The VPN industry is saturated, that goes without saying. There are now more VPN services than there needs to be.

While there is a collection of excellent VPN services who are doing most things right there are too many average services that are providing lacklustre protection.

We don’t need any more VPN services to appear on the market, it’s getting confusing and in all honesty – the gold rush is getting embarrassing.

It’s one of the reasons we pay little attention to 99% of services that pop up daily. However, one newer provider that did peak our interest is SnowHaze.

This budding VPN service based in Switzerland has gone straight out of the gate offering almost all the features of an established service. Couple that with plans to expand into new areas and add features that some services have been dragging their heels on and this is a service you might want to take note of.

We fired off some of the questions you want answers to. Find out what SnowHaze VPN is bringing to the market, how they see their future and that of the VPN industry and a whole lot more.

VPNCompare: Who is SnowHaze and when were you established?

SnowHaze: SnowHaze was founded in 2016 and is a Swiss startup focusing on online privacy and security.

VPNCompare: As a relatively new VPN service what made you enter an already crowded industry?

SnowHaze: Our opinion is that a secure browser alone is not sufficient and neither is a good VPN. Therefore, we decided to combine both services.

The industry is full of nontransparent and shady business practices.

Many promise privacy because it sells well and not because they care about their user’s data. We clearly saw that there was no need for yet another VPN service, but we wanted to do things differently; anonymous, transparent and based on trust.

VPNCompare: Do you feel there is room for smaller VPN services and how do you think this will progress in the future? Large traditional corporations have already bought up smaller services, do you see this kind of progression continuing?

SnowHaze: Smaller services are more flexible in trying new approaches than larger companies. The industry as it is now is a cash cow for large services.

However, the needs change and so must the technology. I don’t see a problem in big companies buying up smaller services as this is an opportunity to offer broader services. I still wish, though, that more services would take the privacy approach to cybersecurity and build privacy by design.

VPNCompare: What do you feel SnowHaze offers that sets you apart from the competition?

SnowHaze: SnowHaze is currently operating a completely anonymous VPN service. Other services protect the data of their users with their privacy policy, which still requires that the company respects it.

Our privacy-by-design approach is different: We built the privacy directly into the software such that it is the only option. This means that even we are not able to identify our users, link sessions with each other, or trace back IP addresses to users.

Since we don’t handle and collect all this data, there nothing that could get leaked. We don’t need to know our users to provide a great service. Everything from payment, subscription, and usage is anonymous with SnowHaze VPN.

VPNCompare: The VPN industry suffers from many tit-for-tat arguments. How do you feel this impacts the reputation of the VPN industry as a whole?

SnowHaze: VPN services having maximization of profit in mind will copy what works for others and take it over to make more money.

On the way they forget that their mission is privacy and data protection. When it becomes public that no-log VPN services still monetize user data, it fosters a skepticism towards all VPN services. There are good and honest services that suffer from the shady business of unethical VPNs.

VPNCompare: With new VPN technologies emerging such as decentralised-VPN do you feel there is a future for traditional VPN services?

SnowHaze: As we still need banks in a time of Bitcoin, we also still need traditional VPN services.

With traditional services, user have to trust only a single entity, and reliability as well as accountability is clearly defined. Some of the new VPN technologies can be adopted by the current players to improve their services.

For example our zero-knowledge protocol is perfectly compatible with traditional services, but it requires them to live with the fact that they can no longer have insight into their user’s online activities.

VPNCompare: With pressure from governments and the entertainment industry do you feel VPN services can continue in their current form?

SnowHaze: The past has shown that forbidding services or technologies will only make it harder for them to control their use and evolution.

I’m sure also the entertainment industry will find a way to provide its service to connections via VPN. It might require extending copyright regulations. However, people will always find a way to overcome their obstacles.

VPNCompare: Where do you see both the VPN industry and SnowHaze in the next 5 years?

SnowHaze: I believe that VPNs will take over many more fields. Eg. So many IoT devices are not protected.

We have a growing need for more control over our own data and VPNs are an easy and effective way to protect them. Especially our authentication protocol could be adopted for communication of self-driving cars and IoT devices.

SnowHaze will have a broader support across all platforms and build a strong community around privacy.

Personalization as we know it today is not compatible with data protection. We envision personalization to be decentralized and not sharing any user information with the service provider. And let’s hope that more people will take the extra effort and protect their valuable data.

VPNCompare: Thanks for your time SnowHaze!

If you’re interested in taking a look what SnowHaze has to offer, head over to their website.