The Proton VPN Blog

Vietnam’s new fake news fines triple VPN demand

Douglas Crawford — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:07:57 GMT

On July 1, 2026, new rules took effect in Vietnam that penalize social media users who the government deems sharing fabricated or false information. In the weeks since, the Proton VPN Observatory has noticed a sharp increase in sign-ups for our VPN service (+150 over the baseline, and triple the figures we saw at the beginning of the month).

What’s notable is that signups began to spike on July 7, when the first reported fine under the decree (2.5 million VND against a man in Lào Cai province for a rude Facebook comment aimed at local police) was widely reported in local media.

What happened?

The Vietnamese government is now imposing fines on people who share what it defines as fake, false, distorted, or defamatory content on social media. The penalty structure has two tiers:

20–30 million VND (roughly $794–$1,190) for sharing content judged to harm the reputation of state agencies or organizations, or the honor and dignity of individuals. This is a category that also covers the posting of graphic, violent imagery, unauthorized sharing of copyrighted journalism or creative work, promoting banned goods or services, misrepresenting Vietnam’s territorial maps, or linking to content already banned under Vietnamese law.
30–50 million VND (roughly $1,190–$1,984) for content judged to distort history, deny “revolutionary achievements,” undermine national unity, insult religion, incite discrimination, leak state secrets or private information below the criminal threshold, or spread information that causes public panic or disrupts government operations (assuming it doesn’t already meet the bar for criminal prosecution).

Several of these categories, such as “undermines national unity,” “harms the reputation of organizations,” “causes public panic,” are highly ambiguous and and leave considerable room for interpretation. As one dissident publication put it, “police still decide the truth.”

Other contributing factors

Correlation, of course, is not the same as proven causation. Other less direct events that have likely contributed to such a steep rise in VPN signups include:

The “Chuyện với Thanh” case

A book by FPT co-founder Nguyễn Thành Nam, reinterpreting Hồ Chí Minh’s early life, was denounced in June as insulting the national leader. The publisher was fined and suspended before Nam and a colleague were criminally charged under Article 117 (anti-state propaganda). State TV confirmed the arrests on July 7.

Roblox VNG lockdown

Vietnam’s local Roblox version (run by publisher VNG) went fully live on August 13, 2026, blocking around 80% of games, disabling chat, and capping daily play at 3 hours. Unusually, it also prevented Vietnamese users from bypassing these restrictions by using a VPN to reach Roblox’ international servers.

No explanation has been provided as to why these changes have been made, but they may be linked to unease that Roblox could be used as a communications platform by those seeking to evade government scrutiny.

Unsurprisingly, this hasn’t gone well. It should be noted, however, that while this incident may have helped to raise awareness of VPNs, VNG has gone to great lengths to ensure VPNs are of limited use for bypassing its restrictions.

An increasingly repressive regime

It is clear that the Vietnamese government is becoming increasingly intolerant of dissent — and consequently suspicious of social media and similar channels (like Roblox), over which it can spread.

As always, the best way to protect your online activity from government scrutiny and access the free international press is to use a reputable VPN. Use our internet censorship simulator to see which apps and online services are blocked around the world.

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Is TikTok banned again in Oman?

Douglas Crawford — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:01:52 GMT

TikTok does appear to be banned in Oman, though the exact reason and cause are not clear, and the government has previously refused to acknowledge that it bans tech platforms.

In April 2025, the Omani Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) “clarified” that TikTok connection issues were due to “technical reasons” and that TikTok was not banned. (They did not explain to reporters how technical reasons would affect only TikTok and not other internet services.)

Now, for the second time in about 18 months, Omanis are experiencing problems accessing TikTok. Starting August 13, 2026, users began to complain on Reddit and other social media platforms that TikTok appears to be banned. At the same time, the Proton VPN Observatory recorded a significant (+350% increase over the baseline) jump in sign-ups for our VPN service.

No official TikTok ban has been announced, and it seems likely the Omani government will again blame technical reasons for the current issues experienced by TikTok users.

Posters on Reddit, however, have suggested the government may be interfering with TikTok access following the sentencing of a woman to one year in prison and deportation for producing and publishing content that violated public morals during a live broadcast on social media.

Whatever the reasons for this disruption, Proton VPN can help — simply connect to one of our VPN servers located outside Oman to hide your online activity from Omani ISPs and appear to access the internet from that (unrestricted) location.

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How and why we built Proton protocols: a new VPN client engine

Antonio Cesarano — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:01:07 GMT

Over the past few months, Proton VPN has been working on Proton protocols, a new client‑side VPN protocol codebase. Known internally by the codename ProTUN, this new code architecture is written in Rust. Although we forked cryptography code from Cloudflare’s BoringTun project, the completely redesigned architecture is Proton’s.

Why we need a new VPN core

WireGuard® is a state-of-the-art VPN protocol that is as secure as OpenVPN but faster and more powerful. This is why we’re starting to remove OpenVPN support from our official apps, to focus instead on WireGuard.

However, our apps currently use the official wireguard-go implementation of WireGuard. And it’s a great implementation, with an elegantly minimal design that makes it fast, secure, and easier to audit than traditional VPN protocols.

