Re:Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?
by geofft on Sunday October 07, 2018 @01:52PM
(#18161781)
One possible option is to sell VPN service to friends/family/acquaintances, for a price that is (clearly to them) cheaper than comparable commercial VPNs, in exchange for a promise to not do anything that would get you in legal trouble. You can trust the promise more than you could trust standard terms-of-service because you know them, and hopefully the lower price means they see it as you offering them something as a convenience from your side project instead of a "real" business and the problems of doing business with friends don't apply as much.
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Re:Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?
by gscott on Sunday October 07, 2018 @07:44PM
(#18163235)
Just tell customers everything is logged and the logs are deleted on a rolling basis every year.
Re:Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?
by nickpsecurity on Sunday October 07, 2018 @09:35PM
(#18163571)
And the logs are stored encrypted offline. They move over a one-way link from main server somewhere else in case of a compromise. They're never shared except with law enforcement with a warrant per privacy policy and EULA.
Inspires more confidence if they're kept temporarily but heavily protected.
Re:Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?
by geofft on Monday October 08, 2018 @09:24AM
(#18167139)
That won't sufficiently discourage folks who want to do potentially-illegal stuff from doing so - it will let you defend yourself in case of a legal incident, but the cost (in time, money, and happiness) of having to deal with a legal incident at all is pretty significant. It seems better to me to try to limit your users to people you believe are unlikely to trigger a legal incident, unless you're at the point where you can hire someone to deal with it for you.