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Personally, I should have seen this coming when Netflix had  declared that they planned to take over the World, Pinky and the Brain Style as I’d explained in “Netflix expansion to 130 Countries as Global Streaming in 2016”.

In a follow-up to the development that should have been labeled “too good to be true” Netflix plans to become a global streaming company comes with a caveat; they have to abide by the rules of regional streaming as required by movie studios and Television stations.

Unblock and Watch American Netflix in Canada using VPN or Smart DNS proxies
Unblock and Watch American Netflix in Canada using VPN or Smart DNS proxies

So it was a bit shocking when Vice President of content delivery architecture at Netflix, David Fullagar, announced in a blog post on Thursday January 14th 2016 titled “Evolving Proxy Detection as a Global Service” plans to block proxies and VPN (Virtual Private Networks).

VPN and Proxies allow internationals, including Jamaicans blocked from watching programming on their FLOW Cable, to watch the American version of Netflix.

That’s because the regional-specific stuff is loaded with Spanish language programming with English subtitles, making Netflix a bit unpleasant and un-American to watch, as skewered by Ramano in his article “Is Netflix a Netjoke?”.

This is where VPN’s and Proxies come in to save the day!

What are VPN and Proxies – Netflix to require ID’s to prove you’re an American Citizen

VPN’s are basically ISP in other countries that allow people to route their traffic through their servers. Proxies are basically rerouting your traffic through another server, but unlike VPN’s, they tend to be free but unsecure, as the Proxy Server can read everything you’re sending.

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How Netflix will block streaming via Proxies and VPN as they go Global (2)

These tools effectively fool Netflix’s servers into thinking that as person is in the US of A and thus eligible to view content blocked in their country. VPN isn’t all bad; it’s what journalists and dissidents of regimes in China, Iran and other places use to get around censorship to access censored content and post blogs and videos on Social Media about what’s going on in their country.

So many Jamaicans with a love for all thing s foreign resort to using VPN, such as this list of VPN’s for Laptop and Desktop users as follows:

  1. BlackVPN (US$10.71 monthly, US111.63 yearly)
  2. Buffered (US$9.99 monthly, US$120.00 yearly)
  3. Cyberghost (US$6.99 monthly, US$69.96 annually)
  4. ExpressVPN (US$8.32 monthly, US$99.95 yearly)
  5. IPVanish VPN (US$6.49 monthly, US$77.99 annually)
  6. Norton Hotspot Privacy (US$20 monthly, US$60 annually)
  7. Private Internet Access (US$7 monthly, US$40 annually)
  8. TorGuard (US$9.99 monthly, US$59.99 annually)
  9. VyprVPN (US$9.99 monthly, US$80.04 annually)

For Smartphone and Tablet users, these are these Apps that are trial ware which also have a pay option:

  1. Cyberghost
  2. Hideman VPN
  3. Hola Free VPN
  4. Hotspot Shield
  5. Private Tunnel VPN
  6. TunnelBear

Still, if you’re a cash-strapped, then these three (3) Google Proxies as listed below should be up you’re alley:

  1. http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://example.com/
  2. http://www.google.ie/gwt/x?u=http://example.com/
  3. http://www.gmodules.com/ig/proxy?url=http://example.com/

To use them, simply enter the address that you wish to visit in the section titled http://example.com/ and then press Enter. Your traffic will be tunneled through the Google proxy, allowing you to stream from Netflix for free.

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With Netflix now in 190 countries streaming to 70 million subscribers worldwide, 50% of whom are in the US of A, sticking to TV and movie studios mean that the headache of proxies and VPN’s just cannot be tolerated. Most likely you’ll be asked to use a Credit Card from an American Bank or enter your SSN (Social Security Number) to sign up for a new Netflix account.

As for persons already streaming via proxies, they’ll probably extend this to any account holder without a Credit Card from an American Bank or enter your SSN, forcing many illegitimate Netflix accounts to close if they do not comply.

Alternately, Netflix may also simply charge International customers pretending to be Americans more money. They’d most likely sent them a notification or a warning email, telling that they know that they’re not in the US of A and give them a choice to either transfer their account to a regional account or pay a premium to watch Netflix, say US$16 per month.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel; Vice President of content delivery architecture at Netflix, David Fullagar promises a future where the same movies and TV shows everywhere.

Most likely a future where all movie studios and Television stations are owned by one Umbrella Corporation, no doubt…… or by Netflix?

World domination never looked so well-planned and Netflix is an evil genius, The Devil Wears Prada Style!

Here’s the link:

Evolving Proxy Detection as a Global Service

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