Leading Swedish internet service provider, Bahnhof, is making an effort to protect its customer's privacy by supplying a free to use, no-logging VPN service. The new privacy protection measure comes shortly after the Swedish Telecoms Regulator, PTS, ordered Bahnhof to start monitoring and storing communications data under local data retention laws.
If Bahnhof refused to store data then it would face hefty fines. However, the company's CEO, Jon Karlung, came up with a plan B to dodge the court order. Data storage will be reactivated as of the 24th of November just as required. However, the ISP will sabotage the collection of meaningful data by providing every customer with access to its new anonymous VPN service.
“The EU Court of Justice has held that it is a human right for people not to have their traffic data stored. We therefore believe that the time is ripe for VPN services become popular”, Karlung says. The VPN is called LEX Integrity and is a no-logging provider. This will stop anyone being able to extract useful information about its users. The VPN is due to go live next Monday.
“The EU Court of Justice has issued a ruling that the previous government chose to ignore, and the current government has been silent for so long that we are starting to lose patience. So now Bahnhof will resolve the situation in a responsible manner, namely by solving the whole problem. We will start to store data, but at exactly the same time we will make data storage meaningless”.
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KitGuru Says: It's nice to see an ISP standing up for its customer's rights to privacy, I imagine this move will go down fairly well with those conscious of their data. What do you guys think of this? Is this a good or bad idea?
Good for them. It will hopefully reflect well for them, in higher sales.