PHP vs Python : Which one is the Best Server-Side Programming?

PHP vs Python, the two most popular back-end programming languages. Python has the variety of dynamic features with simple script whereas PHP is specifically used for server-side by most of the developers.

But, What is the best choice? Are both good at server-side programming? A lot of doubts hit your brain when you try to learn the server-side programming. I wish this article will clear the indecision.

PHP vs Python – Which one to choose?

Python and PHP are two modern high-level languages, which are favorites among many developers. While comparing both the languages we need to consider its origin, the purpose of their existence, features, functionalities and so forth.

PHP vs Python: Origins and purpose of their existence

Python is older than PHP. It was created five years before the existence of Preprocessor-Hypertext. The language is created and developed by Guido Van Rossum in 1989. From the year 2000, its popularity among the developers rapidly grown due to its Unicode support. Moreover, Python is not only created for the web development, but it will support full-stack development. That is the reason, it is not widely used in web development.

Coming to the PHP, it was created in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf, he developed the wide variety of components and extensions. This programming language is solely and extensively used in web development.Almost every modern website is developed using PHP.

Better to note that, both are open-source and fastest growing programming languages. The number of communities around the world is actively participated in developing Python and PHP with new features and functionalities.Due to the active development, both languages are fresh and popular.

Now, let’s look at the similarities and differences of both programming languages based on their functionalities, features and so on.

Similarities between Python and PHP

Being the rivalries in the battlefield of programming, both have few common properties.The following are the similarities between Python and PHP.

• Both are open – source and developed constantly by different communities around the world.
• Simplicity and readability are the most common among them.
• Python and PHP are known as Scripting programming languages.
• Documentation for both languages is clearly defined.
• The wide variety of frameworks and extensions are developed for Python and PHP.
• Supports almost all IDEs among every operating system.
• Both are rich in versatility and also portable.

Differences between Python and PHP

The battle shapes here among both languages.A quick look at its differences displayed below.

• Python is aspect-oriented (the function modules are separated and integrated as per the application), whereas PHP is object-oriented (whole code is encompassed while developing itself).
• PHP is tightly coded, Python is flexible.
• Python supports full-stack development, PHP is widely used among back-end of websites.
• PHP syntax is similar to C-language, where different symbols used to integrate the code, while Python is integrated using spaces and tabs rather than symbols.
• Python exposed and associated to almost all technologies, whereas PHP is still used in web development.
• Additional software security tools required for PHP to develop an application, but Python language itself consider as safest.
• Additional packages are loaded into python development environment, while PHP automatically loads as per requirement.

So, which is best to choose for server-side programming?

After analyzing the similarities and differences among both languages gives you a conclusion that, each one is best at its own purpose. Python is developed for technologies and it supports every technology from basic application to Artificial Intelligence. Considering the PHP, it is solely developed for server-side Scripting, Web development and it is top in that chair. So, every language has its unique and wide variety of features and functionalities.

Therefore, PHP vs Python was not a big rivalry as everyone focused. Finally, whatever the language you are familiar with is the choice you should consider while diving into server-side programming. Any queries will be happily accepted in the comment box below.

Watching Porn in Incognito Mode is Not as Private as You Think

Watching Adult Films in Incognito mode is not private

Surfing porn in any browser’s Incognito Mode doesn’t make your habits private. It is a fact that Incognito mode doesn’t save history but that’s about the only protection it grants you. 99 out of 100 Google Chrome users think surfing porn in Incognito users is safe! Admit it; you use your browser’s Incognito window to surf porn yourself!!! Don’t you?

Why surfing in Incognito is not private?

Opening a private or incognito window in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer only ensures that your computer does not remember your online activity. As said, any web browser will make sure that your web searches and online history are not visible the next time you log in and it destroy all the cookies from that session. That is really all that it does.

However that doesn’t mean that Incognito surfing is private or anonymous. As your Incognito browsing history is stored by your ISP, your company or institution and eventually the browser company. Your internet service provider (ISP) is able to monitor every webpage and web search you made from your house whether in normal or incognito window.