However, wireguard-go doesn’t integrate well with the languages we use natively to develop Proton VPN on the multiple platforms that we support (such as Kotlin on Android and Swift on iOS). This slows development, complicates debugging, and introduces stability challenges.

Proton protocols solves these problems.

Proton protocols is a new client-side VPN framework based on WireGuard. Because it’s written in Rust and designed as a shared, extensible core, ProTUN can be consistently deployed across platforms and adapted to different network environments. This will let us diagnose issues faster, improve stability, and build advanced functionality directly into the VPN stack.

Most importantly, Proton protocols gives us the flexibility to respond quickly to censorship and network interference, which is an area where we expect the biggest long-term gains.

Under the hood

Encrypting traffic with a new WireGuard core

At the heart of the Proton protocols project is libpvpnclient, a clean, standalone implementation of the WireGuard protocol written in Rust. Its job is simple but critical: to encrypt your internet traffic and keep your connection secure.

What’s different from wireguard-go is how it’s built. Whereas wireguard-go is a simple WireGuard client, libpvpnclient is an entire new framework onto which we can develop advanced new features and functionalities.

And instead of being tightly bound to a specific operating system, libpvpnclient is designed as a pure, platform-independent core. This allows us to reuse the same high-quality implementation everywhere — on desktop, mobile, and beyond. This separation makes a big difference behind the scenes. It lets us:

Test and debug complex edge cases in controlled, repeatable environments
Roll out improvements faster and more consistently across platforms
Experiment with new techniques to resist censorship and traffic blocking

For you, this translates into faster updates, fewer platform-specific issues, and a VPN that adapts more quickly as network conditions and censorship methods change. ProTUN itself is our name for the wrapper around libpvpnclient that adapts the Rust-based library to each operating system that we support.

It works hand-in-hand with LocalAgent. This is our in-house control channel that allows us to implement certificate-based authentication, and which we’ve also just streamlined and rewritten in Rust.

This new VPN core is available to test-run now as a beta (early access) feature on the following platforms:

Windows
Android
iOS and iPadOS (bringing support for advanced kill switch)
Linux GUI app (bringing support for our censorship-resistant Stealth protocol)

Making it easier to reach Proton VPN servers

We’re also working on phase two of Proton protocols. Codenamed muon, this is a flexible networking layer that safely connects our apps to Proton’s VPN API, even in situations where the Proton API is itself being censored.

Before a VPN can protect your traffic, it has to connect safely in the first place to the Proton API. And that’s becoming increasingly difficult. In some countries and networks, API connections are blocked or monitored at the DNS level or identified by inspecting the server names (a technique known as SNI snooping).

To address this, we’re building muon, a new gateway between our apps and Proton’s API. Again written in Rust for safety and performance, muon handles the very first network requests your app makes, and can then route them securely through to Proton VPN’s WireGuard protocol (in the long term, this functionality will replace our existing alternative routing anti-censorship solution).

In practical terms, this means that from the moment you open the Proton VPN app in a country where access is known to be censored, your communication to the Proton API will already be protected (even before a system-level VPN connection is fully established). And in restrictive countries, your ISP won’t even know that you’re connecting to Proton APIs.

This protection will be automatic and invisible to you, and means that you’re more likely to get a working connection in censored countries. muon is so useful for defeating censorship, in fact, that we’re going to use it on all Proton apps (not just VPN), giving you built‑in censorship protection across our ecosystem from the get-go. We’ll be rolling it out soon, so watch this space.

A solid foundation for what comes next

libpvpnclient (with the Proton protocols wrapper) and muon together form a new platform that gives our engineers far more flexibility. This allows us to experiment safely with improvements in connection stability, battery usage, and resilience, and prepares the groundwork for future technologies, like stronger anti-censorship techniques and post-quantum cryptography.

We see this as a major step forward in making the internet more accessible, reliable, and private for everyone. And this is just the beginning. We’re excited to see where this new foundation takes Proton VPN in 2026 and beyond.

“WireGuard” is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld.

Introducing Proton protocols: a new VPN protocol codebase for faster, more reliable apps

Antonio Cesarano — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:01:05 GMT

Our apps work well, but we’re reaching the limits of what’s possible with our current codebase. For Proton VPN to future-proof our apps, build more innovative VPN features, and be fighting-fit for our next phase of growth, we need a new foundation.

We’re therefore rolling out a new client‑side VPN protocol codebase to our b eta apps that takes the best parts of our existing codebase and builds on them to unlock the next generation of Proton VPN performance, reliability, and censorship resistance. This modern, flexible VPN core allows us to:

Build faster, more reliable apps
Deliver best-in-class, anti-censorship capabilities
Ship features and improvements more quickly across all our apps
Enable Stealth support on Linux
Lay the groundwork for post-quantum encryption (planned)

Want more technical details? Find out more

What is a VPN protocol?

A VPN protocol is the set of rules that decides how your device connects to a VPN server and how your data is encrypted and transmitted.

It’s the method a VPN uses to:

Create a secure tunnel: This happens the moment you tap Connect in our apps. The app connects to one of our VPN servers, and all internet traffic to and from your device is routed through the connection.
Encrypt your internet traffic: All data traveling through the VPN tunnel is securely encrypted (scrambled using very complex math) so that no-one but you can see it. This includes your ISP and anyone else monitoring your network.
Keep the connection stable and fast: The protocol manages the connection in the background, helping your device stay connected when you switch networks, lose signal briefly, or move between WiFi and mobile data.

