Buy VPN USA

5 Best VPNs for the USA 15 Apr 2014 | Douglas Crawford Although strong constitutional protections for freedom of speech and freedom of expression mean that censorship of the Internet in the United States is almost non-existent (with the notable exception of efforts to block access to WikiLeaks related material), as the on-going Edward Snowden revelations show, large scale blanket surveillance by the government is almost ubiquitous. In addition to this, powerful entertainment industry lobbying, backed up by an entire industry of copyright trolls, ensures that copyright infringement is aggressively sought out and punished. US citizens concerned about their privacy should therefore strongly consider using a VPN service. We will take a closer look at the various issues surrounding VPN use in the US later in this article, including whether it is better to choose a US provider or an overseas one, but let’s first look at our pick of best providers for the USA. Note that this discussion deals primarily with VPN for those living in the US. Readers outside the US who want to access US services such as Hulu, the US version of Netflix, Pandora etc., will find that pretty near all VPN providers have servers (often many) Stateside, so can simply choose the best general provider for their needs (BestVPN hosts countless such articles, such as this one). Summary Rank Provider Starting Price Review Link 1 ExpressVPN $8.32/mo 9.9 Read Review Visit Site 2 vyprvpn_logo $6.67/mo 9.4 Read Review Visit Site 3 logo $7.00/mo 9.2 Read Review Visit Site 4 logo $4.99/mo 9.1 Read Review Visit Site 5 logo $6.99/mo 9.1 Read Review Visit Site Take a look below to see slightly more detailed views about each provider. Editor’s Choice Winner – ExpressVPN ExpressVPN_Logo Positives: Simple, great speeds, good all round software Negatives: Not much, price bit higher than some others but still great! ExpressVPN is a top choice for those seeking the best VPN for the USA for both international and domestic users. With locations in 78 countries, you can access anywhere that you really need, they have plenty of IP addresses to use. Their 24/7 customer service is excellent, and they have guides about absolutely everything, which are written in a clear way. They have software for every type of OS you can imagine, Windows, OSX, iOS, Android, everything.They are constantly rolling out new upgrades and features across their apps. Pricing starts at $8.32 per month if you pay upfront for a year, or $12.95 per month if you pay monthly. While this is more than some other VPNs, the quality of their service, especially their speeds, are excellent! They also have a 30 day money back guarantee, so you are able to try their service risk free. Click the button below to sign up to ExpressVPN now, you really can’t go wrong with them! Try Out the Best VPN for USA Today! Visit ExpressVPN » 30 day moneyback guarantee 2. VyprVPN Positives: fast, 160-bit and 256-bit OpenVPN encryption (Pro only), Android app, iOS app, 3 day no risk free trial, up to 3 simultaneous connections, no usage logs Negatives: bit pricey VyprVPN is run by international consortium Golden Frog, and are Switzerland based which means they are outside the scope of UK and US legislation. VyprVPN has great 160-bit to 265-bit OpenVPN encryption, allows 2 devices to connect simultaneously (or 3 for the premier package), offers a 3 day no risk free trial, and has apps for both Android and iOS. What more could you want! Well, how about the fact that they run their own data centers and networks, which means they can achieve speed and latency that not many other VPNs can. This makes them ideal for streaming video as well. They’ve also built their own communication protocol called Chameleon, which hides the fact that you are using a VPN from everyone. This can be very important if you plan on using the service in China or some other highly censored country. The only negative aspect is that they aren’t the cheapest service, but the price is still reasonable and well worth it for the quality you will get! VyprVPN is the best VPN for the USA, click below to visit them now! » Visit VyprVPN 3. Mullvad Positives: accepts Bitcoin, no logs, good speeds, cheap, client features internet kill switch and DNS leak protection, P2P: yes, 3 simultaneous connections Negatives: Avoid servers in Germany, encryption could be better Another non-US privacy-focused choice, Mullvad is a small company which features an excellent Windows, OSX and Linux client with DNS leak protection, internet kill switch, port forwarding, and server load information. Based in Sweden, Mulllvad keeps no logs, uses shared IPs, and accepts payment not just in Bitcoins, but in cash sent by post! The 128-bit blowfish encryption used is a little weak in light of the NSA’s efforts to undermine encryption, and its Germany based servers should be avoided, as Germany has awful privacy and copyright laws. Mullvad caused some controversy recently by opening severs in the US, but these too can be avoided, and overall this plucky little provider has built up a fearsome reputation for caring about its users’ privacy. » Visit Mullvad 4. LiquidVPN Positives: modulating (shared) IPs, strong 256-bi