Try opening your bank account or email webpage in Incognito mode. You will find that the data like your user name and password are filled up despite the Incognito mode not saving your data. It is a fact that most browsers pull data from local memory to fill such details in both normal as well as Incognito mode.
Google has been very up-front about its privacy policy for surfing in Chrome browser Incognito mode.

“Going incognito doesn’t hide your browsing from your employer, your ISP or the websites that you visit or the browser you use.”

Actually signing into your Gmail account in Incognito mode makes Google’s job of tracking your porn surfing habits that much more easier. If you haven’t disabled or paused your account’s Google Web History you are able to log-in and track your porn surfing activity there, too.

What about other browsers? Most browsers do the same thing what Google does. Like Google, Mozilla Firefox uses an almost-identical disclaimer on its private browsing mode. But again, “while this computer won’t have a record of your browsing history, your employer or ISP can still track the pages you visit.”

Super Cookies

Many adult content websites use something called Super Cookies which are able to track your movements across the web even when you are browsing in private mode. Super Cookies are like the regular, lightweight software and sit on a website and fingerprint users who visit the page. When you return to that particular page again at a later date, the website is able to track the entirety of the user’s activity between the two visits.

Considering the above facts, it is clearly unwise to think that your Incognito mode porn surfing habits are either private or anonymous or safe from outer revelation. If you really want to be anonymous, use VPN and don’t be under the impression that your Incognito browsing records are private and your surfing data is protected over incognito session.

Why using a VPN is important while traveling

Virtual Private Network (VPN) is the most common private network used by netizens. Day-to-Day with the rise of various public networks, Privacy has become important – as well as security is needed. In such scenario, VPN’s are very handy for the people to have both privacy and Security. And there came hundreds of VPN enable tools – which are easy however brisk to setup and use.

Today, most of the experts and netizens are suggesting to use the VPN while leaving out of the home or traveling. With the cheap rates of the internet, everyone is provided with internet and scores of wi-fi public networks are scattered on streets, airports, stations and so forth.

If you connect to any one of those, then there is no guarantee for your data and privacy. Many of those who already accessing via same connection might snoop your transferring of data. This might lead to stealing of your sensitive data.

So, there are some of the advantages using VPNs which will guarantee your security and privacy.

Secure Banking by VPN

With the VPN, the banking services would be secure and safe.The transaction between your bank server and website will be in VPN, which is bound to you and bank.No third-party involvement or snooping occurs.This all due to encryption created by Virtual Private Network for the transaction of data.

Streams other region shows

Yes, streaming other region shows is possible.If you are in A-region and no other region Shows stream at your region, then VPN will help you to stream other B-region shows.The concept is it creates a virtual local-based VPN and uses that local identity as your browsing identity.

Unblock sites

Some countries have re strictions on few websites, which are blocked from that region. Due to that many of the people don’t able to access such websites. If you concerned about such thing, then there a way to unblock it. Yes! Your thinking right, Virtual Private Network – it will help you to unblock the restricted sites.

Some people prefer to use Proxies. 

Work Safely

Most of the people like to work while traveling, in the metro cities it will be heavy due to traffic.So, to able to work at outside, you need to be safe from snooping of your data.To this, VPN will be the better option in avoiding public networks and work safely.

Coming to an end, VPNs are the safest network to use and it helps most of the people to avoid snooping.Not only privacy and security – It also has advantages of using restricted websites and streaming locally based shows.Set a VPN and be safe

3 Interesting Insights Into Mobile Gaming

A decade ago, the mobile gaming industry has looked completely different. While there were a few dedicated titles that were hugely popular among players – think Snake and Tetris, two games played by millions on camera phones – the mobile gaming market was virtually non-existent. Then the iPhone arrived and was followed by Android and its massive success, which turned mobile games into the dominant game type on a global scale – when it comes to revenues, that is. Today, more people play top quality mobile gaming on the Royal Vegas casino app than ever, and the popularity of mobile games is expected to continue to grow in the coming years.