Learn more about VPN protocols

Test run our new codebase now

If you’d like to help us put this exciting new codebase through its paces, it’s now available on our beta (early access) app for:

Windows
Android
iOS and iPadOS (bringing support for advanced kill switch)
Linux GUI app (bringing with it support for our censorship-resistant Stealth protocol)

To use it, simply select Proton Protocols in your beta app’s settings.

How to change your VPN protocols

If you run into any problems or have any suggestions on how things can be improved, please let us know on Reddit or X, or join our community at protonmail.uservoice.com.

Delivering a better VPN experience

This new VPN protocol codebase marks a major step forward for Proton VPN. By rebuilding our VPN core, we’re not just improving performance and reliability today — we’re creating a flexible foundation that lets us respond faster to censorship, ship features more consistently across platforms, and prepare for future threats like post-quantum cryptography.

If you’re eager to experience these improvements firsthand, try the experimental build on Android and please do let us know how it works for you on Reddit or X, or at protonmail.uservoice.com. Together, we’ll build a privacy-first internet that works for everyone.

How to turn off read receipts on iPhone, Android, WhatsApp, and more

Douglas Crawford — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 12:46:26 GMT

Read receipts are very convenient if you’re sending a text to someone else. They let you know the recipient of a message has received and opened it. But if you’re the recipient, it can feel a little invasive knowing others can track whether you’ve read their messages. In this article, we show you how keep things a little more private by disabling read receipts on your phone.

How to turn off read receipts on iPhone (Messages)
How to turn off read receipts on Android (Google Messages)
How to turn off read receipts on Android (Samsung Messenger)
How to turn off read receipts on WhatsApp
How to turn off read receipts on Signal
What makes read receipts dangerous?
What’s the safest messaging app?

Traditional SMS doesn’t support read receipts for messages. However, most modern SMS messenger apps now default to the newer Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol, which works between newer Apple and Android devices and allows for much richer message content (such as multimedia messages, group chats, and read receipts). Third party apps use their own protocols.

How to turn off read receipts on iPhone

On an iPhone, the Messages app supports traditional SMS, RCS (on newer phones), and its own messaging protocol, iMessage. To turn read receipts off for all messages:

Open Settings.
Go to Apps → Messages.
Scroll to Send Read Receipts and toggle the switch off.

For iMessage contacts (denoted by a blue bubble icon), you can also turn of read receipts for individual contacts. To do this:

Open a text thread from an iMessage contact.
Tap on the contact’s profile picture at the top of the screen.
Scroll to the Send Read Receipts option and toggle it off.

How to turn off read receipts on Google Messages

Google Messages is the default SMS and RCS messenger app on most non-Samsung Android phones (and comes preinstalled even on Samsung phones). To turn off RCS read receipts:

Open the Google Messenger app.
Tap on your profile picture (top right).
Go to Message settings → RCS Chats and toggle the Send read receipts switch off.

How to turn off read receipts on Samsung Messenger

Samsung Messenger is the default SMS and RCS messenger app on Samsung phones. To turn off RCS read receipts:

Open the Samsung Messenger app.
Tap the three-dot menu (⋮).
Go to Settings → More settings → Text messages and toggle the Delivery reports switch off.

How to turn off read receipts on WhatsApp

Open the WhatsApp app.
Tap You at the bottom right (iPhone) or the three-dot menu (⋮) → Settings at the top right (Android).
Go to Privacy.
Toggle the Read Receipts switch off.

Note that the read receipts setting in WhatsApp is a mutual setting, meaning that when you choose not to send read receipts to others, you also won’t be able to see when they’ve read your sent messages. Read receipts are always sent in group chats.

How to turn off read receipts on Signal

As with WhatsApp, read receipts are a mutual feature on Signal. When you turn them off, you won’t be able to see other contacts’ read receipts.

Open the Signal app.
Tap your profile icon at the top left.
Go to Privacy → Messaging → Read Receipts and toggle the switch off.

What makes read receipts dangerous?

Read receipts aren’t inherently dangerous, and can be genuinely useful for everyday conversations. However, there are potential risks when you’re messaging strangers, rather than people you trust.

Scammers can use a read receipt as confirmation that a real, active person is behind a phone number, which can make you into a more attractive target for follow-up scam attempts.

Read receipts also create a timestamp of when you personally saw a message, which over time or in the wrong hands can reveal patterns like when you’re awake, at work, or reachable. In a harassment or stalking context, that’s a live signal that someone is currently on their phone and is looking at it.

Of course, there are other less serious consequences of using read receipts. If you have them on and read a message but don’t respond promptly, you could risk upsetting the sender of the message. And if you claim to be busy, but your read receipts show you were clearly on your phone, you might have some awkward questions to answer.

What’s the safest messaging app?

The safest messaging apps offer privacy and security. You should have no expectations of privacy when messaging using SMS, as messages are not encrypted and be read by both your mobile carrier and the app developer (such as Apple, Google, and Samsung).

Apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger (but not Instagram) now offer end-to-end encryption so Meta can’t read the content of your messages, but they still send a huge amount of metadata (such as who you talk to, when, for long, who they talk to, etc.) to Meta, which uses this information to target you with personalized ads.

Since May 2026, E2EE has been rolling out between iPhones (running OS 26.5+) and Android devices running the latest Google Messages (but not Samsung Messenger at the time of writing). But again, your metadata is still visible to not just Apple and Google, but to your internet provider.

A much better option is to use open source apps that genuinely protect your privacy (such as Signal or some of the European chat and messaging apps currently on the market).

Final thoughts

Read receipts aren’t something most people need to worry too much about. For friends, family, and coworkers, they’re a small convenience with little real downside. However, the risk rises with strangers, unwanted contacts, or anyone you don’t want tracking your habits.

The good news is that every major messaging app gives you the option to turn them off, and doing so costs you very little (at most, a bit of ambiguity about whether someone’s seen your message yet). If privacy is your priority, pair disabled read receipts with a genuinely private encrypted app like Signal that doesn’t collect and monetizes your data.

How to know if someone blocked you on Instagram

Proton Team — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:36:27 GMT

If you suspect someone has blocked you on Instagram, there’s only one real way to know for sure: asking them directly. Otherwise, Instagram does a pretty good job of preventing blocked users from finding out what happened. Of course, there are signs and ways to figure it out, which are also useful to know if you plan on blocking someone, such as Instagram stalkers.

In this article, we’ll look at how to block someone on Instagram, and how to know if someone blocked you.

What happens when you block someone on Instagram
How to block someone on Instagram
How to know if someone blocked you on Instagram
How to stay safe on Instagram
Instagram’s privacy settings aren’t enough

What happens when you block someone on Instagram

Blocking someone on Instagram prevents them from following you and viewing your posts, stories, and follow list. They won’t be able to see new posts and stories you share going forward, and they’ll no longer be able to message you.

In some cases, a blocked user might still be able to view your old likes and comments on others’ posts, but they will not receive a notification that you’ve blocked them.

Instead, most users find out they’ve been blocked by doing a little bit of digging or after realizing they haven’t seen your profile pop up in their feed lately. If they regularly search for your profile, they’ll probably notice that they can no longer find it.

How to block someone on Instagram

To block someone on Instagram, visit their profile and click the three dots (…) in the top right corner of the screen. This opens a menu that allows you to report, restrict, or block their account. You can also hide your story from that particular user, remove them as a follower, or see shared activity between the two of you.

The other way to block an Instagram user is from app settings:

1. Scroll to the Who can see your content section and tap Blocked.

2. Click the plus sign (+) on the top right-hand corner of the screen and type in their username or search to add them to your blocked list.

If you later change your mind, you can revisit this section and tap Unblock for each Instagram profile.

How to know if someone blocked you on Instagram

The only surefire way to know if you’ve been blocked is to ask the person directly, though that can make for an awkward conversation.

If you’re wondering how to see who blocked you on Instagram without asking, several signs can help you figure it out:

Search for their profile: You won’t be able to find their username and profile in your Following list. Try logging out of the app or using Instagram in incognito / private browsing mode before checking their profile. If the profile appears when you’re logged out but not when you’re logged in, that’s a strong indicator that they’ve blocked you.

Check your message history: If you’ve messaged the person before, your conversation remains in your message folder unless you deleted it. If their username and profile image still appear, you haven’t been blocked. But if the chat shows a generic avatar without a username and you can no longer send messages in the thread, it’s likely you’ve been blocked.

Look for past likes and comments: When someone blocks you, Instagram removes their likes and comments from your posts. Comb through your posts to see if these interactions are still visible.

Try following them again: If you can find and follow the account again, they may have simply removed you from their Followers list rather than blocked you.

Check with a mutual connection: Ask someone who also follows that person whether they can still see that account and message them. If so, you were likely blocked.

How to stay safe on Instagram

Blocking someone isn’t the only way to increase your safety and privacy on Instagram. The app lets you determine who can see your posts and stories, and who can message you. If you’re worried about your child using this social media app, set up parental controls within Instagram to limit their use and interactions.

And because Meta’s app often appears in news stories about privacy and security issues — such as the Instagram password reset emails and Meta pulling its AI image generator from Instagram after public backlash — you should lock down your privacy settings:

Set your profile to private

You can make your profile, posts, stories and follow list public for anyone to see, or you can go private, so only approved followers can view your information and media.

Here’s how to make your Instagram profile private:

1. Click the three lines in the top-right corner of your profile page.

2. Select Settings and activity.

3. Scroll to the Who can see your content section and tap Account privacy.

4. Toggle on the Private account setting.

Learn more about how to block Insta stalkers

Restrict someone instead of blocking them

In some cases, you might want to limit contact with someone without blocking them. This is possible through Instagram’s restrict feature:

Restricted users can’t see when you’re active on Instagram, and they won’t know if you’ve read their messages.
Messages from restricted users go into a separate folder called Message Requests, which you’re free to view or ignore.
Comments they leave on your posts and reels are visible only to you and the restricted user, unless you choose to approve them for others to see.
You won’t get notifications when the restricted account comments on your content.

