Aussie VPN Moves To The British Virgin Islands, Dodges Local Data Retention Laws

Earlier this year we wrote about 4TFY, an Aussie VPN project running through Kickstarter which offered lifetime access to backers for a once-off fee.

The campaign was a success: not only did 4TFY smash its funding goal, the company has also been bought out. Which is actually a good thing in this instance, since it means it won’t be caught under Australia’s data retention laws.

In a release provided to Kotaku, 4TFY founder Luke Millanta announced that the service has been “acquired by a consortium of investors”. The buyout comes months after 4TFY raised just north of $115,000 on Kickstarter, more than four times the original funding goal.

The change means that 4TFY’s rollout has been delayed a fraction. The campaign page lists the original estimated delivery time as October, but the planned launch for the lifetime VPN service will now be next month. The bump’s worth it though, since the move to the British Virgin Islands means 4TFY can honour their original promise of security and anonymity to customers, rather than having to store the metadata of every customer for a minimum of two years.

[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/04/why-circumventing-metadata-retention-wont-always-work/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/03/DataRetention.jpg” title=”How To (Legally) Circumvent Metadata Retention Laws” excerpt=”Australia’s data retention laws became compulsory yesterday, which means all telcos and internet service providers must now retain their customers’ metadata for two years.”]

In the interim, Millanta will continue to serve as a consultant until 4TFY launches in November. After that point, he’ll go back to his regular day job and hobbies – the latter of which, funnily enough, includes making mods for Counter-Strike.

You can still get a lifetime subscription to 4TFY, and learn more about the service, through the website.


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