The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a massive trade agreement that is threatening to change a lot about how people are watched online. Regardless of whether you are doing anything illegal whatsoever the TPP has many far-reaching implications for anyone who is online (which let’s be honest, is everyone).

Thanks to Wikileaks, we now know that the TPP will force internet service providers to essentially police their networks. This includes secretly handing over your identity and information to law enforcement. While aimed at skirting piracy, in reality the TPP deal increases surveillance in a massive way.

While the TPP has not been fully ratified yet, it is only a matter of time before it, or something like it puts pressure on internet service providers to comply with it’s overreaching copyright laws.

How to protect your privacy online via VPN from the Trans Pacific Partnership

We’re all for trade liberalization that benefits citizens, but when it encroaches on individual privacy it is time to take some precautions. The best thing you can do as of right now is to encrypt your internet connection via a virtual private network (VPN). This will essentially reroute your internet traffic through an intermediary and make it virtually impossible to track your actions online.

Our favourite service that keeps your information completely anonymous (even from the method of payment you use) is Private Internet Access.  They don’t keep any logs on their servers of their customers so there is literally no paper trail of anyone who uses the internet while on their VPN. I have used it for over a year and can’t recommend it enough. It’s fast, reliable and they take privacy very seriously, which with the TPP coming is a very good thing.