs no-log policy. It would take you at least a few hours to do anything like that. Anything less would only lead you to pick a provider that claims to hold zero logs while doing the exact opposite.