On one hand, the government has merged the Ministries of Information with ICT to form one body. Frank Tumwebaze, a dyed-in-the-wool NRM stalwart has been installed at the helm which should be warning enough that government means business. And then there’s Lukodo. The Anti-Pornography Committee’s Shs. 2.6 billion budget allocation was the shot in the arm they needed. Now a ‘machine’ to detect pornography is on its way. From what has been said about it, Ugandans freedom to do whatever they feel like online will be curtailed. And VPNs will be back in fashion, at least until the Committee stops their witch hunt.

Opera VPN

Opera VPN, unlike the ones we used before is totally free and unlimited in its usage. Once installed, it will blanket your online activities in their entirety. A key icon activates whenever the app is in service to indicate that you’re covered. The whole process is streamlined and you will be secure with a few taps on your phone. You can choose from 5 regions, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore and United States. By default, the app will choose the nearest location. A Wi-Fi security test scans your network connection, sniffing out security flaws. Poorly secured networks will leak personal information to third parties. This test will determine and rate the security of a network you’re connected to. Opera VPN has the Guardian too which you can activate and deactivate at will. It  monitors your online network traffic and ensures you are invisible to ad-trackers.

Ad-Supported

You will also notice that Opera VPN comes with some non-intrusive ads. This in our opinion makes perfect sense. Altruism can only go so far. Opera recoups its costs for developing and giving away a free powerful VPN by including a bunch of ads. Everybody wins. Specifically (and subject to our privacy policy), we collect the following items:

Usage data, like web addresses (but not content of the web pages) and IP address locations; a randomly generated unique ID number; Device type; Browser type; Operating system type; IP address with date and time

     ~ Chris Houston, President and founder of Opera’s Surfeasy VPN division Opera VPN is powered by SurfEasy, a company Opera acquired in 2015. Opera for desktop already comes with an in-built VPN along with an adblocker. The same can be seen in the immensely popular Operamini browser app for smartphones. Note that this Opera VPN is different from Operamini. You can download Opera VPN from the Opera website Update: Opera VPN has been indefinitely discontinued  

Opera releases free unlimited Opera VPN for Android  Here s why Ugandans should care - 55Opera releases free unlimited Opera VPN for Android  Here s why Ugandans should care - 77