For my final post today, I want to point out this Black Friday deal that Dan talked about. The article highlights Surfshark’s “Search” tool which gives you an ad-free search experience that excludes sponsored results and personalized recommendations – just like the good old days. The tool is available to Surfshark One and One Plus subscribers, both of which are currently on sale as part of the company’s Black Friday promotions.
Check out the Black Friday deal here
That’s it from us today, we’ll be back tomorrow with more VPN news, deals and exclusive information.
More than 60 organizations call for encryption protections
A coalition of more than 60 organizations has signed a global declaration urging governments to protect strong encryption. Signatories include the VPN Trust Initiative, which is a consortium of several top VPN providers. The commitment comes as various legislative proposals call for better access to encrypted data, particularly in the EU, where the debate around chat control continues to intensify.
Read the full story here
UK Home Affairs Committee discusses digital ID
The UK’s Home Affairs Committee is currently taking evidence on potential new forms of digital identification. This important session provides an opportunity to hear current concerns and potential benefits related to government-issued digital ID. The Committee will hear from experts on issues related to privacy and security risks, including the potential for massive data breaches and the erosion of civil liberties.
The session closely follows Apple’s recent announcement of its new Digital ID feature, which allows users to store their passport data in Wallet. Although the company promises convenience, it has sparked concerns from privacy experts around the world.
Watch the Home Affairs Committee session here
Read our full story on Apple ID here.
Windscribe back online
It didn’t take long! The Windscribe website and core services are now fully operational again. Cloudflare also said that a fix has been implemented and the issue is now resolved. So expect all other affected services to restore their functions soon.
Windscribe updates its infrastructure
After more than a year of deployment and careful testing, Windscribe last week completed one of the largest infrastructure projects in its history. The company’s next-generation server stack, named “FreshScribe,” now officially powers its entire network.
FreshScribe is a kernel-based system that replaces the previous version of Boringtun, fundamentally changing the way the service handles WireGuard connections. The upgrade promises to eliminate connection jitter, increase speeds and pave the way for a host of powerful new features.
Read the full story here
(Unrelated) Windscribe appears to be suffering from Cloudflare outage
It appears that Windscribe VPN is another casualty of the Cloudflare outage that is affecting hundreds of services worldwide. The company’s website is currently inaccessible and the app cannot establish a connection on my mobile.
TechRadar has a live blog covering the Cloudflare outage here
X to report VPN usage, warning location “may not be accurate”
X plans to publicly display more user information in an effort to combat online trolls, and this change has significant implications for VPN users. A label warning that a person’s location “may not be accurate” will reportedly be introduced to people’s accounts if they use a VPN.
The announcement drew sharp criticism from security researchers and privacy experts. The NetBlocks research director, for example, warned that this information could be used against journalists or activists. However, Proton VPN told TechRadar that users’ location can be derived from their app store region rather than their IP address.
We await further comments from X to clarify the specific technical implementation.
Read the full story here
Hi, it’s Sam.
To kick off this week, I thought I’d share some news you may have missed from last week.
First, Surfshark announced a new deal with Bristol City FC. The company will become the official VPN partner of the football club. It follows ExpressVPN which has a partnership with Tottenham Hotspur and the NBA team, Brooklyn Nets.
Also watch this new video from Mullvad VPN. Called “What Next?” » he details the company’s opposition to the EU’s cat control proposal. Read Chiara’s report on the current state of the law here.
