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Show HN: A small bootstrapped independent VPN company in the Netherlands

wifimask.com

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Re: Show HN: A small bootstrapped independent VPN company in the Netherlands

#4

Post by brightball »

NiekvdMaas wrote: post #3

Why focus on Apple devices only? It seems like a strange business decision to limit a general service to a minority of the market only.

I'd assume the answer is "bootstrapped" so they're extremely focused on one thing.

Re: Show HN: A small bootstrapped independent VPN company in the Netherlands

#5

Post by yellowarchangel »

Isn't Netherlands in the nine eyes?

EDIT: "We will never share your personal information with any third party, except when we need to respond to a legal request from Dutch authorities" - https://www.wifimask.com/terms

As a VPN service that means it is not thoughtful about privacy.

Re: Show HN: A small bootstrapped independent VPN company in the Netherlands

#6

Post by tdons »

yellowarchangel wrote: post #5

Isn't Netherlands in the nine eyes? EDIT: "We will never share your personal information with any third party, except when we need to respond to a legal request from Dutch authorities" - https://www.wifimask.com/terms As a VPN service that means it is not thoughtful about privacy.

Yes.

Our intelligence agency (AIVD) allegedly facilitated the planting of stuxnet (they had a guy in there or something)

So it'd be reasonable to say that "we're not uncooperative"

Re: Show HN: A small bootstrapped independent VPN company in the Netherlands

#7

Post by Skunkleton »

brightball wrote: post #4
NiekvdMaas wrote: post #3

Why focus on Apple devices only? It seems like a strange business decision to limit a general service to a minority of the market only.

I'd assume the answer is "bootstrapped" so they're extremely focused on one thing.

Looks like it’s based on open vpn. They provide open vpn configs to use on other platforms.

Edit: a word

Re: Show HN: A small bootstrapped independent VPN company in the Netherlands

#9

Post by zhte415 »

First, it looks good like you declare who you are. Many VPN providers seem to want to hide their real identities which is a big red flag.

I couldn't see from the website what your VPN is based on in terms of protocol? Or home brewed? OpenVPN?

Have you had 3rd party audits?

Have you considered alternative payment forms? Such as Bitcoin or other?

From your Terms of Service 'What we do not allow on or from our network...' how do you track these? Do you provide a transparency report summarising legal, copyright etc requests made, action taken?

Also from ToS 'What we need our customers to do: - Use responsible disclosure in the event any security vulnerabilities occur in our website, software or infrastructure.' Do you have a public disclosure policy notifying of vulnerabilities?

Choosing a VPN involves placing a lot of trust in a 3rd party. Hence questions.

Re: Show HN: A small bootstrapped independent VPN company in the Netherlands

#10

Post by dylz »

Some feedback/q's:

- Your last two bullet points for 'what we do not allow' is missing newlines (https://www.wifimask.com/terms)

- You load a number of JS files from third party CDNs including Cloudflare and Google without subresource integrity

- What does this offer me? It seems a lot more restrictive than other companies at lower price points, inability to use it on own libre devices, requiring proprietary software? How is this significantly different than renting a VM or two?

- Based on your cipher list in features, this is an openvpn wrapper?

- "WifiMask will also use your Personal Data to provide you with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about." - This sounds like there is no opt out, no "if you choose to", just that special offers are mandatory to receive

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