Le VPN

Le VPN is a personal VPN (Virtual Private Network) service provider headquartered in Hong Kong, the country that remains outside the data retention laws, Five Eyes, or Fourteen Eyes. Their software an apps are designed for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Fire OS but manual installation is also possible possible on other devices and operating systems.
History
Le VPN was originally founded in France in 2010 by the cybersecurity alumnus of Ecole Centrale Paris engineering school. After 15 months of MVP (minimum viable product) development tested in France according to the Lean Startup movement, the proof of concept was validated.
They registered their headquarters in Hong Kong in 2012 to stay outside of data retention laws and the founding team was joined by a second co-founder Ksenia Votinova, an INSEAD MBA alumna.
By May 2013 they added a 3rd security protocol () and spred the service to 12 countries. In April 2014 the network grew to 50 countries, and in September 2015 to 114 countries. As of August 2020, Le VPN servers’ coverage is at 120 countries.
In February 2015 Le VPN team launched a new feature called HybridVPN which consists of combining the SmartDNS service for a list of preselected media and TV channels, and the VPN connection of the rest of online activities.
In February 2016 they partnered with Keezel, a Dutch startup that raised over 1 mln euros via Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, and became one of their 3 VPN partners to provide VPN service to the users of Keezel devices.
In 2017 Le VPN released their own proprietary VPN software for mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, followed by a Fire OS app in 2019.
In April 2018 they joined the Digital Resistance movement led by Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram messaging up, fighting for digital freedom in Russia. Their active involvement in Digital Resistance cost Le VPN their website ban on the territory of Russia. The ban of Le VPN and of the Telegram app in Russia stopped in June 2020 when the Digital Resistance movement celebrated their victory.
In February 2019, Le VPN acquired another VPN provider, My Private Network.
Technical Specifications
Le VPN service
Le VPN provides an encrypted connection via the following protocols:

- Wireguard
- L2TP/IPSec
- OpenVPN on ports TCP 80, UDP 53 and TCP 443
- PPTP
- IKEv2
- IPSec
VPN connections can be managed by the proprietary apps and software, or can be set up manually on different operating systems. It is also possible to use third-party apps for some protocols.
SmartDNS
SmartDNS service is also available and allows the user to access a list of pre-unblocked media without using a VPN connection.
HybridVPN service
HybridVPN is a VPN connection that uses SmartDNS servers as DNS servers. It means that the users' privacy is protected by the encrypted tunnel of the VPN connection and that they are able to take advantage of the streaming capabilities of the SmartDNS at the same time.
Data Privacy and Traffic Logs Collection
According to Le VPN Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, the only information they collect on their users if their username, email address, encrypted password and original IP address.
As most VPN providers claim not to collect any logs, including Le VPN, there is some controversy in what exactly is collected by VPN providers. According to Le VPN Terms of Use, they do not keep any traffic logs but they do keep timestamps of connections and original IP address. Here’s a quote from their Terms of Use.
“We will store (i) a time stamp and IP address when you connect and disconnect to our Le VPN service, and (ii) the amount data transmitted (up- and download) during your session together with the IP address of the individual VPN server used by you. We do not store details of, or monitor, the websites you connect to when using our Le VPN Service. We only proceed with such storage so that we can monitor the performance of both our Site and Le VPN Service. For example, it enables us to (i) sort server nodes by the number of users connected, (ii) limit your account to the number of connections which are included in your plan, (iii) carry out usage analysis for administrative purposes, and (iv) prevent abuse and fraud. This data is stored on our system for a certain period of time even though we have no obligation to store any such data.”
It needs to be noted that those seeking absolute anonymity can use Bitcoin, a digital currency that allows for maximum confidentiality, combined with an anonymous email address.
Le VPN claims to have security systems in place that detect illegal activities and all other “Prohibited Uses” from their long list in the Terms of Use, and the company keeps the right to suspend or blacklist those users.
Other causes
Le VPN actively participates in data privacy and digital freedom causes, granting free VPN accounts to journalists, individuals and organizations who actively contribute to these causes or are repressed by political regimes and internet censorship.
They provided free VPN accounts during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the 2020 Belarusian protests, and played their part in the Telegram Digital Resistance movement from 2018 to 2020.
Le VPN’s in-house cybersecurity team was the first to report VPN credentials stuffing attacks on VPN providers in May 2020, and regularly contributes to cybersecurity projects.
During the COVID-19 crisis Le VPN team got involved in the project dedicated to help the vaccine research, and published a series of articles on best practices of working from home during the pandemic.

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