Le VPN is a longstanding player in the VPN industry that has expanded its service to not just cover more countries, but also to offer a broader and streamlined user experience. While many VPN providers offer a Smart DNS service on the side, Le VPN is combining the forces of both VPN and smart DNS into its latest HybridVPN protocol. Over 114 countries have at least one Le VPN server that serves to unblock content and safeguard your privacy online, showing just how internationally oriented this Hong Kong based VPN company is. That’s right; despite its French name Le VPN is run by VTNV Solutions Limited from Hong Kong to best serve the needs of expats across Asia and elsewhere in the world. There is plenty more to be told about Le VPN, which is exactly what Le VPN co-founder Ksenia does in this interview we did with her.
Why did you decide to start Le VPN?
Le VPN was started five years ago in France, in response to the new laws that limited people’s freedom on the Internet. Our mission at Le VPN is to help people access and enjoy the Internet freely and securely from wherever they may be, including countries with strict censorship or data surveillance laws. There is already a lot of discrimination in the world and we believe that Internet should remain that one place where everybody is equal and can have access to any information they need, no matter where they live and where they come from.
A VPN connection gives you the freedom to bypass all censorship and firewalls, to change your virtual location to any country of your choice in order to access the information or content of any country, and to use the Internet the way you want it. That is why our slogan at Le VPN is “Enjoy the Internet by Your Own Rules.”
Why should we rely on Le VPN and not another VPN provider?
There are many reliable VPN providers out there and we will not say that we are the only one, but it is also true that there are even more non-reliable ones with questionable privacy policies, especially if they are free VPNs.
When choosing a VPN provider it is very important to see who is behind it, what their logging policy is, and how your private information will be protected. We at Le VPN are very transparent about who we are and how we protect your Internet traffic through the Le VPN connection.
Our company was founded by European information security experts who used to protect global Fortune 100 companies and decided to use their knowledge to provide this service to private individuals like you and me. We guarantee that your VPN connection with Le VPN is 100% protected at all times with a military strong encryption. Our logging policy is described in our Terms of Service: we do not keep any traffic logs, and all online activities of Le VPN users are completely private and confidential, even from us.
Another thing to look at is the reliability of a VPN connection and VPN servers. Le VPN currently has servers in 114 countries, each under 4 different types of VPN connection: OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP/IPSec and HybridVPN. What that means for the user is hundreds of possibilities to connect to Le VPN through a combination of different servers and protocols, in case one of the servers or protocols happen to be blocked in their country.
We are also proud to say that our service has kept a 100% uptime for the last five years, and only keeps getting stronger.
Can you tell us a bit more about HybridVPN?
HybridVPN is a unique type of VPN connection created by Le VPN. It is a combination of a SmartDNS and a secure VPN connection. What it means for the user is that you can connect to any server in any country, at your convenience (out of 114 available) through the HybridVPN connection, and besides unblocking all the content of the country you’ve connected to, you will also unblock all the content available under our SmartDNS package: online media and TV channels in the US, UK and France.
It is no secret that the closer you are to the country you are connecting to, the faster your VPN connection will be. With HybridVPN you can enjoy the fast VPN connection and have all your online traffic securely encrypted, but also unblock online media in other countries through non-encrypted SmartDNS traffic for that media only.
For example, let’s say you are based in Korea and you want to connect to our server in Japan (to bypass Korea’s censorship, to enjoy the fastest connection in your region and also to keep all of your Internet activities private and secure). However, you also want to be able to watch BBC iPlayer (in the UK), a live French TV channel and unblock a U.S. library of Netflix. With a classic VPN connection you would need to change servers to British, French and American to unblock each online media in this example. Connecting to a U.S. server from Korea and watching a live American show is sometimes a challenge because of the connection speeds. By connecting to a HybridVPN protocol in Japan, you can do all of this at once and enjoy the maximum connection speeds for all the online media (because of the light SmartDNS tunnel), and also for the rest of your online activities encrypted with Le VPN.
How can P2P, file-sharing lovers use Le VPN?
