This post was originally published on December 11, 2019.
When we started ExpressVPN over a decade ago, we knew VPNs were important online safety and access tools, and we’re thrilled in the years since to see how VPNs have become so central to protecting our digital privacy, security, and rights. Since our launch, the landscape of internet privacy and security has been rocked time and time again—by the Snowden revelations, by the Panama Papers, by Cambridge Analytica, and by countless other hacks and scandals.
This barrage of cybercrime, surveillance, online tracking, censorship, and other threats can be overwhelming though. Many internet users can experience a “security paralysis” of sorts, feeling confused and powerless in the face of all these challenges. What can they actually do to protect themselves? How can they know which solutions they can trust?
We at ExpressVPN have been working to answer these questions for a long time, whether it’s providing accessible educational information right here on this blog or transparently disclosing our security measures. Talking to our friends in the industry, however, we realized we could go even bigger.
Coming together to deliver more confidence to all VPN users
So, today, we’re proud to announce that together with four other VPN providers and the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition), we’re launching the VPN Trust Initiative. By bringing together the reach and expertise of several of the industry’s biggest brands, we believe we can go even further in ensuring internet users are protected.
Together, we will work to help consumers understand how VPNs can best meet their privacy and security needs and give them more confidence in choosing to protect themselves with a VPN. In addition to strengthening knowledge among the public, we also hope to do so among tech leaders and policymakers to ensure VPN users aren’t harmed by regulations—such as those that could weaken encryption.
In the words of Christian Dawson, co-founder of the i2Coalition, “This initiative offers a vital and unique opportunity for the industry to come together as a collective and spearhead real awareness, education, and progress. In doing so, we deliver highly valuable, beneficial, and transformational action as digital security concerns grow and the technological world evolves.”
ExpressVPN and the i2Coalition: A safer, better internet
Today’s announcement continues our long-running efforts to advance the VPN industry and set a high bar when it comes to both trust and technology. It builds on our work with the Center for Democracy and Technology on responsible disclosure in the VPN industry, our ongoing publishing of privacy and security audits by trusted third parties like PwC, our work with companies like HP to deliver VPN protection to more customers, and more. Ultimately, we believe that a stronger VPN industry means a safer, better internet.
To learn more about the VTI, please visit i2Coalition’s website.