Privacy.io was a VPN provider that became known following a recommendation from popular torrent website The Pirate Bay. The service used Anonine’s technology to offer services to their customers, but it wasn’t affiliated to them. In 2014, Privacy.io’s website stopped working and many users became concerned about the status of the service. Eventually, it was confirmed that Privacy.io had shut down its VPN, leaving many customers unsure about what would happen with their accounts. Many people relied on Privacy.io due to the simplicity and affordability of the service. Additionally, the VPN was recognized for its association to Peter Sunde, one of the founders of The Pirate Bay.
It should be noted that Privacy.io stopped operating after Sunde was arrested on May 31st 2014 and spent 5 months in prison, after being charged with promotion of copyright infringement. This affected the projects on which he was working and the services he had helped to establish, including Privacy.io. Although there was no official confirmation stating that Sunde’s arrest was what caused the end of Privacy.io, it is reasonable to think that it was at least one of the reasons for it. Once it was reported that Privacy.io’s website was not working, Anonine stated that they have tried to contact the provider, but never received any response.
Since Anonine was the service on which Privacy.io relied to offer a VPN solution to its customers, Anonine announced that they would support anyone with an active subscription to Privacy.io. Although Anonine made it clear that it didn’t have control over Privacy.io’s service, it offered free access to their VPN servers for every customer affected by Privacy.io’s closure. This helped many customers who were left unprotected, but many others needed to look for alternatives. While time has passed since Privacy.io shut down its VPN service, there are still some people who want to find an option that offers similar features. The strongest points of Privacy.io were its no logs policy and its good selection of servers in Sweden. Below you will find options that offer a good level of security, privacy protection and servers in Sweden and many other locations.
Private Internet Access
PIA is known for its low prices so if you are mainly concerned about finding an option that is affordable, this provider would be the ideal choice. PIA has servers in 24 countries, including Sweden and key locations like United States and the UK. While the global coverage is not as extensive as what other providers offer, PIA has over 3200 servers. This ensures that you can enjoy decent speeds and good performance. PIA doesn’t keep logs of your online activity and it has a good track record of privacy protection.
AirVPN
AirVPN is an Italian provider that was created by hacktivists that met at a festival organized by the Pirate Party in Rome. Peter Sunde participates in the Pirate Party of Finland, which is the first connection that can be found between Privacy.io and AirVPN. They have more things in common since AirVPN also offers a no logs policy and it has servers in Sweden. They focus on supporting OpenVPN, which is widely considered as the most secure protocol available. Additionally, AirVPN accepts Bitcoin and other anonymous payment methods.
VPNArea
VPNArea is a provider that supports a great selection of features that will allow you to protect the security of your connection. They help you to defend your privacy with options like kill switch, protection against DNS leaks and IPv6 leaks, as well as a function that allows you to avoid the issues with WebRTC. This is a tool used by some browsers and it could expose your real IP address, even if you are using a VPN. However, VPNArea will protect your connection at all times. They have servers in Sweden and offer a no logs policy.
Buffered
Buffered is an Hungarian provider that also provides a very reliable service, that secures your data and also helps you to bypass online restrictions. They don’t keep logs of your online activities and their service is designed to help you to enjoy great speeds for streaming. Buffered has servers in Sweden and other important locations and their network is continuously being updated to ensure that all customers get the best experience. Their desktop software and mobile apps offer great quality and are easy to use.