Le VPN has dedicated servers for P2P and file sharing usage in four countries in the Americas and in Europe, and they can fully satisfy the needs of P2P lovers, although, we do not allow P2P and file-sharing activities through the rest of our servers.
Which countries do you consider to be the best to connect to in terms of privacy protection?
We provide the same high quality privacy protection on all our VPN nodes in all the countries where Le VPN has servers. No matter which country you connect to through Le VPN, all your online activities stay private and nobody can see what you are doing online. You can connect to our VPN servers in any of the available 114 countries and your connection will stay equally protected. Obviously, this does not include any kind of “traces” you will personally leave on the Internet: if your browser is tracking cookies and saves your passwords, if you connect with your social networks, or if you leave any kind of personal information on websites with questionable privacy policies. We can guarantee to protect all your activities inside our VPN tunnel, so that all you do online stays completely private from the most prying eyes, no matter where you are and to which country you connect, but the rest is up to the user.
Why did you choose to have your company headquartered in Hong Kong?
After founding Le VPN in France and working with mostly French clients in our first year, we realized that we wanted to expand internationally and to serve more people. Hong Kong was a strategic location to be closer to the countries with strict censorship laws, as well as to the large expat community in Asia. Today Le VPN has become a truly international service provider, with servers in over 110 countries and clients from almost every country in the world. Our website is currently available in four European languages: English, French, Spanish and Russian, and contains a lot of information about the best practices of Le VPN usage, as well as all the latest information about Internet security and online censorship issues, in our blog which is updated almost daily.
Which new innovations can we expect in the VPN scene in the near future?
Our team works a lot on innovating our service. That is how we’ve added a SmartDNS service to our Le VPN plan, among the first on the market, and then shortly after that we created HybridVPN, which combines the two: an easy-to-use SmartDNS and a secure VPN connection. The market is evolving and our usage of the Internet is evolving with it, so there’s no doubt that you’ll see new features and new innovations in the future.
How do you see internet freedom evolving over the next decade?
From the day Le VPN was created five years ago, we’ve been fighting for a more free and equal Internet. We believe that the Internet should be free of all geographic restrictions, censorship and traffic prioritization. That’s the evolution of Internet freedom we hope to see in the next decade, and we will do our best to be a part of it, although it’s not always easy. In the last few years, we have seen that Internet freedom has only been degrading, with stricter laws and policies.
How do you personally use your Le VPN account?
I use Le VPN a lot when I am on the go, never connecting to public Wi-Fi in the airports, hotels or cafes without a secure Le VPN connection. I use it on my Mac, as well as on my iPhone. It is very convenient and became an automatic gesture for me as soon as I see an open Wi-Fi connection.
I also use it at home to watch British and American media live and on replays, and to unblock Netflix libraries from around the world, as the choice of movies and shows is very different from one country to another. With Le VPN you can unblock them all.
The protocol or the type of connection I use the most is HybridVPN because it is so multifunctional and allows me to unblock American, British and French media without even thinking about it. This is one strong advantage of the Le VPN service and I highly recommend it to all!
Anything else we should definitely know about Le VPN?
Le VPN is probably among the most reliable VPN services on the market, and the best value for your money. Besides the traditional VPN connection, we offer SmartDNS service and a HybridVPN protocol, which are included in the same Le VPN plan, beginning at $4.95 per month. The service can be used on two devices simultaneously, it is compatible with the majority of operating systems and devices, including iPhones and Androids, and our dedicated iOS app helps to find and quickly install the best VPN server on your iPhone or iPad.
Our VPN servers are currently in 114 countries and this list continues to grow, while our connection speeds stay among the fastest on the market and our service guarantees a 100% uptime. We innovate a lot and all the new features and technology released several times a year are always added free of charge to our current clients. Le VPN offers a 100% money back guarantee for 7 days for everyone who purchases our Le VPN plan because we believe in the quality of our service and we want to have only happy clients!
Big thanks Ksenia for taking this interview!
Daniel C.
Sander D.