Game genres

Mobile gaming is a serious force to reckon with on the global gaming market – but not all games are created equal. Some genres are more popular than others, and some have more dedicated players. According to a report released last December by Verto Analytics, puzzle games had the largest player base in 2016, with more than 65 million monthly active users. Alternate reality (AR) games were the third most popular category, thanks mainly to the insane success of Pokémon GO. Action/Strategy games were the fourth, and casino slots were fifth.

Slots are very popular among players in North America, Australia, and some other countries, but in Europe, they are overshadowed by real money gaming venues. Here, players can freely visit the Royal Vegas and play any of its games either for real money or free. In countries where gaming venues like the Royal Vegas are not available, social slots are the best alternative.

Game players

If we were to create the portrait of the average mobile player based on statistics, the result would be a middle-aged female smartphone owner spending the evening playing puzzle games. Puzzles are predominantly played by women aged 25 to 54, and especially in the evening. AR games, the third most played game genre in 2016, were mostly played by younger males – in the 18 to 24 demographic – and their usage decreases as the players’ ages grow.

Game revenues

According to game analytics company Newzoo, mobile games were responsible for the largest share of revenue on the global market, with 32% of the total of the estimated $108.9 billion for this year. Thus, it has outperformed console games (31%) and PC games (23%). According to the estimates of the analytics company, the gaming industry will continue to grow in the coming years, reaching a total value of over $128 billion by 2020, and mobile games will continue to increase its advance over the rest of the platforms, grabbing around 40%, or 50% if we count tablet games, too.

How To Make a Keylogger Using Notepad?

Keylogger is a simple surveillance tool which records all the keystrokes typed by a user.

A Keylogger can be quite dangerous as it can record all the keystrokes and track the activities of the individuals and get the open websites recorded. So, what happens is, your account would get easily hacked and accessed by hackers.

Here I am going to share some methods for notepad Keylogger which are just for the educational purpose not to be used in any terms of professional or basic hacking. Do not use these methods to make a Keylogger in notepad to harm anyone.

Make a Keylogger Using Notepad

Step 1: Firstly open the notepad in your Windows OS.

Step 2: Once the notepad opens, you need to copy and paste the below-given codes into it to make a keylogger in notepad. Make sure that there are no empty or extra spaces between the characters and sentences:

@echo off
color a
title Login
cls
echo Please Enter Your Email Address And Password
echo.
echo.
cd “C:Logs”
set /p user=Username:
set /p pass=Password:
echo Username=”%user%” Password=”%pass%” >> Log.txt
start >>Program Here<<
exit

Step 3: Once you have written the code, then you would need to save the given notepad file as logs.bat in the given desktop.

Step 4: After that, you would need to create a new folder called logs. Here one thing that you need to keep in mind is that the keylogger would only work if the folder has the name ‘logs’. It is important to make a keylogger in notepad.

Step 5: Then you would need to cut this folder and get it pasted into the C drive.

Step 6: Now what you need to do is test the file Log.bat and you would need to enter the username as well as the password. After that, you have to open the folder stored on the C drive and check whether all the given saved key logs are present as a normal text. This is created automatically. It is the important steps in notepad keylogger method.

Step 7: If it is done, then you have successfully developed the notepad keylogger to make a keylogger in notepad.

Frankly, with the above step, you can easily record all the various keystrokes of the keyboard which have been entered or used in the batch file. Plus you can even surprise your friends by telling them that their username and password is present in the notepad. We hope you understand the method on how to make a keylogger notepad given above. You can easily use this notepad keylogger if you follow every step from above.

Google’s AI Now Creates Code Better Than its Creators

AI or Artificial Intelligence is the hottest topic in the recent tech market. AI basically is a system or software which has zero intelligence at the start and keeps on learning with time itself by experience; these are made by ML (Machine Learning) scientists using a combination of DL and ML. Power of ML was redefined when Google told about their most recent project using ML namely AutoML.

In May 2017, the Tech giant Google unveiled its project AutoML: an artificial intelligence (AI) designed to create other AI even more powerful. Now the tech giant Google has announced that AutoML has once again pushed Machine Learning’s (Machine Learning) capabilities to its limit: researchers have developed learning software that is able to create its own learning software basically a digital ML scientist, which would be even more powerful than the best ML systems designed by the researchers.

