Interview with Yvan Monneron, Founder SnowHaze VPN

SnowHaze VPN is among those rapidly VPN services that are doing great in such competitive industries by providing some trustworthy and reliable services to its users.

Therefore we see ourselves blessed that Founder of the SnowHaze VPN “Yvan Monneron” take some time to give us some proficient information about why their VPN is unique from other VPN’s available in the market.

Moreover, to tell about how their VPN helps users to maintain their online privacy without getting into trouble. To provide some relevant information regarding how these VPN services work, how they keep your privacy secure, and what are the features that make SnowHaze unique from other VPN’s, we asked “Yvan Monneron” numerous questions.

Following are the list of questions we asked and there as it is answers given by “Yvan Monneron.” We hope that this interview will help you much to understand how these VPN’s are playing a vital role to maintain your online data privacy and also helps you to take a decision whether you might use SnowHaze VPN or not.

Question 1: What was the core idea/reason behind SnowHaze VPN?

We already had the SnowHaze Browser. We developed SnowHaze to expand our range of high-quality privacy products. SnowHaze VPN is designed to be ultra-fast and ultra-private.

Question 2: There are many offerings in the market currently, what makes SnowHaze VPN different from them?

SnowHaze VPN is completely different because we are the first VPN provider with Zero Knowledge Auth. All other providers want their users to log in to a customer account, which makes them uniquely identifiable. We can distinguish neither between users nor between sessions. This is realized in two ways:

• With our VPN using the OpenVPN protocol, we assign the same login credentials to all users. So they can still authenticate with the server, but the server cannot tell who it is, as it seems to be one single user.
• For our VPN using the IPSec protocol, the first approach was not possible. Therefore, we have to do otherwise to ensure the same level of anonymity. That is, every day every user gets 100 unique login keys, from which they randomly choose one for every session. Since a single login is only used once and we do not know who got which login credentials it is not possible to differentiate between users or to link to sessions together.

Question 3: How would customers know about this differentiating factor?

We try to be open and honest in every aspect. Of course, this is not enough, so our product is Open Source.

Question 4: Does SnowHaze VPN ask for photo identification, a picture of a credit card, or any other personal information from subscribers upon signing up for verification purposes?

Apple is in charge of the entire payment process, which happens with the user’s Apple ID. We do not need any credit card information, name, address, picture or anything else. Actually, we know nothing about who uses our VPN. It is true that it makes especially marketing difficult when you do not know your customers, but we chose this model to guarantee a high level of privacy.

Question 5: What are other products that you offer to your customers?

First, we started with SnowHaze Private Browser before developing our VPN. The SnowHaze Private Browser is the most private browser on iOS. We offer all privacy and security tools to protect against tracking, phishing, ads etc. We have built-in protection against Canvas Fingerprinting, Audio Context Fingerprinting, tracking scripts, HSTS Super cookies, cross-site scripting, mixed content, social media tracking and many more. SnowHaze tries to always connect via HTTPS and has by far the larger HTTPS preload list (>1Million sites). Users get a granular control of the settings, globally or per site basis, temporarily or permanently. A bit like No Script. Combining SnowHaze Private Browser with our VPN offers almost Tor like privacy and security but without loss of usability.

Question 6: How would you rate your products in terms of overall privacy scenario?

Honestly, it is hard to build in more privacy than we already have. However, we still try every day. We also try to do a good job all the way to the details, so I would say we are at the top regarding privacy. There are enough “privacy-focused” companies running Google scripts on their websites. We want to take another approach.

Question 7: What is Privacy according to you? (What’s your definition of Online Privacy)

Online privacy for me is the potential and ability to have full control of your personal data. You should be able to choose what happens with them and who gets them.

Question 8: What is your perspective on the matter that VPN companies are protecting users from mischievous intents?

Do you mean protecting users with mischievous intents? I think that VPN were not designed to be used for bad. Unfortunately, there are people with bad intentions abusing VPNs but it is not what a VPN was designed to be in the first place. It is like comparing it with a knife: it is primarily designed to cut stuff but sometimes still is misused to stab. However, it does not mean that we are going to ban knives.

Question 9: Why do you believe online privacy is so important for today’s online landscape?

I am certain that it is more important than ever. Although most of the generated digital exhaust might not be harmful today, it will be in the future. With the fast development of artificial intelligence, a plethora of information will be extracted from all the data collected in the past decade. It is better to be safe than sorry. We try on our side to develop different tool that use AI to protect privacy even better.

Question 10: How has user behavior changed around data privacy?

Supported by past and recent leaks and data scandal, the awareness for the importance of data protection is rising. It is great because the more people demanding better protection and regulations, the larger the pressure on large companies to stop their shady business with user data.

Question 11: Any Tips that you would like to give your consumers to help protect their privacy these days?

This cannot be summarized in one tip but if I have to give one it is to get interested with the subject and question all aspects of daily life where data is shared instead of accepting the imposed current practices, and I do not only mean online. Because most of the time we share much more information than needed.

Otherwise just the basic: use a secure browser, a VPN, a Password Manager, encrypted communication…