What you need to stay connected to the internet in Thailand
Preserve your privacy and access to the internet with these must-have services.
9 years ago
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has already met with Thailand’s internet service providers and shut down hundreds of websites since the military took over. Not that any of this is particularly new, ever since the 2006 coup and the Computer Crimes Act, Thailand has actually blocked hundreds of thousands of web pages. There's not only the question of access, though. Privacy matters, too, in this tense political climate. Here are some services that can help you on both the access and privacy fronts:
NOTE: We're only recommending these apps in case of further glitches, not to access banned content or share illegal information.
Telegram Chat App
Telegram offers two advantages compared to Whatsapp, Line, Facebook Messenger, etc. One, it allows users to encrypt their messages: even the guys at Telegram say they can’t read your messages even if they wanted to. The second advantage is the auto-destruct feature, where all your messages are permanently erased after a set amount of time. Compare that to Facebook, for example, where “deleting” messages only archives them.
SurfEasy
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It allows you to establish an encrypted connection with a relay outside of your country, and browse the internet through that private, secured connection. Since you’re basically browsing the internet from abroad (if only virtually), issues in Thailand will not affect you. For example, if Facebook “malfunctions,” you’ll still be able to post pictures of your food and share cat videos. You can try SurfEasy (www.surfeasy.com), with a limited amount of free bandwidth, and if you get hooked, it’s US$4.99/month for up to five devices and unlimited bandwidth.
FreedomeVPN
Another VPN service, it promises six months of free services to Thai users to keep your “digital freedom.” Use the sign-in code “david” at http://freedome.f-secure.com/vip/
Tor
Tor is simply a browser, like Google Chrome or Firefox. That makes it free and easy to install, compared to the aforementioned VPNs. It offers the same privacy and ability to see blocked websites as VPNs. But because Tor works by re-routing and encrypting traffic through Tor users machines, it's much slower than VPNs. Check it out at http://www.torproject.lu/
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