Today, machines are able to teach machines. Recently, a system AutoML broke a record to categorize images by their content (marking a positive score to 82%). Although a relatively straightforward task, AutoML has also defeated a Man-made system to a more complex task as an integral part of autonomous robots and augmented reality: marking the location of multiple objects in a single image. For this task, AutoML scored 43%, compared to 39% for humans. These results are significant, as even at Google, few people have the expertise to design new-generation AI systems.

A rare set of skills is needed to automate this area, but once this is the case, the entire industry will change. “

Today, these machines are handcrafted by machine learning scientists and literally only a few thousand scientists around the world have the skills to do so,”

said the tech giant Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai. Also, he added.

“We want to enable hundreds of thousands of developers to be able to do that,”

AutoML designs a base model and analyzes the results and performance of the model. This allows it to make corrections on this basic model and improve it. This operation is repeated several thousand times and each new prototype is more efficient than the previous one. As a result, new prototypes are becoming more intelligent and almost self-contained. Such technological prowess marks the real beginning of a new mode of operation, which will help advance research in the field of artificial intelligence.

Much of this work involves imitating human neural networks and trying to feed them with more and more data. This is a machine-friendly job once they have been trained to do it.
The most difficult part is that of imitating the structure of the human brain at first (and at appropriate scales) to solve more complex problems. It is even easier to adjust an existing system to meet new needs than to design a whole new network of neurons out of thin air.

However, this research seems to suggest that this may well change in the future: as it becomes easier for existing RNs to design new and more complex systems, it will be important for humans to play a role in the future as “Guardian”.

Indeed, AI systems can easily create accidentally biased connections, such as associating ethnic and gender identities, with negative stereotypes. If engineers spend less time creating these systems, they will have more time for monitoring and refine them.

Although this is still a research project, Google wants to perfect AutoML until it works well enough for programmers to use it for practical applications. If they succeed, AutoML will be very likely to have a great impact well beyond the walls of Google. In addition, Pichai said the company wanted to “democratize this,” explaining that Google wanted to make AutoML available outside their walls.

Picture-in-Picture (PiP) – A new feature in latest Operating Systems

Picture-in-Picture is the new trending functionality cramming into every device. Started with iOS, now PiP getting into Android and Windows. So, What exactly PiP? How come users benefit with this feature? And Which apps support Picture-in-Picture?

Recently, Android Oreo announced that it is rolling into an inbuilt feature called Picture-in-Picture. And all eyes fell on this short three letter word PiP. Hereafter, every Operating System maker is attracted to this functionality and started including in the latest upgrade.

What is Picture-in-Picture (PiP)?

Picture-in-Picture is a functionality that enables the video to play along with other currently running applications. The video will be played in a small rectangular media player and the user can work on other application simultaneously. Therefore, it emphasis the multitasking functionality of the device.

How can this feature be activated?

There are no special tweaks in the setting of the device to activate this functionality.Whenever the video is playing, you can come to see a small icon with a rectangle inside another rectangle.All you have to do is click on the icon and the player gets compressed to a small rectangle. Finally, the video plays as it played before along with another application running background.

Is the feature advantageous to the users?

Yes, it is! The feature really helps the users in many ways.Such as,

• It gives the ability to multitask – by running parallel apps simultaneously.
• The video will not stop playing when you switch to other apps.
• While video chatting, you can switch to any third-party app to check the information without closing video conversation.

Which operating system is supporting PiP?

In 2015, iOS 9 has started supporting PiP in its iPad device.Recently, Android Oreo(i.e., Android 8) also announced the inclusion of in-built Picture-in-Picture support.Moreover, Windows 10 new creators upgrade also bringing in the name of Compact Overlay.Almost all tech giant is supporting PiP, and it is going to be the hot feature in coming days.

Which apps use the PiP?

Not all operating system supports Picture-in-Picture in-built feature, the third-party apps need to use this feature.