encrytion, no usage logs, fantastic client with customizable scripts, basic service is very cheap, 4 simultaneous connections on Pro service, port forwarding, stealth server, P2P: yes Negatives: based in US This new US based provider is making something of a splash (excuse the pun) in the VPN world thanks to its adoption of innovative technologies, such as its flagship ‘modulating IPs’, which continually change your IP address, making it very difficult to track your actions across the internet. It uses an excellent and highly customisable VPN client which can run scripts such as Fix DNS leaks, Disable Internet on VPN, Close Program on VPN Disconnect, and many more. Also cool is the option to add an extra layer of security by connecting to a server using a second TLS key (although this comes at a cost in speed). LiquidVPN keeps no usage logs and uses strong 256-bit encryption. Of course being US based, the NSA-related caveats outlined below apply in full, but LiqudVPN is one of the few US providers to allow P2P downloading, and in general has a fantastic attitude to privacy. » Visit LiquidVPN 5. IronSocket Positives: no usage logs, 256-bit AES OpenVPN encryption, fast, servers in 27 countries, shared IPs, accepts Bitcoins, based in Hong Kong, 7 day money back guarantee, up to 3 simultaneous connections, P2P: yes Negatives: Keeps far too many connection logs for our liking Ironsocket is a great choice for privacy minded Americans who prefer to put their trust in a company based where there are almost restrictions or oversight of the internet – Hong Kong. IronSocket uses shared IP’s, accepts anonymous payment via Bitcoins, uses 256-bit AES encryption, has servers just about everywhere (including the US of course), and allows 3 simultaneous connections. It does keep too many connection logs (although no usage logs), but being under Hong Kong (Edward Snowden’s first choice of refuge) jurisdiction offsets this quite a bit. » Visit IronSocket Surveillance and censorship issues in the USA The NSA and government surveillance Thanks to Edward Snowden we now know that over the last few years the US National Security Agency has performed mass blanket warrantless surveillance on a very large percentage of the US population, including spying on and collecting all phone calls, emails, text messages, VoIP calls, and web pages visited. Although US citizens are afforded some legal protections against such governmental spying, these have been routinely evaded (the data crossed US borders so the NSA is not bound by Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act restrictions, and consequently, when information passes through ‘the overseas collection apparatus, the assumption is you’re not a U.S. person.’), or outright ignored (for example when the NSA tapped into the main pipelines between Google and Yahoo’s datacenters. Another favored tactic is for the NSA to not let collect the information itself, but to let foreign partner agencies such as Britain’s GHCQ collect the data instead (as they have no legal restrictions on doing this), who then pass on the data to the NSA (and since they did not collect it themselves, the NSA is now legally free to use it however it wishes). Even when some effort has been made to protect the details of US citizen’s data, the NSA continues to assert its right to collect metadata (for example the time phone calls are made, to whom, and from where). The NSA has gone to great lengths to play down just how much of an invasion of privacy this collection metadata actually is, but the simple fact is that vast amounts of very personal information can be obtained from it. After all, why else would the NSA be so keen on collecting it? It is therefore safest to assume that all online activity in the US is being monitored by the NSA. It is also likely that although Edward Snowden has thrown a spotlight on the practices the NSA in particular, other federal, local government and law enforcement agencies also perform surveillance. There is evidence too that the NSA does not concern itself solely with threats to national security, but also passes on records relating to ordinary criminal activity to the DEA and law enforcement agencies. DMCA, six-strikes, and copyright enforcement The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) came into force in 1998, and criminalises all infringement of copyright material and any attempts to bypass copyright protection measures (i.e. DRM Digital Rights Management), even if no actual copyright infringement takes place. The most well-known facet of this act is the DMCA Takedown Notice, which exempts an ISP (or VPN provider) from the Act as long as, upon receiving a valid complaint from a copyright holder that their intellectual property is has been violated, it ‘responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing.’ Under the Copyright Alert System (CAS) brought into force in February 2013, participating ISPs (AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon) provide a ‘graduated response’ to offenders when notified of a wrongdoing. Initially this is a warning, which after up to six warnings (hence the poplar term ‘six-strikes policy’) leads to the implementation of ‘mitigation measures’, such as restricting which websites can visited, or throttling internet speeds. In addition to this, agencies working on behalf of the entertainment industry (including so-called copyright trolls), may demand that an ISP identify individuals in order to prosecute them under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which can result in damages amounting to tens of thousands of pounds. US based VPN providers In theory, using VPN is a very effective way to hide your internet behaviour from both your ISP and the NSA (or similar organization). Unfortunately the political and legal climate in the US often makes domestic VPN use largely ineffective. The United States does not have a mandatory data retention law, but if an ISP or VPN provider does retain any data relating to its customers (i.e. it keeps logs), then according to the Stored Communications Act it is required to hand these over on receipt of a court order from a law enforcement agency. In addition to this, if investigators or prosecutors are able to identify an individual, they can require a VPN company to keep records of that individual’s on-line activity, and credit card payments etc. for a limited amount of time (90 days, renewable for another 90 days), and if a National Security (‘Pen’) Letter is issued under the Patriot Act, the provider can be ‘gagged’ i.e. prevented from informing its customers that they are being watched. Furthermore, given the NSA’s concerted attempts to undermine the internet’s encryption standards, to co-opt or otherwise access all users’ data from the big tech giants, and given its powers to strong-arm US companies into giving up their customers’ data (highlighted by security firm Lavabit’s refusal to conform to such tactics), it seems unlikely in the extreme to us that the NSA has not bothered to infiltrate/co-opt/strong-arm VPN companies whose very purpose it is to provide privacy to their users. Hell, they even tried spying on World of Warcraft and Angry Birds users, so what chance does a VPN provider have? It should also be noted that because the Patriot Act requires compliance from US companies even when the data is stored outside the US, simply using US company’s overseas servers provides zero protection from US law enforcement and intelligence service spying. When it comes to copyright enforcement the situation is (with a couple of notable exceptions) little better, as most US VPN providers strictly prohibit P2P downloading, and cooperate fully with the entertainment industry in enforcing DMCA notices, or even handing over customers details. They do this for a number of reasons, By co-operating with the authorities and with legal requests they avoid lengthy and expensive legal wrangling, and by identifying individual offenders they move the responsibility away from themselves onto the offender Higher tier internet providers unhappy with accusations of copyright infringement and other illegal activity can cut off (or threaten to cut off) a VPN provider’s internet access To protect themselves from retroactive changes to the law. Just because a provider is acting within the law as it stands, does not guarantee it will not face prosecution. A good example of this LimeWire, who were successfully sued for ‘inducing infringement’, even though no such crime existed at the time of the ‘offence’ taking place Notable exceptions to this rule are Private Internet Access and LiquidVPN (and possibly TorGuard), who make full use the fact that they are not required to keep logs to fend off DMCA notices and protect users’ right to use the internet as they wish. If NSA spying is not a worry then these are excellent providers, but if privacy really matters then we recommend choosing a non-US provider (and using servers located outside the US). Choosing a non-US provider If privacy and freedom from NSA snooping concern you, then we feel that a non-US provider is the way to go, either based somewhere with strong data protection laws, such as in Europe (especially now that the Data Retention Directive has been struck down) or, conversely, where there are few laws governing the internet, and the NSA’s reach is limited (for example Hong Kong). There is of course an argument that no matter how weak and abused those protections may be, US customers of US companies have at least some legal rights, which they don’t if using overseas services. It is also true that if the NSA is really interested in an individual, then no VPN service anywhere is likely to help much (although we have no idea what pressure, if any, the NSA can exert on, for example, Hong Kong providers). On balance however, given both the scope of the NSA’s powers, and the abundant evidence that it uses and abuses these to spy on absolutely everyone, and to undermine every aspect of internet security it can, we think that avoiding US companies is the safest bet for evading blanket surveillance. Most popular locations for overseas VPN providers to base themselves also have considerably less draconian attitudes to copyright infringement than the US, and it is common to see providers ban P2P on US servers, as allowing such brings them into unwanted conflict with US copyright enforcement laws and bodies.