Ecuador has many things to boast about. Unfortunately, internet freedom isn’t one of them. Censorship, political attacks, monitoring, and hacking have all become commonplace in the country – with the government often issuing copyright notices or requesting personal details in order to shut down any dissenting political journalism or social media activity. If you live...

Whether you live in Bolivia, intend to visit the country, or need access to services restricted to Bolivia, a VPN service will make your life easier. A VPN keeps your internet traffic private and gives you access to restricted sites and services. Your personal data, location, and browsing history remain secure. If you are a...

Planning a trip to Colombia? You want to be sure you’ll be able to access the content you’re interested in, and you want to know you can do that safely and securely. Internet users in Colombia can expect a great deal of online freedom. However, under Colombian law, ISPs are required to supervise their users’...

Whether you live in Venezuela or will only be in the country temporarily, using a VPN has become vital every time you go online there. The last several years have seen dramatic increases in online censorship and spying by the Venezuelan government. In the midst of a national crisis that sees many Venezuelans struggling to...

Whether you live in Turkey or are planning a visit, it’s important to know how the political environment will affect your ability to access the web securely and freely – and how to stay safe. Since 2010, internet freedom has been steadily declining in the country. The only safe way to use the internet in...

Whether you’re streaming your favorite shows, working remotely, or simply surfing the web, it’s always a good idea to use a virtual private network (VPN) to secure your connection in Mexico. An online surveillance law passed in 2014 allows the Mexican government to collect and retain internet users’ detailed browsing data, severely threatening the online...

More than half of Indonesia’s population uses the internet, but they don’t have anything close to open access to the worldwide web. Indonesia’s censorship laws give the government broad power to block hundreds of thousands of websites and images, including many that would be considered normal and inoffensive in many countries. For example, many messaging...

Safely accessing the internet in Bangladesh is not easy, whether you are a resident or a visitor. Government surveillance of internet activity and violent retaliation against anyone who publicly criticizes the national constitution are very real threats. And because so many internet users in the country use public WiFi, hacking occurs frequently. Even if you...

A Website Application Firewall (WAF) works as a layer of protection between a website application and the visitors browsing the website. Application firewalls go beyond the metadata of the packets transferred at the network level, focusing on the data that is being transferred. WAFs were created to understand the type of data allowed for each...

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in May. Because online censorship is constantly evolving, some of the countries’ rankings may not be entirely accurate anymore. For an update on countries’ online censorship, please see our Live Updates page.  Do you know what internet activities are illegal in your country? Online censorship is the latest battleground...