To restrict someone, go to Settings and activity → Restricted, search for the Instagram account, and tap Restrict.

If you later change your mind, retrace your steps to remove someone from your Restricted list.

Set temporary limits for users

Instagram’s Limit interactions feature works similarly to restricting someone, but only for certain interactions and for a set period. It temporarily hides comments and new messages and prevents story replies, tags, and mentions from selected groups, such as recent followers and accounts that don’t follow you. The app will send an automatic notification to remove these limited interactions after a time period you specify.

You can also limit everyone but your list of close friends.

Go to Settings and activity → Limit interactions to decide what and who will be limited, and for how long.

Make the most of your Close Friends list

Many Instagram users follow a variety of accounts, including friends, family, coworkers, businesses, news sites and even strangers. Sometimes that list may include accounts you don’t remember following. To share selected content with a smaller audience, use the Close Friends feature. It allows you to:

Create a private list of followers, where you can add or remove people anytime
Limit individual posts, notes, reels, and stories to people on that list
When someone on your Close Friends list views a story shared with that group, they’ll see a green ring around your profile picture and a Close Friends label.
People on your Close Friends list can’t see who else is included. However, interactions with Close Friends content may reveal that individual members are also on the list.

To tweak your Close Friends list, go to Settings and activity → Close Friends. Check the boxes next to the Instagram contacts you’d like to add to your Close Friends list and tap Done. When posting something on Instagram, check the Audience setting and select Close Friends before sharing.

Instagram’s privacy settings aren’t enough

No combination of settings can make Instagram completely private. Features such as private accounts, Blocked, Close Friends, Restricted, and Limit interactions help control who can view or interact with your content, but Meta still controls the platform. It can change or remove privacy features, alter how they work, or introduce new features that create additional privacy risks. For example:

Private conversations can be accessed by Meta since the company ended end-to-end encryption on Instagram in May 2026, and that content can be shared with law enforcement in response to legal requests.
Vanishing messages should not be considered completely private either, as Instagram allows them to be reported for up to 14 days after their disappear.
Even visible privacy signals may be unreliable. Instagram Plus subscribers can view stories anonymously, so you may not always know who has seen your content.

Treat anything shared on Instagram as content that can be accessed beyond its intended audience. For stronger privacy, consider European social media apps with transparent data practices and a good VPN that protects your connection whenever you go online.

Proton VPN transparency report and warrant canary

Proton Team — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:32:45 GMT

Editor’s note: This page, which was originally published on June 18, 2017, is updated whenever there is a notable new legal request.

Proton VPN is based in Switzerland, so we will only comply with requests that have been approved by the Swiss court system. We are not legally bound to honor foreign requests without such approval, and in fact we are legally prohibited from doing so by Section 271 of the Swiss Criminal Code.

Switzerland has strong constitutional privacy protections. Under Swiss law, Proton VPN is not obligated to save connection logs, and we adhere to a strict no-logs VPN policy that has been validated by multiple no-logs audits. Because we do not collect or store any user activity information, we cannot provide it, even when we receive a legally binding Swiss court order.

Since Proton VPN was launched in 2017, we have received 458 legally binding orders approved by the Swiss authorities. In every one of these cases, the authorities wanted us to help identify who was connected to a specific Proton VPN server at a specific time.

In every case, we were unable to provide the requested identifying information because Proton VPN does not keep the logs that would make such identification possible. So, all such requests were denied.

A warrant canary is not meaningful in Switzerland, because Swiss law requires that the target of a surveillance or data request eventually be notified, so they have the opportunity to contest the data request.

2026

(Through June)

Total orders: 47
Denied orders: 47

2025

Total orders: 59
Denied orders: 59

2024

Total orders: 53
Denied orders: 53

2023

Total orders: 60
Denied orders : 60

2022

Total orders: 80
Denied orders 80

2021

Total orders: 121
Denied orders: 121

2020

Total orders: 37
Denied orders: 37

2019

Total orders: 1
Denied orders: 1

Microsoft GDID: How a secret Windows identifier may have led to Scattered Spider

Douglas Crawford — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 17:43:03 GMT

If you use Windows, you’re probably at least vaguely aware that your laptop is spying on you. This week, we received a concrete reminder of just how invasive to privacy Microsoft’s ubiquitous operating system really is.

Peter Stokes, a 19-year-old who is suspected of being a member of the notorious criminal hacking group Scattered Spider, was extradited from Finland to the United States and accused of hacking “Company F, a luxury-jewelry retailer.”

What makes the case interesting, however, is how he was caught.

Windows as spyware

According to the FBI’s criminal complaint, Stokes used a VPN to hide his online activity. This is widely considered a sensible option, as a VPN hides your real IP address from websites you visit and your online activity from your ISP. But he made a fatal rookie mistake: he used Windows.

Authorities identified Stokes using Microsoft records that tied his computer to suspicious use of ngrok, a web development tunneling tool that was used to “circumvent Company F network defenses and enable persistent unauthorized access to the Company F data center.”

Microsoft was able to identify Stokes’ computer thanks to its Global Device Identifier (GDID), a “device-level identifier designed to uniquely identify an installation of a Windows operating system on a device.”

