Jigsaw, a company of the Alphabet holding company — which also owns Google — has released a free VPN software called “Outline”, which allows people, groups, organizations, or companies to create and manage their own Virtual Private Networks servers. In other words, the tool allows you to create your own VPN, in addition to managing and controlling this service without the intermediary of third parties.
There are already technologies that allow companies to create their own VPN in order to encrypt all their users’ traffic over the internet, but these platforms are usually too complicated for the common user, requiring an IT specialist to do the configuration. Outline, in turn, makes the process much easier and can be configured by people with little technical knowledge on the subject.
An outline allows VPNs to be created on physical servers or even on a trusted cloud computing platform
Another great advantage is that Outline allows VPNs to be created on physical servers controlled by the user/company or even on a reliable cloud computing platform such as Rackspace, Google Cloud Engine, and Amazon EC2, among others. There is also the possibility of creating a VPN on the servers of Digital Ocean, a cloud computing platform 100% integrated with Outline. In this case, the user can subscribe to the service for 500 GB of traffic for US$ 5 per month. On other cloud servers, you must first purchase the service for general applications and then install Outline.
Outline’s integration with Digital Ocean requires purchasing a cloud computing service directly on the platform, but the VPN software itself is free.
But the idea is to use this Jigsaw tool on your own server. Only then can you be 100% sure that no one is spying on your internet connection. That’s because, while a VPN offered by a third party prevents your ISP or local government from spying on your connection, that service provider theoretically has the power to do the spying if it wants to. This is why free VPNs might not be such a good idea: while they offer you the service for free, the company behind it needs to make a profit somehow, and most likely by selling user data.
In any case, Outline was created to prevent just that. By placing control of a VPN in the hands of organizations or users who need it, the tool prevents third parties from intercepting sensitive information.
For journalists and activists
According to the Jigsaw website, Outline was developed especially for news organizations and activists who need to offer secure communication over the web for their professionals. Even so, the software can be used by any person or organization that has access to a properly configured server connected to the web, be it physical or in the cloud.
The software even manages to circumvent the great firewall of China with a feature that connects users to the VPN server at random
Jigsaw is a startup focused on preserving human rights, and Outline is a way to ensure that journalists do their work without suffering from censorship by authoritarian governments. The software even manages to circumvent the great firewall of China with a feature that connects users to the VPN server at random, preventing the server from being found and blocked easily.
The tool is completely free and is already compatible with Windows (7 or newer), Android (5.0 or newer), and Chrome OS (64.0 or newer). Versions for macOS and iOS should be released in the coming weeks.
Outline’s code is available for verification on GitHub, and if you want to use the tool for free, just go to this site and check out how to do it.TecMundo discount coupons: