Poland used to have of the freest and least controlled Internet infrastructures in the world, meaning that you wouldn’t have to worry about encumbering censorship and surveillance programs. Reporters Without Borders ranked them very high on their list of open Internet connections that aren’t policed by the state, and Poland ranks 19 out of 180 countries. Freedom House also gave them a perfect score in 2015. Users in Poland were truly fortunate that they didn’t have to worry about their domestic government watching their online activities or censorship programs that prevent them from accessing popular sites such as Google or YouTube. That was until this year, when the newly elected conservative government of Poland, decided to pass a new surveillance law on January 15th. This new law has angered thousands of citizens to take the streets and protest against the mass spying of all citizens. The new law is feared due to giving a vast amount of power and liberty, allowing the government tap and collect unlimited amounts of private communications without warrant.
More than ever, using a VPN in Poland has become a need for securing your online data. However, there have always been a multitude of reasons for users in Poland to be concerned about their Internet security and anonymity. First of all, even though the Polish government has not always taken extreme measures to filter a lot of Internet content, you’ll still find that a lot of websites are inaccessible in Poland. Many online services block connections based on incoming IP address due to various copyright laws and licensing agreements. For example, Hulu, Spotify, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, and Pandora block connections base on Polish IP addresses. But these are just a few examples. To unlock this content from Poland, you are going to need a VPN service to circumvent these restrictions.
Furthermore, there are many online entities outside of the Polish government that want to steal your data. Most people don’t consider that when they make a connection to a web server, it could be located anywhere around the globe. Your Internet traffic regularly travels through many different nations as it is in transit to the destination server. And once your data is being routed through the public Internet, there’s no telling how many foreign governments, hackers, and ISPs will have an opportunity to intercept and read your data. Though Poland doesn’t implement unruly surveillance techniques, there are many foreign nations that do. And I’m sure the last thing any Internet user in Poland wants if for some foreign government, like the US or the UK, to intercept their data transmissions, communications, email, and voice calls. Given the nature of the Internet, you need to make sure that your data is encrypted to protect your privacy and anonymity.
You see, when your data is encrypted, there isn’t a thing other people can do to decipher and read your private messages. In the event that they do intercept encrypted communications, it will only appear as a garbled, unintelligible mess of 1’s and 0’s that can’t be understood. Instead of taking the risk that your personal data and communications end up in the hands of foreign governments or hackers, you absolutely need to use a VPN tunnel. So, let’s take a look at the best VPNs for Poland.
VPN for Poland – Top Picks:
ExpressVPN – Read Review
ExpressVPN is our first pick for users in Poland, and they are one of the highest quality services in the VPN market. They are well-known for providing lightning-fast connections that are rock solid, and they have reliable 24/7 support to help you out if you need a hand configuring or troubleshooting your software. However, despite the quality of their service, there are a couple drawbacks. First of all, they are a firm based in the US – leaving some users paranoid about coercion or influence from the US government. In addition, because their service is such high quality, they cost more than most other providers.
VyprVPN – Read Review
Users in Poland will be pleased to know that VyprVPN is operated by a parent company, Golden Frog, that is actually based out of Switzerland – so you won’t have to be paranoid about interference from foreign governments. Switzerland has some of the laxest Internet laws and regulations in the world, and VyprVPN has a zero-activity logging policy but does keep 30-day log information. It is also not advised to use them for P2P downloads. Right now they operate 700+ servers in 50 countries around the world, and they have a strong European presence. They only allow 2 connections per account, but they do have a free trial that will help you gauge how well you like their service. Lastly, they are moderately priced at $6.25 per month with the pro version of their service.
TorGuard VPN – Read Review
Tor Guard VPN also has the advantage of being based outside the US. They are based in Panama, and the size of their VPN network is fairly comparable to VyprVPN’s network since they have 1200 servers in 42 countries. However, the improve upon their service by letting each account connect up to 5 devices, which is great if you want to lock down multiple mobile devices and computers. They also are a little bit cheaper than VyprVPN, only costing $5.00 per month, though they do have additional services you can purchase to further bolster your online security.
NordVPN – Read Review
In Poland, you can connect to over 40 servers, but if you want to access content that is only available in other locations, NorVPN gives you many other options. It has more than 5000 servers in over 50 countries. The fast speeds and advanced unblocking technology lets you get around restrictions so that you can stream content, play games and more, without dealing with limited access. NordVPN also uses high protection for your internet traffic and it is a zero logs provider.
Surfshark – Read Review
Surfshark doesn’t have servers in Poland at the moment, but its network is growing and in the meantime, it is an excellent choice if you are in Poland and want to defeat restrictions. Surfshark has over 800 servers in more than 50 countries and it uses high encryption to prevent other parties from getting access to your internet traffic. Surfshark also offers anti-malware and anti-tracker protection and it doesn’t keep logs of your activities.
