There aren’t that many things that are as frustrating as a feeling of being watched. That’s something that we all share, and it’s something that most of us are currently suffering from. It’s not a new issue in the online community, but in the last couple of years, multiple governments of the world have decided that they should get a better look at what their citizens are up to during their browsing sessions. If we take Australia as an example, after a short look at their policies, we would see that they’ve changed a lot in the last few years. The citizens themselves didn’t appreciate it much, so they soon started to search for the best VPN for Australia.
And no, we’re not talking about countries like North Korea, China, or UAE.
Those are countries very well-known for their strict policies and insane amounts of surveillance. No, we’re talking about countries like the US, the UK, Italy, France, and Australia.
Australia, in particular, has gotten our interest, and that’s what we’ve decided to discuss today.
Australia’s Data Retention Legislation
The Australian government has been showing an interest in enhancing their surveillance reach for years now.
Back in 2015, they’ve come up with a data retention program, and for 18 months, the government has been working on preparing everything for the new cyber law.
Many were opposed to it, which isn’t surprising, considering what the government decided to do, but they didn’t pay much mind to those voices and ended up bringing in the new rules anyway.
Finally, in 2017, everything was finished, and the new law now works in full effect.
This new law requires all of the Australian ISPs to collect pretty much anything and everything that they can get their hands on when it comes to their users’ information.
Doesn’t matter if it’s personal info, public info, or secret info, everything is being collected and stored for future analysis. The information in question includes:
- Names
- Addresses
- IP addresses
- Birthdays
- History of phone calls
- Bills
- Entire volumes when it comes to download
- Upload history
They want everything, and they’re not afraid to ask for it.
The ISPs and telecoms can’t afford to disobey these orders since the penalty for failing to deliver the requested info are $2 million.
And that info won’t exactly remain private, and just be available to certain researchers, but instead, 21 of the Australian government agencies will have access to it at all times. This is a huge privacy breach in Australia, and the people are not impressed.
When we combine this with the great amounts of censorship that were already making problems for Australian citizens and limiting their reach. Also with the fact that many services don’t offer access to Australia on their own, it’s easy to see why this country is an ideal place for VPN providers.
After all, the situation is getting worse and worse, and the people simply have no other choice than to turn to tools that will grant them access to the rest of the world.
What Tools Can Be Used For Bypassing Geo-Restrictions
First of all, for those who might not know this, geo-restrictions are special restrictions that can only allow access to certain content to those who live in certain regions.
Many of the streaming services are only available within the borders of the US, and everyone else keeps getting the notification that this service isn’t available in their country.
So, in order to gain access, the internet has delivered a way of accessing this content. Which is VPNs
So let’s see what can they offer, and what’s your best option when it comes to using them.
Virtual Private Network
Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are just as the name suggests – private networks that operate on their own servers. They can be used for accessing pretty much anything online, which is the feature that they share with proxies.
They can also encrypt your content and prevent anyone from seeing what you’re doing online, which is something that they share with Tor browser. The best of all, they don’t influence your speed that much, and not even ISPs can break through their encryption, which makes VPNs the best option for you to use.
VPNs provide you with more than just encryption and access, however. They offer different features that can be useful when it comes to safety online, they protect you from malware, hackers, and they even repel ads.
They cover your entire connection at once, which is different than what proxies can do. They only cover a single app or program at one time, while Tor browser only covers itself.
VPNs can be used for torrenting, they can be used on multiple devices at the same time, and they also have things like kill switches, which can instantly cut your connection if there’s a danger of data leaking through.
Which VPN To Choose
VPNs have been around for a while, and they were used by hackers, as well as all the others who were afraid of their privacy being breached.
However, in the last several years, many more restrictions have appeared, not to mention all the laws that the governments are coming up with.
Laws just like the one in Australia, that allows governments to spy on their people. The problem is that people like their privacy and they don’t appreciate governmentâs meddling in their private stuff.
So, the need for a solution increased, a lot, and VPNs were discovered to be a pretty good one. That made a bunch of other providers appear, and now we have hundreds, if not thousands of different ones, all waiting to be used, and promising the best experience.
So which one to choose? To be able to answer this, we’ve done our own research, and came up with a list of five different providers that can deliver what they’re promising.
These five were also chosen because they’re promising a lot, and they include:
- ExpressVPN
- IPVanish
- HideMyAss
- NordVPN
- LeVPN
Now, let’s see what each of them can offer.
ExpressVPN
When it comes to the Australian market, ExpressVPN is an industry leader, especially this year. It provides its users with servers in 94 countries, with Australia being one of them. That makes for a huge, and a pretty reliable network.
