proXPN rightfully prides itself for offering a truly 100% free VPN service, since their free accounts don’t contain any ads or other sneaky stuff. For those who want a fully powered service can get a premium VPN account for $6.25 per month, giving you access to all protocols, server locations and the newly released Android VPN app offered by proXPN. Based in the Netherlands, proXPN offers its service under this country’s privacy-friendly laws and in the meantime is capable of offering fast servers that allow Torrent traffic.
The company is currently innovating with the development of cloudXPN, a highly secure network on which developers can develop ultra secure applications for all people using proXPN. Reasons enough for us to invite the company’s CEO and founder Mike Strouse for an interview about his business.
Can you introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Mike Strouse. I have for over 15 years been an internet entrepreneur.
What inspired you to found a VPN company?
Living overseas and being blocked sometimes by foreign governments or regional site restrictions, as well as being aware of how insecure most networks are, has made a VPN critical for my life online. It only made sense to me that others would have the same need.
What are the advantages of being a company registered in the Netherlands as a VPN provider?
The EU and specifically Holland data privacy laws are far superior to many other jurisdictions we explored.
How many servers, IPs, locations does proXPN currently have in its network?
We have in excess of 10,000 IP’s roughly 40 servers, 7 locations and 1 gigabit connections in every location. We’re currently testing 3 new locations to go online in the next 2 months.
Is it fair to say that proXPN is more geared towards privacy protection than unlocking websites?
I would say that goes hand in hand. A government filter on content is essentially a privacy invasion. We don’t differentiate.
Which information do you log of your VPN users?
The origin IP that users have to connect to our network and the time they are online. We keep those logs for only 10 days.
Is there a difference in the way you handle logs of free users compared to premium users?
None at all. Privacy is a right that you have with us regardless of ability to pay.
Can you tell us a bit more about your latest project cloudXPN?
It’s an experiment to see what apps and services users can come up with to serve the proXPN community. Anything built in cloudXPN is only accessible while connected to proXPN. This prevents the users from ever having to go off into “insecure” internet space. Anyone with an idea can contact us at cloudXPN.com and apply for a dev hosting account.
When may we expect this new service to launch?
It’s already in beta and we’re taking applications now.
What are some of the other products, features your team is working on?
Android app based on OpenVPN was released July 23rd 2013 and we’re working on an iOS OpenVPN app.
Are there plans for a DNS unblocking (Smart DNS) service?
Not right now.
How do you see online privacy evolving in the months, years to come?
I see corporations and governments trying harder to peer into people’s digital life and more people seeking to secure their right to privacy. We will be there step by step doing everything we can to help people maintain their right to a private and secure digital life.
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
We really love our users, we really really do, and not like other services. In fact; we heard them calling their users fat and ugly.
Our thanks go to Mike and the rest of the proXPN crew for doing this interview with us!
Daniel C.
Sander D.
Mr. Strouse needs to know that customer service is a joke. I have been calling, ticketing, and online for 3 days trying to find out why their latest update crashes on my system. All I get is misdirection and people who know less about it than I do. They even lied to me about email me a file just to get me off the phone. It is sad, especially since I am a a paying customer.