In other words, every installation of Windows has a GDID that Microsoft can use to identify a device (including virtual devices), and to collect telemetry. Reinstalling Windows creates a new GDID for that device, but doesn’t erase the old one from Microsoft’s systems, so it can still be used to identify a device.

Microsoft then handed this information to third parties.

How the FBI used the information Microsoft provided

This evidence alone wasn’t enough to connect the crime to Stokes, but knowing the GDID gave the FBI a history of IP addresses that his device had accessed over time. To prove those IPs belonged to Peter Stokes specifically, investigators cross-referenced this IP history against logins to accounts known to be his, including Apple, Snapchat, Facebook, and his Growtopia game login.

Connecting the GDID to accounts known to belong to Stokes helped prove the GDID used to hack the jeweler belonged to a device owned by Stokes, according to the complaint.

That one of the IP addresses identified in this way belonged to a New York hotel that investigators say matches the interior visible in a Snapchat selfie showing Stokes covering his face with a wad of $100 bills is unlikely to help his case.

What does this mean for the rest of us?

The first thing to stress is that, in this case, the system worked as intended.

Stokes faces charges including conspiracy, cyber intrusion, and fraud offenses tied to over $100 million in ransom payments across more than 100 corporate intrusions since 2022. The FBI’s use of Microsoft data falls within legal frameworks requiring court orders and subpoenas.

But the GDID raises important questions about user consent and who actually owns the hardware you pay for. You are never asked to agree to the GDID on your device, and there is no easy way to remove it. Even completely re-installing Windows is only a partial solution.

In all of Microsoft’s extensive online documentation, GlobalDeviceId merits a single mention buried in a highly obscure technical document that no one is ever likely to read.

It is true, however, that all other major commercial operating systems, such macOS, Android, and iOS, can also almost certainly uniquely identify devices to their manufactures. The unfortunate thing is that most us simply accept this situation.

For those who don’t, the only practical way to avoid this is to use open source operating systems, such as Linux.

How to disable location services and keep your location history private

Jessica Bernard — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:50:10 GMT

Giving your phone and your apps access to your location undeniably makes them more useful. If your phone knows where you are, you can get map directions and weather updates, calculate travel times, or alert your friends and family to your location. But there’s a darker side to location tracking: apps often build shockingly detailed profiles of your daily movements and then monetize this data.

Turning off location services and clearing location history, or at least adjusting certain settings, is a crucial step in protecting your private data from third parties. Below, we’ll walk you through how to disable location services on Android, iOS and iPadOS, macOS, and Windows, how to delete and disable your Google Maps Timeline, and discuss why turning off location services alone isn’t enough to keep your location truly private.

Why turn off location services?
How to disable location services on Android
How to disable location services on iOS and iPadOS
How to disable location services on Windows
How to disable location services on macOS
How to delete and disable your Google Maps timeline, location history, and search history
Why turning off location services isn’t enough
FAQ on location services

Why turn off location services?

There are plenty of reasons to turn off or adjust your location settings:

Privacy from advertizers

Your device knows where you live and work, when and where you shop, where your kids go to school, and which medical clinics you attend. The result of this tracking is an incredibly detailed profile of your every movement that is routinely sold to data brokers and adtech companies so that you can be targeted with ever more personalized ads.

Location data can even be used for surveillance pricing, where passing a store can trigger ads or where you live can affect the prices you see. All without you providing any meaningful consent.

Privacy from your government

In many countries, your location data can be accessed by government agencies, often without a warrant. In the United States, law enforcement has been documented purchasing location data from commercial brokers specifically to circumvent the legal requirements that would otherwise apply to surveillance.

Protection from abusers

Location sharing has become a tool for stalking and coercive control, used by abusive partners, stalkers, or unauthorized third parties to monitor victims in real time. Reviewing and restricting who can see your location and disabling background tracking can remove a critical layer of visibility that might otherwise be exploited.

Additional resources:

Battery life

If you have location services switched on, you may be experiencing a significant drain on battery life and unnecessary mobile data usage. In high-accuracy modes, your phone constantly pings GPS satellites, WiFi networks, and cell towers.

By limiting location access to essential apps only, and selecting “while using” instead of “always”, you can extend your battery life and reduce data usage without sacrificing core functionality.

How to disable location services on Android

This guide was created using a Samsung OneUI 8.5 phone. Details may differ slightly on other Android devices.

Turn off location services entirely

1. Open Settings on your Android device

2. Scroll down and tap Location (On some devices: Go to Privacy → Permission Manager → Location)

3. Tap the Location switch to turn it off.

Note: When location is turned off, apps and services can’t access your device’s location. However, you may still see local results and ads based on your IP address.

Disable location for specific apps

You can also manage how specific apps can access your location data. Either tap App permissions on the screen above, or:

1. Open Settings

2. Tap Apps or Apps & notifications

3. Select the app you want to modify

4. Tap Permissions

5. Tap Location

Choose one of the following options:

Don’t allow: The app cannot access your location
Ask every time: You’ll be prompted each time the app requests location
Allow only while using the app: Location is accessed only when the app is open
Allow all the time: The app can access location even in the background

You can also disable Use precise location from this screen.