Some of the operating systems and third-party apps that support Picture-in-Picture

• iOS – facetime, Video
• Android Oreo – Chrome, Youtube
• Windows 10 – Skype, Film & TV app

Recently, Whatsapp also announced to cram the PiP into is the latest upgrade.

What are the final views on Picture-in-Picture?

Most of the users think the feature PiP is a gimmick by the tech companies.But it is really an amazing feature that helps the User in distinct ways.So, Picture-in-Picture is a genuine functionality that assists users and it is one of the best features in the recent times.

Apples gets sued over iPhone X Animoji infringement

Animojis for those who don’t remember are animated emojis that are created using the facial recognition features of the iPhone X and were widely talked about coming out of Apple’s September event. They were supposed to be a big deal for the company, however, it now looks like Apple will be fighting off a copyright infringement lawsuit to just keep the name.

3 year old feature

Reports are now coming out that Enrique Bonansea and his company emonster have had an app named Animoji listed on Apple’s app store since 2014 and have held the trademark since 2015. The app allows anyone to receive an iMessage with Animojis attached without the need to have the app actually installed on the device. The app bills itself as a “fast, free and easy-to-use tool to animate your text and email messages.”

This doesn’t seem to be a case of Apple not aware on the existence of the trademark as Bonansea  says that he has been approached multiple times by Apple through various entities in an attempt to buy the trademark. When he refused to sell, he was threatened with cancellation of his trademark. On reports that Apple new about the existence of his app, he says Apple had to know about it since the company had complied when he had requested several competing apps to be taken down. The legal complaint reads as follows:

“INSTEAD OF USING THE CREATIVITY ON WHICH APPLE DEVELOPED ITS WORLDWIDE REPUTATION, APPLE SIMPLY PLUCKED THE NAME FROM A DEVELOPER ON ITS OWN APP STORE. APPLE COULD HAVE CHANGED ITS DESIRED NAME PRIOR TO ITS ANNOUNCEMENT WHEN IT REALIZED PLAINTIFFS ALREADY USED ANIMOJI FOR THEIR OWN PRODUCT. YET APPLE MADE THE CONSCIOUS DECISION TO TRY TO PILFER THE NAME FOR ITSELF — REGARDLESS OF THE CONSEQUENCES.”

Legal Hurdles

The case isn’t an open and shut as it seems however. It turns out, the trademark was originally filed by Bonansea was for his company emonster inc. That company has since been dissolved in favor of emonster k.k – his new Japanese company. Based on this, Apple has already filed for cancellation of the company held trademark.

However, Emonster’s trademark attorney has filed for a technical correction in ownership claiming that both the companies acted as a single commercial enterprise. However, the correction has been rejected due to it being filed after the request for cancellation. Since then, Bonansea and emonster k.k. have reapplied for the trademark citing the active use of the app since 2014. If it weren’t for this technicality, this would’ve been an open and shut case, now we will have to wait for the court’s judgement.

Learn to code with DIY Modular laptop Pi-Top powered by Raspberry Pi

The Rasberry Pi has been popular with hobbyists right since its first iteration in 2012 when it was a single chip processor running on ARM11 and clocked at 700 Mhz. Today, the Pi 3 offers a quad-core chip based on ARM A53 clocked at almost double the speed at 1.2 GHz combined with 1GB of RAM. While that’s still pretty lightweight even when compared to modern day smartphones, the Rasberry Pi has a host of uses – even spawning a few startups.

Pi-Top

The Rasberry Pi is best known as a mini-computer good for coding projects due to its low cost. However, one startup has instead decided to use it as the brains behind a larger full size laptop  – designed to as a tool to teach coding skills. The original Pi-top made by a startup of the same name came out in 2014 as a modular laptop. The updated variant comes with quite a few improvements.

The new Pi-top is easier to assemble , features an adjustable keyboard that can be moved to reveal the Pi itself and a place for users to attach additional accessories to the laptop – which the company calls Modular Rail. The Pi-top also comes with one accessory right out of the box, an Inventor’s Kit. It includes a breadboard and basic components needed to build projects like a microphone and motion sensors. Just like the original, this Pi-top also runs a custom OS named Polaris.

