New VPN Hits the Market as It Claims It Can't Log Your Activity
As providers of virtual private networks (VPNs) compete with each other, trying to bring new, better solutions to protect your privacy online, a new VPN, Obscura, has been launched with the backing of some prominent investors.
The team behind the project claims that this is the first VPN that can't "log your activity by design," meaning that while many other VPN providers do not log your activity, they technically can still do it.
"Contrary to popular belief, traditional VPNs (even 'no-log' ones) can track you – they see both who you are and what you do, just like your [internet service provider]," said Carl Dong, co-founder of the new project.
Dong explains that Obscura is using a fully independent exit hop run by Mullvad VPN, while their "servers never see your traffic, and the exit hop never sees your identity."
The co-founder further claims that the new VPN also helps solve a long-standing problem of this technology when dealing with some public WiFi, such as in airports, hotels, or even certain jurisdictions. According to Dong, Obscura outsmarts such restrictive networks that often block other VPNs thanks to its own custom stealth protocol that is harder to block.
However, some commenters wondered whether Obscura really can't log its users' activity.
"I’m not technical, but what happens if you collaborate with Mullvad? Basically, are you just one phone call away from being able to log users' activity or not?" an X user, L F, asked. Dong has yet to respond to this inquiry. However, the company's FAQ notes that the app’s entire source code is on GitHub and can be verified.
Meanwhile, Pavol Rusnak, co-founder of Satoshi Labs, the manufacturer of the Trezor hardware wallet for cryptoassets, explained that while "Obscura sees your IP but does not see the traffic," "Mullvad sees the traffic but does not see your IP."
Among its investors, Obscura also has a prominent venture capitalist, Balaji S. Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of the Coinbase crypto exchange and former general partner at the venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz.
Competitors of the fresh VPN have also chimed in. Responding to Srinivasan's endorsement of Obscura, Harry Halpin, co-founder of NYM, the developer of the decentralized NymVPN, opined that Srinivasan "fell for 'privacy theatre' by a centralized VPN system."
"It’s literally just two companies with a legal agreement, might as well be one," Halpin said, adding that "using QUIC [, a general-purpose transport layer network protocol,] doesn’t break the Great Firewall," which is a form of Internet control in China.
For now, Obscura is available for macOS computers only.