Cocoon: A Free Way Through China’s “Great Firewall”

Cocoon, recently trialed by Boarding Area’s Gary Leff, offers those frustrated by China’s “Great Firewall” access to forbidden sites such as Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and Instagram. Unlike other Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), this service is free to use and does not sell on users’ data.

For travelers in China looking to access their favorite social media sites, Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology offers a way of surmounting the nation’s so-called “Great Firewall.” While many VPNs exist as paid-for services, BoardingArea‘s Gary Leff recently trialed a new browser that offers access to blocked sites for free.

Cocoon, explains Leff in a recent blog post, is “based on Firefox and offers the capabilities of a VPN built in. That way you can privately access content from anywhere in the world. You’re accessing their servers and their servers are calling the sites you want and delivering them to you.”

For those concerned about network security, Cocoon also explained to Leff that, “We are better than a VPN because our browser is completely self-contained and doesn’t transmit any unique, identifiable information. The browser communicates only with Cocoon servers, based in the US. This makes you a part of our cloud, handling requests, and shielding your identity.”

Cocoon further explained to Leff that, “…websites only see our proxy cloud instead of your IP and location. On top of that, nothing is stored in the cloud, so it vanishes altogether after a session.”

While no VPN is totally secure, Cocoon tells Leff, “In order to protect users against viruses and malicious content, the pre-encrypted traffic scans the content on a programmatic level…Other than our software protecting against viruses or malicious known sites (blacklisting), we do not have any access to the data…”.

For potential users wary of Cocoon’s free-of-charge business model, Leff explains that the site only makes its money via “affiliate commissions for online shopping,” “advertising” and via a “premium ad-free version” of their site know as Cocoon+. According to Leff, the site explains that its ads are unable to identify and follow users’ movements.

For those interested in using this browser via a mobile platform, Leff writes that, “Android versions will be coming out shortly, and iOS over the summer.”

[Photo: Shutterstock]