Free VPN: a blessing or a curse?

Article

Stakeholders:
Opera, Opera employees, the User

Strand 1:

The article discusses how the operating system Opera now allows all its users to have a free VPN which requires no subscription. This has many social and ethical implications. The main one is that, with this pre-installed VPN, users can surf the web anonymously, which is a good measure to fend of hackers, however it may have disadvantages too. The main one is that it may lead to anonymity. Which is the ability for a user to surf the web, do whatever they desire and get away with it. This way, some users may be able to cyber-mob other users, which is highly unethical. In addition to that, anonymity allows them to access illegal websites, which also has negative implications. Furthermore, since Opera is an open source software. As this VPN software releases, users may be able to enhance it further, thus giving it more powerful capabilities, similar to that of TOR Browser, which can lead users into accessing the Dark Web. On the other hand, this software may also have other social and ethical implications, such as: reliability. The reliability of the VPN connection is not guaranteed, which means that some of those 'secure connections' may not be too secure, which can lead to innocents being exposed. 

Strand 2:

This can have many different scenarios. The main one is home and entertainment, whilst work and employment is also viable (if an employee wants to access Facebook during their break at a company that bans it), it is also viable in education. An example is DIS, when students try to access Facebook in break or lunch. The reliability implication is highly important when it comes to a business. Some businesses may use this virtual private Opera network to connect their employee's to their main server (located in another country). If this connection is not reliable, information can be intercepted which may lead to fraud or the loss of important business information. 

Strand 3:

The way a VPN system works is that it creates a private network over a public network (such as the Internet), and thats why its called a 'virtual' private network. Basically when a VPN makes a connection, it uses 'tunnels' which encrypt the user's data. This way it is deemed secure. Usually you need another VPN software to allow this to happen, however Opera is now integrating this software in the browser itself. It can allow users to access blocked websites because it connects to another client in another country, therefore the user's browser is essentially running on that countries server, so it can access the websites that are not blocked in that country. Websites such as WikiLeaks that are blocked universally cannot be accessed.