It also makes ExpressVPN perfect for tasks like accessing geo-restricted content, and when we combine that with its awesome speeds, we can see why it’s one of the best services for streaming. It has a great privacy policy, and it’s highly secure. It keeps no logs when it comes to your actions, it only notes the
It keeps no logs when it comes to your actions, it only notes the behavior of the network during your use of it.
Other features include protection against DNS leaks, several encryption protocols, a kill switch, and also one of the best customer support teams that you can find. Its software is easy to use, and the subscription isn’t that expensive either, since you can have access to this VPN for the entire month, and all you have to pay is $8.32 on a monthly basis.
Its software is easy to use, and the subscription isn’t that expensive either, since you can have access to this VPN for the entire month, and all you have to pay is $8.32 on a monthly basis. Definitely, a VPN that should be given a shot.
30-Days Money Back Guarantee
IPVanish
Our second choice for the best Australia VPN is IPVanish, which is a very trusted and reliable VPN. It’s also one of the fastest ones that you’ll ever find, due to the fact that it owns the network that it uses. IPVanish offers over 180 servers in more than 60 countries, it keeps no logs and has an extremely strong encryption.
When it comes to features, it pretty much has everything that you might want, and a lot of them are just as good as the ones that ExpressVPN is offering.
Plenty of servers can be accessed, in many different countries, speeds are amazing, encryption too, and the customer support leaves nothing to be desired.
You can pay for it in several different ways, including Bitcoin. All in all, it’s a great choice for Australia.
HideMyAss
Next is HideMyAss, which has more than 800 servers in over 181 countries, making it the VPN with one of the biggest networks on the market.
It uses many different protocols, and it’s compatible with many different platforms, which makes it perfect for any device. Apart from that, it’s very cheap, has a 30-day money back guarantee, and it keeps no logs.
Encryptions are great, speeds are decent, and it also offers many different features, and definitely all that you might need when it comes to surfing the web anonymously.
Its customer service is also very good, and you can contact them at any time via live chat, email, and even by a phone call.
Any and every problem that you might have, this team will take care of, you just need to report it.
30-Days Money Back Guarantee
NordVPN
Our fourth entry is NordVPN, which is a great choice for those who like having a lot of security features. This provider keeps no logs, and which means that your privacy is guaranteed.
It might not be as fast as the rest on this list, but it’s still more than decent when it comes to speed. It also has a unique feature called double encryption, which means that all of your data gets to be encrypted twice.
Other than that, it has shared IPs, protection from DNS leaks, kill switch, uses several protocols, and supports torrenting.
It’s getting better and better each year, especially for Australia, which is one of the countries in desperate need for good VPNs.
NordVPN offers tons of servers in many different countries, which means that you can’t go wrong if you decide to give it a chance.
LeVPN
Finally, we come to the last entry on our list Le VPN, which is only here because someone has to be the last. This VPN deserves its place on the list as well as the rest of them, and it’s one of the most trustworthy ones out there.
It was created by a team of security specialists, which says enough when it comes to the quality of its protection. It has thousands of clients that use it on daily basis, and all of them agree that it has great prices and even better features.
Of course, its customer support is admirable as well.
It supports torrenting, has amazing encryptions, offers servers in 114 different countries, and it keeps no logs. The software that it uses is very good, simple to use, and well organized.
It’s available on multiple platforms and devices, and it even has a unique service called HybridVPN, which is a combination of a VPN and a Smart DNS. It uses multiple protocols, offers unlimited bandwidth, a kill switch, great speeds, and the ability to use two different devices at the same time.
Plus, there’s a money back policy, which means that you can check this one out as well before your final decision. We could keep listing its features, but it’s clear that it has many of them, and you won’t regret choosing it.
How To Install VPNs
Installing VPNs is also a very simple process, and the most difficult part will be deciding which one to use. If you manage to make your choice, you’re already halfway there.
The next step is going to the VPNs website and creating an account. You then download and install its software, launch it, and log into it via your credentials.
Then you just choose a server, and that’s it, you’re done. You can now access pretty much anything you want.
Conclusion
Having a government that wants to know everything about their citizens can be annoying, and can even lead to a lot of privacy breaches. This isn’t something that anyone should tolerate, and that’s exactly why people choose to turn to services like VPNs.
We understand that, and we hope that this guide was helpful enough when it comes to understanding the complicated situation in Australia, as well as how VPNs work, what they do, and how to use them.
Our recommendations should satisfy your every need, but you’re always free to explore on your own if you think that you can find a better one. In the end, that’s entirely your choice.
One comment
Tor Guard
June 4, 2017 at 2:33 am
I also highly recommend ExpressVPN and Hidester VPN They provide quality VPN connections from all over reliably without issue.