Turn off Improve Location Accuracy

Location Accuracy (also called Google Location Services) helps your device get more precise location data by using WiFi, Bluetooth, and cell tower signals. Disabling it reduces precision, but doesn’t fully stop tracking.

1. Go to Settings → Location

2. Tap Location services → Location Accuracy

3. Toggle the Improve Location Accuracy switch off

Important: Even with Location Accuracy off, your device can still estimate location using GPS if allowed.

Manage WiFi and Bluetooth scanning

These features can reveal your location, even when standard location services are off:

1. Go to Settings → Location → Location services

2. Toggle both Wi‑Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning switches off

How to disable location services on iOS and iPadOS

Turn off location services entirely

1. Open Settings

2. Tap Privacy & Security

3. Tap Location Services

4. Toggle Location Services switch off at the top of the screen

Important: Some apps may not function properly without location access. Turning this off will reset permissions for all apps until you manually grant access again.

Disable location for specific apps

1. Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services

2. Ensure Location Services is toggled on

3. Scroll to find the app you want to manage

4. Tap the app name

5. Select one of these options:

Never: The app never receives location data
Ask Next Time Or When I Share: Prompted each time; allows one-time choices
While Using the App: Location is accessible only when the app is visible on-screen

Disable Precise Location

iOS 14 and later lets you share an approximate, rather than an exact, location:

1. Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services

2. Select the app you want to adjust

3. Toggle the Precise Location switch off

When Precise Location is disabled, the app knows your approximate area (typically within 10 miles), instead of your exact GPS coordinates.

Note: You won’t see this option if you’ve already set your location access to Never for that app.

Learn more about how to check your iPhone location history

How to disable location services on Windows 11

Turn off location services

1. Click Start → Settings

2. Go to Privacy & security → App permissions → Location

3. Toggle the Location services switch off

Note: If you’re not logged in as an administrator, you may not see this setting.

Disable location for specific apps

1. Click Start → Settings

2. Go to Privacy & security → App permissions → Location

3. Scroll to Choose which apps can access your precise location

4. Toggle individual app switches off to prevent access

Note: Only apps installed from the Microsoft Store appear here. Third-party desktop apps generally have unrestricted access unless you block them through other means.

Stop websites from accessing your location

Microsoft Edge

1. Open Microsoft Edge

2. Go to Settings → Site permissions → All permissions → → Location

3. Toggle the Ask before accessing switch off, or remove sites from the Allowed to see your location list

Other browsers handle location permissions similarly through their privacy settings.

How to disable location services on macOS

Turn off location services entirely

1. Click the Apple icon on the menu bar → System Settings

2. Go to Privacy & Security → Location Services

3. Toggle Location Services OFF at the top of the window

Some system services (such as Emergency SOS) may continue to use location regardless of this setting.

Disable location for specific apps

1. Click the Apple icon → System Settings

2. Go to Privacy & Security → Location Services

3. Ensure Location Services is on

4. Find the app in the list below.

5. Uncheck the box next to the app name to revoke permission.

Manage system services

Some macOS system services (such as Find My and Siri suggestions) use location separately from app-level permissions:

1. Click the Apple icon → System Settings

2. Go to Privacy & Security → Location Services

3. Click the Details… button next to System Services

4. Toggle individual services off as needed

Note: If Location Services is already disabled, these services will be disabled automatically.

How to delete and disable your Google Maps Timeline (previously known as Location History)

Google has recently overhauled how it handles your location data and will continue to do so over the next few months. Timeline information is now stored locally on your device rather than in your Google Account, the web-based Timeline viewer has been retired, and the settings you need are now managed primarily through the Google Maps app.

Menu labels vary by app version, region, and device, so you may see Timeline, Maps history, Your data in Maps, or similar wording. The steps below cover the actions you need to take, regardless of the exact label.

Turn off Timeline/Maps history

This stops Google from recording your future movements:

1. Open the Google Maps app on your phone

2. Tap your profile icon (top right)

3. Tap Your data in Maps or Settings → Privacy (the exact path varies by version)

4. Look for a setting labelled Timeline, Maps history, or Location History and toggle it off

Note: Google’s own documentation states that even when Timeline is turned off, “you may still have other location data saved in your Google Account” if settings like Web & App Activity or Search Services History remain enabled. To address this, follow the steps above, selecting Web & App Activity instead of Timeline, and update your Search Services History settings.

Delete your existing Timeline

Your Maps search history is separate from Timeline. It records the places you have searched for, not the places you have visited.

1. Open Google Maps → tap your profile icon

2. Tap Your Timeline or Your data in Maps → Timeline

3. Tap the three dots (⋮)

4. Select Delete day to delete today’s data OR

5. Select Location & privacy settings

6. Scroll to Timeline and choose:

Delete all Timeline data
Delete range of Timeline data
Auto-delete Timeline data

Warning: Deleted Timeline data cannot be recovered. If you want to keep a record, export your Timeline data before deleting.

How to delete your Google Maps search history

Your Maps search history is separate from Timeline; it records the places you’ve looked up, not the places you’ve been. To delete your search history:

1. Open Google Maps → tap your profile icon

2. Tap Your data in Maps or go to Settings → Location and privacy

3. Select Maps history, tap Delete and choose:

Delete today
Delete custom range
Delete all time

Why turning off location services isn’t enough

Disabling location services is an important step, but it leaves a significant gap. Even with GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth location all switched off, apps and websites can still estimate your location using your IP address.

