A recent survey of over a thousand people indicates that the biggest influence on new VPN sign-ups has been the PRISM scandal and Edward Snowden’s revelations about the scope of NSA spying. Participants in the survey were asked if recent legislation or other political elements influenced them to sign up for a Virtual Private network service.

The options for these privacy-affecting political items could not be comprehensive by the survey’s nature, but still, the results were intriguing. PRISM and the National Security Agency were by far the biggest influence, with 28.08% of voters indicating that it contributed to or directly caused their signing up for a VPN service. No other piece of legislation even broke twelve percent of voters, with the United States Patriot Act and the EU Data Retention Directive a distant second and third place at, respectively, 11.28% and 9.57%.

This suggestion is supported by a massive increase in subscriptions, page views, and unique visitors to VPN sites in the two months—June and July of 2013—after the PRISM news broke on June 6th. In comparison to April and May, VPN signups increased by more than 50%. The count of unique visitors went up by more than 15 percent, and page views increased by nearly 30 percent.

The survey’s full results went as follows:

Which of these most influenced your decision to sign up for a VPN service?

·      PRISM revelations: 28.06%

·      The EU Data Retention Directive: 9.57%

·      The CCDP (‘Snooper’s Charter): 2.37%

·      SOPA: 8.44%

·      ACTA: 2.84%

·      TPP: 2.37%

·      The Patriot Act: 11.28%

·      CISPA: 8.34%

·      Other: 6.26%

·      None: 20.47%

The second most influential piece of legislation on VPN signups was the United States Patriot Act at 11.3%. This controversial act has recently been in the news again, due to some people alleging that it allowed PRISM’s operation without openly breaking any United States laws.

After the Patriot Act was the European Union’s Data Retention Directive, with just under ten percent of the vote. The EU Data Retention Directive was legalized in 2006, and it requires all European Internet Service Providers to store their user’s data, including web logs, for the user’s entire subscription and up to two years after they stop subscribing.

After the Data Retention Directive came SOPA, the United States bill that became an Internet flashpoint. Given the sheer quantity of fury that surrounded SOPA before it was defeated, it seems strange that it only received 8.4% of the vote! The similar CISPA (which is now shelved) followed SOPA in votes.

Quite a lot of people voted for “none of the above” (20 percent) or “other” (6 percent). This suggests that a lot of people were effected by various issues that were not included by our survey. These options allowed surveyed individuals to submit their personal reasons for signing up; the results from this were quite mixed.

Many people mentioned DMCA notices; others brought up access to secure WiFi hotspots. Also prominent were pieces of legislation from countries that were not mentioned, such as Norway, Brazil, and even Russia; this does expose an element of United States/United Kingdom centric nature to the survey.

Using a VPN to avoid PRISM’s watchful eye won’t do as much as you may think, technically; using a VPN, or even the TOR browser, will not stop the NSA from reading your email or your web history. On the other hand, the coverage PRISM has received has brought the thought of online surveillance very much into the public eye—more so than previous scandals and controversies have. It’s not surprising that PRISM and the NSA have increased VPN usage as much as they have, but it does still indicate that savvy internet users are taking their online privacy more seriously than ever before.

If a you need to protect your online browsing and privacy, try a top rated vpn service.

I really like my new job so far. I have been there a little over a month and am finally getting into the swing of things as far as what is expected of me. I don’t want to say who I work for or exactly what I’m doing there but I will say I am in sales. My position also required a lot of travel which is different for me. I am not used to ‘living out of a suitcase’ but I will get used to it. An average week will see me away from home 3 to 4 days depending on what is going on. The only thing I am not too fond of is all the miles I’m going to put on my car. I will just use it as motivation to do well so I can afford another one with lower miles. I still have a lot of life left in my current car so it isn’t a big deal.

One thing I am still getting used to is using the WiFi at the various hotels I stay at. I have used it before of course but not to the extent that I am now. I quickly realized that not all of the hotels have a real secure connection which made me start looking for something that could help me with that. I found the best VPN for China and I got signed up with them. Now I don’t have to worry about anything when I am using the WiFi.

I have my friend Nick to thank for getting me this job. We were both out of work (he unfortunately still is) and would tell each other of any good jobs we saw during our searches. He is the one that told me about this position and I’m really glad he told me. He isn’t the salesman type so he had no interest in pursuing it. I keep checking my old sites from time to time when I’m home and have sent him a couple jobs to check out. None of them have worked out for him but I’m going to keep trying. I knew how long it took me to find one and even then it was somebody else that found it for me. The problem is there are so many people out of work that they get so much interest they can choose the cream of the crop to work for them.

I am going away this weekend with my girlfriend Julie and am really looking forward to it. Her family owns a cabin that is about two hours away that we are going to. I have never been there before but from what she tells me it is very nice. It is fully furnished and has heat and plumbing and everything else that you could ask for. I think the thing I am most looking forward to is there is no internet access up there. She told me that even our cell phones won’t work which is nice but kind of scary too in case there was an emergency. I think that is the only drawback of the whole thing but I’m not going to worry about it. I’m sure we will be fine but I would only be worried if something were to happen to my parents. I told them worst case they can call her parents and they can come get us.

As far as what we are going to do there it will involve a lot of rest and relaxation. I am taking a book that I will probably read from start to finish. There is a grill there that I plan on using a lot too. She told me in the little town near the cabin there is a butcher shop that sells really good meat so we will be stopping there for sure.

I’m just ready to get away mainly because of my job. It has been super stressful lately and it is starting to wear me down. I really hope things turn around soon because if not I might have to start looking for something else. I’m tired of working 60-70 hours each week. I am a salaried employee so I’m not making anything extra for that time either. I think that is so stupid but I knew that when I accepted the job. The thing is I was told that there would only be some days where I had to stay late. I know complaining about my job isn’t what you probably want to hear so I’ll stop.

Anyways I am going to take our camera too and will get plenty of pictures. I’ll make another post when we get back and post some but don’t hold me to when that will be exactly. I know it won’t be Sunday night and then with how work is going it might have to wait until the following weekend.