Other Upgrades

Besides these, the Pi-top also comes with other upgrades including a 1080p & 14-inch LED screen , a sleeker design and a track pad located at the bottom of the keyboard instead of the right side like its predecessor.

At $319, this is the startup’s most expensive device yet which not only puts it in range of Chromebooks and cheaper Windows devices, but also puts it higher than other companies in the sector.

3 golden rules for choosing your Bitcoin wallet?

So you’ve decided to get some Bitcoins, congrats! This short guide will explain exactly what you need to take into account when choosing a Bitcoin wallet. Since there’s such a wide variety of Bitcoin wallets the selection can sometimes be overwhelming, but here are the basic things to keep in mind.

Note: Although this post refers to Bitcoin wallets specifically, the principles stated in this article are relevant for choosing ANY crypto wallet.

Before we begin – here’s what you need to know about Bitcoin wallets

A Bitcoin wallet is just a program that helps you send and receive Bitcoin in a user-friendly manner. Just like you use Outlook or Gmail to manage your emails, you’ll use a Bitcoin wallet to manage your Bitcoins.

The most important part of any Bitcoin wallet is the private key. The private key is a long string of text and numbers that acts as the password to your bitcoins. It’s kind of like a treasure map with the coordinates to where your Bitcoins are hidden. This means that whoever knows your private key can also steal your Bitcoins.

Many wallets today use a seed phrase instead of the long cumbersome private key. This means the private key is replaced with 12-24 random words that act as a private key replacement. This of course seems much more simple, however it’s as equally as important. If someone manages to steal your seed phrase – they can control your bitcoins.

So by now you know that the private key, or seed phrase (depending on which wallet you’re going to use), is the most important part of any Bitcoin wallet. They can also be used to restore your Bitcoins in case the device you keep your wallet on gets lost, stolen or destroyed.

Now let’s move on to choosing your wallet.

Rule #1 – If you’re going to store a large amount of coins, use “cold storage”

Cold storage is a term for any wallet that isn’t connected to the Internet. This means that a hacker won’t be able to steal your private key remotely. There are several examples for cold storage wallets:

Paper wallets – This means you just write your private key down on a piece of paper. This way, the only way to steal your private key is to physically steal the piece of paper. The downside is that pieces of paper can get easily corrupted or lost.

Another downside of paper wallets is the fact that they are only able to receive Bitcoins and not send then. As soon as you’ll want to send Bitcoins from your paper wallet you’ll need to import the private key into a digital wallet that will be able to process your transactions.

Hardware wallets – The most popular form of cold storage are hardware wallets. These are physical devices that hold your private key for you. When you want to send your Bitcoins all you need to do is connect the device to your computer and tell it how much you want to send and where.

The hardware wallet will then sign your transaction digitally and broadcast it to the network. I won’t go into technical details, but it’s important to know that due to the way hardware wallets are built, your private key is always safe even if you connect it to an infected computer.

As Bitcoin gains popularity so do hardware wallets as they supply the ultimate combination of protection and ease of use. The two most notable companies manufacturing hardware wallets today are TREZOR and Ledger.

Unlike all other wallets, hardware wallets come at a price since they are not just a piece of software. However, if you’re going to keep an amount of Bitcoin that you can’t afford to lose, a hardware wallet is the way to go.

Rule #2 – Software wallets are for “change” only

If you want a more instant but less secure solution than cold storage you can use hot wallets. A hot wallet is any type of wallet that’s connected in some way to the internet. This could be a wallet installed on your mobile phone, your laptop or hosted for you on another website.

Hot wallets are considered hackable in general, so only keep small amounts of Bitcoin on them. How small is small? It depends on your own financial situation I guess. Some people will be willing to risk only $100 for the convenience of a hot wallet and others might be willing to risk several thousands.