The only reliable way to prevent IP-based location tracking is to use a VPN. A VPN routes your internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a remote server, replacing your real IP address. This means websites and apps see the server’s location instead of yours, making IP-based geolocation ineffective.

Learn more about how a VPN works

Protect your IP address with Proton VPN

FAQ on location services

Can I still use Google Maps with location off?

Yes, you can search for places, view maps, and get directions with location services disabled. However the app won’t know your starting point, so it can’t automatically provide turn-by-turn navigation or real-time traffic updates. You’ll need to enter your current location manually first. Some features, like finding nearby restaurants or seeing your ETA, also won’t work without location access.

Does turning off location services stop all tracking?

No, turning off location services prevents apps from using GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth to determine your precise position, but it doesn’t stop IP-based location estimation or affect data that’s already been collected. Google notes that you can still receive location-based results and ads via your IP address. Additionally, if Web & App Activity (or Search Services History) remains enabled in your Google Account, Google may continue to store approximate location data as part of your broader activity. To minimize tracking, you need to disable location services, manage your account-level activity settings, and use a VPN.

Can apps track my location if location services are off?

In most cases, apps cannot access your precise GPS coordinates when location services are disabled. However, they can still infer your approximate location through:

Your IP address: Reveals your general area (city-level)
WiFi network names: Nearby networks can be cross-referenced with databases to estimate position
Cellular tower data: Available to any app with phone permissions on some platforms
Bluetooth beacons: Used in retail environments to detect proximity

Microsoft explicitly warns that third-party apps may bypass Windows Location services using these methods. On Android and iOS, the operating systems impose stricter controls, but IP-based location remains universally available to any app with internet acce

Proton VPN now supports Baybayin. Celebrating Philippine Independence Day in code and culture

Douglas Crawford — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 19:38:05 GMT

Maligayang Araw ng Kalayaan, Pilipinas!

Today, June 12th, marks 128 years of Philippine independence. And to mark this celebration, Proton VPN has added Baybayin (the islands’ pre-colonial writing system) as a selectable script in our Windows app, a small but heartfelt token of appreciation to our millions of Filipino community members.

This makes Proton VPN the world’s first major VPN to support Baybayin.

What is Baybayin? A script reborn

Baybayin (ᜊᜌ᜔ᜊᜌᜒᜈ᜔) was the dominant script across much of the Philippine archipelago before Spanish colonization in the 16th century, after which the Latin alphabet gradually took its place.

Today, Baybayin is undergoing a remarkable revival. It appears on Philippine banknotes and passports, is taught in schools, and holds a cherished place in Filipino cultural identity, even by those who can’t yet read or write it fluently.

Why celebrate the 128th year of independence?

Milestone anniversary celebrations are usually held on round-numbered years, such the 50th, 100th, 200th. But Proton is a tech company, and 128 is a perfect round number. It’s 2⁷, one of the fundamental values in binary code. We just couldn’t resist.

It’s also a great opportunity to celebrate another milestone that’s meaningful to us: Since July 2025, Proton VPN has been the most popular VPN in the Philippines.

Why Filipinos use Proton VPN

The Philippines has one of the most active and engaged internet populations in the world. Filipinos spend more time online than almost any other nationality, and VPNs have become an important part of how many people manage their digital life.

Privacy and security online

A VPN encrypts your internet connection, so your ISP doesn’t know what you get up to online. Websites only see the IP address of the VPN server, not your real IP. And based in privacy-friendly Switzerland, Proton VPN keeps no logs that could compromise your privacy.

Learn more about how a VPN works

Proton VPN also protects you online with NetShield Ad-blocker, our built-in DNS filtering solution for blocking ads, trackers, and malware.

Staying connected, wherever you are

More than 10 million Filipinos live and work overseas, making it one of the largest diasporas in the world. With a Proton VPN Plus plan, you can easily connect back home no matter where you are, to enjoy local news, entertainment, sports events, and other services that are not available elsewhere.

Get Proton VPN Plus

A truly international VPN

At Proton, we believe the internet belongs to everyone. That’s why we offer a 100% free VPN to make our service accessible to those who need it most.

As part of our ongoing mission to help ensure the internet serves people, not power, we understand the need to speak to our community in a language (and sometimes a script) that feels like their own.

With servers in over 148 countries worldwide and apps available in 37 languages, we support Albanian, Vietnamese, Catalan, Ukrainian, Icelandic, Thai, and many more, making Proton VPN the most international VPN on the market.

Privacy for everyone

Developed by the team behind Proton Mail, Proton VPN is one of the world’s largest VPN services. We are headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and operated by the not-for-profit Proton Foundation. We offer fully audited open-source apps across all major platforms and have a strict no-logs policy that has also been independently audited.

Our free plan is funded transparently by community members who choose to upgrade to a paid plan for additional features. We do not sell user data. We do not show ads. We do not log your browsing activity. Ever.

To the millions of Filipino community members who trust Proton VPN as their privacy tool of choice, we thank you. We hope this small addition to our Windows app brings a moment of pride and joy on your 128th Independence Day.