Tricks to see and download things blocked in your country

oooOIOooo via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Sat, 02 May 2020 15:26:11 PDT
If you use a virtual private network (VPN) and tell it to report you as being in a different country, you can view things you can't see in your country. A VPN includes software on your phone, tablet or computer. When your device requests an Internet resource, the VPN software intercepts your request, encrypts it, then sends it to a server operated by the VPN company in a country of your choice. The VPN server requests the resource, encrypts it, and sends it back to your computer. The software on your computer unencrypts it and displays it to you. There is a slight time lag that most people won't notice.

For example, when the Summer Olympics were in London, the BBC broadcast them to the entire British public. Viewers inside the US could not access BBC feeds of the actual events; feeds were blocked to US Internet addresses. Instead US viewers had to wait for the completely awful US reporting of little bits and pieces of the actual competitions, interspersed with endless maudlin gossip-trash about the revolting family and personal struggles faced by athletes. But, if you used a VPN, you could watch the real events courtesy of the BBC.

In the US, Internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast, AT&T, CenturyLink and all the rest are permitted to collect ALL users' Internet browsing history, with your name attached, and sell it to ANYBODY. They are allowed to collect the ads you see, which depend on what you search for and write in your E-mails. Your boss could buy your browsing history, your dating Website usage, or your political opinion comments to Antifa or neo-Nazi Web sites. Your government could also do this, obviating the need for a search warrant. Using a VPN prevents your ISP from collecting this information.

Internet traffic is not encrypted by default. Anybody with access to a router computer for any part of the Internet backbone can read all traffic, including all unencrypted E-mails. This is the reason you are told not to send passwords, nor financial information in regular E-mails. VPNs make this harder to read.

There are a lot of VPNs out there. Examples are ProtonVPN https://protonvpn.com/ and TunnelBear. https://www.tunnelbear.com/ Generally they have free versions with low monthly limits on VPN bandwidth, and paid versions.

The Opera Internet browser includes a free VPN: https://www.opera.com/ Opera is a Norwegian company that was bought by a Chinese company. This makes a lot of privacy advocates nervous, but Opera is still developed in Norway and complies with EU privacy regulations.

If you use the Firefox browser, you can go to Options | Add-Ons and download "YouTube Video and Audio Downloader." When you go to a YouTube page, a small icon appears at the bottom right of the video window. It allows you to download the audio and/or complete video of what you are watching, usually in several levels of quality.

Leo Martin
Phoenix Arizona USA
Zone 9?

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