SurfEasy

SurfEasy, a virtual private network (VPN) provider, was established in 2011 by founder and CEO Chris Houston. The company originated from Toronto, Canada, with the mission of providing easy-to-use tools to protect online privacy for everyday internet users. Houston's background in engineering and his experience at various technology companies informed the development of a straightforward VPN solution aimed at a broad consumer market.

The firm's core business revolves around a subscription-based model, offering personal VPN services to individuals seeking to secure their internet connections and maintain anonymity online. SurfEasy operates in the competitive consumer cybersecurity market, targeting clients concerned with data privacy on public Wi-Fi, censorship circumvention, and protecting personal information from being tracked by internet service providers or third parties.

The service functions by routing a user's internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel to its own servers, effectively masking the user's IP address and location. Its product portfolio includes applications for major operating systems like Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, as well as browser extensions for Chrome and Opera. A key feature is its "no-log" policy, which asserts that the company does not retain records of its users' online activities. The company also offered a feature that protected up to five devices simultaneously under a single account. A significant milestone in SurfEasy's history was its acquisition by the web browser company Opera in March 2015, which integrated SurfEasy's VPN technology directly into the Opera browser. This was followed by Opera itself, including SurfEasy, being acquired by a Chinese consortium in 2016. Subsequently, in November 2017, Symantec, known for its Norton security products, announced its acquisition of SurfEasy.

Keywords: VPN, online privacy, cybersecurity, data protection, internet security, no-log VPN, encryption, personal VPN, subscription service, browser extension