It also seems as though the state itself is at odds with how aggressively it is looking to censor speech online. The mismash of internet filtering can be largely traced back to the patchwork of Iranian internet service providers, who do the heavy lifting at the behest of the state. Much of the filtering has been aimed at preventing protesters from organizing demonstrations, choking off reporting from those protests that do crop up, and limiting the flow of news from the outside world. The Centre for Human Rights in Iran cited one Iranian’s tweet saying that Psiphon was the only app working amid the crackdown. The huge spike in usage comes as Tehran tries to take out other apps, like encrypted messaging platform Telegram. Psiphon won’t know all the details of just how many users were actively using the app until it audits the data later on, but Simpson estimates that-at its peak-usage hit eight to 10 million users in Iran. Read More: Iran’s 'Smart' Instagram Censorship Isn’t That Smart Psiphon has tabulated a tenfold increase for mobile usage from the Middle Eastern country over the same four-day period. The vast majority of this increased activity has come from Iran. That uptick has come with a five-fold increase in the amount of data going over the Psiphon servers. From New Year’s Eve until January 3 of this year, the app was hitting 700,000 per day. Simpson broke down the numbers: On an average day, the app, available for Windows, Android, and iOS, is downloaded some 35,000-40,000 times. “Over the last week, Psiphon saw unprecedented app downloads and usage across our network from all platforms in Iran,” Irv Simpson, who works in development for Psiphon, told Motherboard. This can get annoying after a while.Since protests cropped up across Iran at the end of 2017, Psiphon reports that its usage has skyrocketed. However, each time you connect, a browser window appears and an ad is opened inside. The ones which appear inside the app are normal and expected. There are 20 countries to choose from as your fake location and all of them are available for free.Īds are quite intrusive. Still, you can manually exclude apps you want to prevent from being tunneled, which is a great option. However, the browser is quite primitive and it's not suitable for anything more than casual Internet surfing. You can choose to tunnel your whole device including all browsers and apps or you can simply tunnel the built-in Psiphon Browser. You can view stats of your Internet connection in the Stats tab or you can change some settings in the Options tab. The currency is earned through watching ad videos. There is a currency called PsiCach you can use to activate an hour-long speed boost for your connection. There is a Start button available from the home screen which initiates the connection immediately. The app is also available in many different languages. For example, browsing at maximum speed costs around $10/month and 360-day pass costs $117.17. However, using the client at the maximum Internet connection speed must be paid for with a monthly subscription.
Psiphon Pro is a simple VPN client for Android and it's available for free. Besides that, many services and websites might not be available from your current location and that's what VPN apps are for! Price: $ 0.00 Internet anonymity is becoming a hot topic these days with many companies admitting to having exploited their users in one way or another.