Summarizing this very important but underreported news about one of the largest VPN providers in the world (and I know it’s used by many for torrenting):
- NordVPN-connected company Oxylabs is asked to pay $7.5m for employing residential proxy code that is patented by Luminati/Bright Data.
- Oxylabs describes themselves as a solution for “large-scale public data gathering” and brags that they have “100M+ residential proxy”
- Competing residential proxy seller Luminati/Bright Data also owns Hola VPN. Hola utilizes its users’ IP addresses as ‘exit nodes’ for other people’s traffic.
- In layman’s terms that means the residential proxy company steals internet users’ bandwidth without their consent, including via a VPN service.
“While the lawsuit names Lithuania-based Teso LT, UAB as a defendant rather than “Tesonet”, this is as a result of a corporate restructuring several years ago. Aside from its link to Oxylabs, Tesonet also advertises itself as a creator and investor of a number of online services, including NordVPN, Hostinger and others.
In an interview with TechRadar Pro, Tom Okman, the co-founder of both Tesonet and Nord Security, answered some questions regarding the relationship between Tesonet, NordVPN, and the plethora of associated online services the companies offer.”
