Sunday 24 June 2012

PayPal Bans BitTorrent Friendly VPN Provider

According to TorrentFreak, TorGuard, a company that offers VPN and proxy services, has been banned from using the payment processor because of "its affiliation with BitTorrent". Thousands of dollars belonging to the company have been frozen.

In response to new Internet surveillance initiatives there is a growing interest in privacy enhancing services such as VPNs and proxies. TorGuard is one of the many companies catering to this demand. As the name suggests, TorGuard has several plans specifically targeted at BitTorrent users who prefer to hide their IP-addresses from the rest of the world.

Being a BitTorrent-friendly VPN appeals to a wide audience. However, the company has also learned that it has a downside. Without prior warning or detailed explanation, PayPal decided to ban TorGuard for promoting their services to BitTorrent users.

The following email was sent by PayPal:

When we reviewed your account, we noticed that your activity violates some of the agreements you have with us. Because of this, we've limited your accounts and can no longer offer our services to you. You'll still be able to log in to view your transaction history, but you won't be able to send or receive money.

Apparently, PayPal is going down the same route as Apple, where everything related to BitTorrent is simply a no-go. Over the past years the payment processor has already thrown out many cyberlockers and BitTorrent trackers that linked to infringing content, but to our knowledge this is the first time that a VPN service has been banned.

Despite the setback, business continues as usual for TorGuard and TorGuard's owner Jason commented:

Those who are serious about private payment solutions should consider one of the many alternatives like Prepaid VISA cards, OKPAY, Bitcoins, and other ewallet services.

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