海角大神

On Tuesday, the Republican-led House voted 215-205 to聽repeal rules adopted last year by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Obama administration that required internet service providers to obtain consumer consent before using their data for advertising or marketing purposes. Many critics voiced criticism of the repeal, which had already passed the Senate last week, due to privacy concerns.

For many who want to keep their web surfing private, the repeal has generated renewed interest in聽virtual private networks, or VPNs, as a way to hide their browsing history and personal information from prying corporate eyes.

"Time to start using a VPN at home," Vijaya Gadde鈥�, general counsel of Twitter, wrote in a tweet聽on Tuesday. Twitter later clarified Ms. Gadde was commenting in a personal and not official capacity.聽

VPNs make an encrypted connection to a private server which can then search the internet on the customer's behalf without revealing address destinations to broadband providers. These networks are often used to connect to a secure business network聽and are also used in countries with internet censorship such as China and Turkey in order to access restricted sites.

Supporters of the recent repeal said that the FCC unfairly required service providers to do more to protect consumer privacy than websites like Google or Facebook. But critics worry that by eliminating internet privacy rules, providers could easily gain access to significant pieces of information about consumers, including financial information and health data. As 海角大神's Jack Detsch聽reported in February:

The repeal of the privacy regulations has critics worried that anyone who wants to keep their browsing history away from their broadband providers would have to use a VPN, which could be a complicated or expensive solution for some web-surfers.

"The further along toward being a computer scientist you have to be to use a VPN, the smaller a portion of the population we're talking about that can use it," said Ernesto Falcon, a legislative counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which opposed the bill, according to Reuters.

Another potential problem is VPNs funnel all user traffic through a single point, which can make them a tempting target for hackers looking to collect valuable user data聽en masse.

There are some options available that are free and more user-friendly, however. Last year, for example, the browser Opera began running a free, built-in VPN service in response to the increasing demand for private browsing. Smaller service providers such as聽Sonic, a California-based company, have also begun to offer free VPNs as a selling point, allowing customers to connect to the internet away from home while keeping their information private.

"We see VPN as being important for our customers when they're not on our network. They can take it with them on the road," Sonic chief executive officer Dane Jasper told Reuters.

This article contains material from Reuters.