However not all hot wallets are alike, let’s dive into 2 main types of hot wallets:

Web wallets – these are basically wallets that hold your coins for you. You don’t have access to the private key at all and in general you are at the mercy of the wallet issuer. Example for such wallets are exchanges, gambling sites and basically any site that doesn’t allow you access to your private key.

Self-hosted wallets – These are program which you download to your own device (desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile). The private key / seed is then stored on that device. This gives you full control over your Bitcoins however also puts you in the risk of losing the device.

For example, mobile phones are easily stolen, lost or broken. If for example you drop your phone and it stops working, you can’t access your Bitcoins. That’s why it’s super important to create a wallet backup.

Rule #3 – Back up your private key / seed phrase

Finally, the most important thing to do once you get ANY Bitcoin wallet is to create a backup. Backing up a Bitcoin wallet just means that you’re creating another copy of the private key /seed phrase.

This could be done by writing it down on a piece of paper, or saving it on a separate drive somewhere. It’s important to remember that if someone gets a hold of your backup, it’s basically as if they got control of your whole wallet, so it’s preferable to keep the backup somewhere offline and safe.

That’s it, you can now go and choose your own Bitcoin wallet. Welcome to the wonderful world of cryptocurrencies.

Do you trust your VPN provider- A guide to avoiding bad VPN providers

If there’s anything the infamous Hillary Clinton email scandal teaches us is that how important cybersecurity is and how unaware general public is about it. She was investigated twice.

The reopening of that investigation just a few days before the Election Day was the sole reason for her loss to Donald Trump – despite having won the popular vote by over 3 million votes!

On the deep/dark web, hackers sell these for major profits – and buyers use these details to steal your identity and carry out financial transactions online on your behalf.

With so many threats lurking online, are you wondering – how do I secure my internet browsing? You might be interested in exploring VPN (Virtual Private Network).

Why sudden interest in VPN

As soon as he came to power, Donald Trump opened a much larger already-closed security loophole. He completely dismantled FCC’s internet privacy rules within the United States. It allowed Internet providers to freely spy on you and sell your usage data to third parties without your consent.

This alarmed millions of users, who had previously used internet nonchalantly. Internet searches for the term “Virtual Private Network” spiked overnight to 5-year high numbers.

Why use VPN when you have SSL

The Secure Socket Layer (SSL) transforms your good old but insecurecommunication channel into a secure block with the help of encryption within the HTTP protocol.

So it’s simple, right? You can use SSL and get your connection secured. Some might ask, why use VPN when you have SSL?

There are 2 reasons for it:

1. SSL is implemented by the Website, not by you. If the website doesn’t offer an HTTPS connection, there’s nothing you can do about it.
2. For implementing SSL security you need to buy an expensive “SSL CERTIFICATE”. Many websites do not consider free SSL certificatesreliable. Some websites, especially news sites, don’t consider SSL a priority because they don’t storeuser’s private data. As a result, SSL becomes either a setup overhead or an unnecessary expense.

If a website offers SSL security, it may not offer it for all the pages. So while you might see https on the login page, you won’t see it on any other page.

Google’s pushes for SSL by including it as one of its search engine ranking factors,but it hasn’t been able to expedite the SSL adoption rate.

Beware of a FAKE VPN

A simple Google search reveals a bunch of VPN services that are “free”. All are marketing articles meant to make a sale. Whether it’s an affiliate sale or a direct sale, you can never fully trust its claims.

When shopping for VPN, check for following red flags

• Any kind of logging is bad. But some VPNs only log your email address. Ideally, the lesser the logging, the better VPN service
• Highly convoluted or extremely short Privacy Policy
• IP leaks
• Lack of Kill Switch (this feature automatically stops certain apps from using the regular internet connection when the VPN connection drops!)
• Latest news articles have negative reviews

What is a bad VPN?

Next time you are about to install a VPN client, scroll down their EULA dialog box and check if they log your data.

If they do, they may also be able to sell it without your consent by a simple tweak of the license agreement. Most of it happens in a clandestine manner without user’s consent.

Be wary of these VPNs

Other than logging, issues like download speed and customer support are also very important. Now we will list down a bunch of VPN services and what are their pros and cons.

