Alphabet Launches ‘Outline’ VPN Service For Journalists

Google has always been a friend to journalists. Now, the company is proving its loyalty with an open-source tool that grants news organizations safer access to the Internet.
Developed by Alphabet-owned think tank Jigsaw (formerly Google Ideas), virtual private network Outline lets users directly own and operate their server—no third-party trust necessary.

The VPN was designed for everyone—from the office luddite to most liberated geek—with a simple setup, strong encryption, and auto-updating servers.
“Journalists need safe access to information to research issues, communicate with sources, and report the news,” Jigsaw product manager Santiago Andrigo wrote in a blog announcement.
A virtual private network encrypts Internet traffic by bouncing it through a remote server. But while it may shield you from the prying eyes of your Internet service provider, users are still at the mercy of whoever controls the VPN.

With the exception of Outline.

Outline Manager lets you can create a server and share access with unlimited accounts (via Jigsaw)

“Much of Jigsaw’s work involves defending news organizations from digital threats that try to block access to information,” Andrigo wrote. “We created Outline because news organizations need reliable, private Internet access to make information accessible and meaningful for their reads.
“That’s a mission we share with the news industry,” he continued. “And a more informed world starts with access to information.”

Plus, retaining your own server makes it easy to control traffic and maintain Internet speeds.
(For the technically inclined: Outline supports modern AEAD 256-bit cipher encryption and is resistant to probing and stronger against protocol fingerprinting, “which makes it significantly harder to block by modern deep-packet-inspection software.”)
Windows, Android, Chrome OS, and Linux users can sign up online for Outline Manager: Use your own infrastructure or a cloud provider to create a server and share access with unlimited accounts.

Still, an early-stage product, Jigsaw expects to release versions of Outline for Apple’s macOS and iOS platforms “soon.”

For more, see Geek sister site PCMag’s lineup of The Best VPN Services of 2018, as well as How to Set Up and Use a VPN.

Share on Google Plus

About J1TECH

I am a Software developer and the Founder " Admin of j1tech from Dar es salaam,Tanzania. I am loves to write article on technology. I am currently doing Diplomal of Information technology. I am very passionate about blogging and his area of interests are intract with new technology,Web Designing and keenness to learn Ethical tricks as well. Apart from blogging I loves to do programming and study about Latest Technology .