No one can deny the hike in global internet surveillance. This growth has come along with issues on digital privacy concerns.
If you are among those concerned about online privacy, you may have come across different surveillance alliances. But what are they, and what exactly do they do?
The surveillance alliances’ information revolves around Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes. These alliances are meant to gather data and share it among themselves. This brings up the question of could this pose a risk to one’s privacy and expose them to prying eyes?
This guide will debunk common myths about Five Eyes and whether it’s advisable to use a VPN in a 5 Eyes country.
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Is using a VPN in a Five Eyes country bad?
Before we answer this question, we need to understand the Five Eyes, a.k.a (FVEY). 5 Eyes is international surveillance comprising Canada, the U.K., the U.S, New Zealand, and Australia. These share agreements in signal intelligence. They work closely with internet providers to obtain key data for national security.
And since this is a solid agreement, we don’t know exactly how far the surveillance could dig into our privacy. Amusingly, you may find yourself in a criminal history based on the government target. Unfortunately, the information obtained can be shared between the five countries based on the intelligence-sharing agreements.
This means that if you use a provider from the Five Eyes, it will suffice to use one that doesn’t keep logs. But if you really need confidentiality, there a quite a good number of trustworthy VPNs for use in Canada that can offer top-notch security. This doesn’t mean that Five Eyes is bad; you only need to understand the sweeping powers and their impact on your VPN service.
Five Eyes intelligence oversight and review council continue to review and oversee the operations.
But if privacy is an issue, how can one minimize the exposure?
How to protect yourself from privacy violations
In some cases, you may find out your privacy has been violated when it’s too late. But being scared about your security could mean so much, including having something fishy to conceal. However, when all is said and done, if you want to protect your privacy, you can choose among the most reliable VPNs in Canada. They include ExpressVPN, NordVPN, ProtonVPN, CyberGhost, or Surfshark.
When selecting a VPN, conduct thorough research; some have mouth-watering claims but have less to deliver.
While the safety of using VPNs in a Five Eyes country may raise questions, there are still some misconceptions about their use. Let’s debunk some of them.
Common Five Eyes VPN myths debunked
The VPN in a Five Eyes surveillance country gets so much unnecessary criticism. The fact that countries share intelligence data to protect national security doesn’t mean they are less secure. Some claim this but have no factual evidence for proof. Below are some of the asserted claims you may need to know.
1. The Five Eyes Alliance is meant to grind down privacy
If you are a good reader, you must be keen on how the “Eyes” has enormously worked their way out to control national security, which all narrows down to individual countries in the surveillance agreement. And the need shockingly continues to grow. For instance, the Five Eyes is primarily concerned with ocean surveillance, drug or human trafficking, etc. I don’t think it would be a great concern to individual online freedom and issues such as to do with geo-restrictions.
2. The Five Eyes VPN offers less data protection
Belonging to a Five Eyes surveillance doesn’t make your data less safe. There is so much more to do with internal values and policies. And in fact, they don’t collect any user data they come across. Meaning if approached to provide any data by an institution, they cannot provide what they don’t have; they protect their users ‘data.
It’s all about no-log policies. But there is no place one can get 100% security. Even some VPN users with no-log policies have been known to ditch out the information authorities need.
If you have to use a VPN in 5 Eyes surveillance, make sure to use a dependable VPN service. You can consider one that has end-to-end encryption. But this doesn’t mean that the activities in those regions off 5 Eyes are not monitored.
The bottom line
It all depends on the security you need over the internet.
Again, privacy is a right for everyone. This is one of the values the VPNs outside of the surveillance alliance attest to. While the Five Eyes is so much into encryption backdoors, which is good to run the normal services, it’s still something to watch out for.
As online literacy increases, the government has to up its game. And if all goes weird and one’s information is subject to the intrusive laws, it means that unwarranted search would begin, and this would result in a compromise on one’s privacy. To stay safe, you should gather information on the use of surveillance alliances.