StrongVPN

StrongVPN doesn’t log any of your traffic or metadata (such as login/logout time, amount of data used, etc.). But that’s about the only pro we could find.

However, their cons onare aplenty:

• Only 5-day money back policy.
• Not all servers use OpenVPN
• Desktop client UI is extremely frustrating – servers may not respond for the supported protocol. When trying to change ports or servers, it doesn’t remember the old configuration.
• No call-in number, no live chat system, limited FAQs.
• Relatively lower speeds as compared to competitors
• Overpriced – limits to only two simultaneous connections.

StrongVPN is only suitable for users who are looking for a simple, cheap tool to bypass Netflix US and Chinese National censorships and for whom speeds don’t matter much. Power users should avoid StrongVPN.

Mullvad VPN

Mullvad provides a strong sense of privacy – you can use Mullvad through a random-generated account number and pay via bitcoins – no email address or credit card required! They also track absolutely nothing

But as we dug deep its problems started to appear:

• Only 3-hour free trial
• No money back policy for cash payments
• Less than 150 servers in just 5 countries
• Doesn’t support L2TP / IPSec
• Doesn’t connect to Netflix
• No iOS or Android app – lengthy process to connect via “OpenVPN Connect” app
• Pathetic performance, lethargic download speeds

Mullvad was built to achieve a political objective rather than as a “good VPN service” – their privacy aspect certainly the strongest; on every other aspect (including performance), Mullvad VPN isn’t even worth mentioning.

PureVPN

PureVPN provides one of the cheapest services at just $3.25 per month for a 2 year-long contract. That is why they have a huge number of servers and over a million customers.

But then some problems cannot be hidden:

• The 7-day refund period has hidden conditions – a 3GB data cap or 100 VPN session cap.
• Well known for DNS leaks, and even IPv4 and IPv6 leaks
• Kill Switch often malfunctions – several users noted that it actually shut down their computer
• Deplorable speeds and almost negligible performance
• Explicitly claims to log of VPN session metadata (which can apparently get people arrested).
• Uses “Virtual VPN Servers” that mimic a different physical location – this is an attractive feature as well as a major security flaw depends on who you ask

PureVPN is a cheap, good-for-nothing VPN knockoff. The only reason they have a million *users is that they have a cheap 2-year plan and good marketing tactics. You might find more skeletons in PureVPN’s closet if you ask them how many of those million customers abandoned their accounts within first 3 months of their purchase.

FrootVPN

FrootVPN is the cheapest VPN service in the market. It is a good VPN provider if you stay in Europe and choose European VPN servers

But so many users have reported so many problems:

• • Very slow speeds (less than 100 servers) and unresponsive customer support
  • No desktop clients for Mac or apps for mobile
  • Claims “no logging” but then also provides your bandwidth usage stats for 6 months
  • Sketchy privacy policy of only 250 words
  • No free or trial plans
  • 30-day “no questions asked” money back policy has a hidden caveat – you must give a reason and the company must determine that it’s reasonable enough to offer a full refund.
  • No killswitch – if the VPN-secured public Wi-Fi connection drops, you wouldn’t even know when you are switched to your insecure data connection

FrootVPN does provide a cheap $2.99 / month plan with yearly payment, but that’s where its features stop. They’re still a growing company – many have verified it’s not a scam! But one shouldn’t fall for their low prices and then suffer low speeds.

PrivateVPN

The best thing about PrivateVPN is that it offers 6 simultaneous collections from all devices. It also has Android and iOS mobile apps, besides the usual Mac and Windows VPN client apps.

Upon further investigation however, the cracks reveal themselves:

• No Kill Switch (Connection Guard in Windows app does something similar)
• No protection from IP leaks
• 24-hour free trial needs a code for checkout, which has to be generated by emailing their support team
• Basic but feature-less client apps, need OpenVPN software

While PrivateVPN does do a lot of things better than other VPN services on this list, there is no single biggest reason to go for it. It is also priced higher while providing a very basic interface. For similar price, you can get much more detailed interface on other VPN services.