We’re excited to share with you that ExpressVPN has, as of today, officially joined forces with Kape Technologies to together advance the state of privacy and security technology.
As we shared when we first announced our plans to join Kape, this move means that, thanks to their support and resources, we’ll be able to innovate faster and provide you with protection from a wider range of threats. We have long-led the industry with innovations such as TrustedServer and Lightway, and have no plans of slowing down.
We’re proud of how we’ve built ExpressVPN as a clear leader in digital privacy and security since 2009—but we’re even more excited for what this new chapter means for our ability to build a more private, secure, and open internet.
As always, we want to be transparent with you about what this means for the ExpressVPN service you’ve come to rely on and answer some questions that you may have.
What does this mean for me as an ExpressVPN customer?
We’re joining Kape to enable us to jointly level-up our ability to advance digital rights and protections, and so this means that we’ll be able to offer ExpressVPN customers like you an even better experience going forward by investing more in every aspect of our service and technology.
For now, nothing will change about your subscription or service as a direct result of this deal. In the long run, everything you’ve come to know and love about ExpressVPN will only continue to improve: our award-winning speed and reliability, premium global server network and bandwidth, 24/7 live chat, BVI jurisdiction, policy of not collecting activity or connection logs, and more.
Will ExpressVPN continue operating as its own service?
Yes, ExpressVPN will continue operating as a separate brand and service, run by our existing (and fast-growing!) team. We’ve been proud to lead the industry in terms of technology, product, infrastructure, customer support, transparency, and more—and we plan to continue doing so as an independent service. With the backing of Kape, ExpressVPN will be able to continue delivering more innovations and improvements to users.
Will you still be publishing regular third-party privacy and security audits?
Yes, we’re proud to have led the industry in transparency through independent third-party audits and penetration tests. These audits will continue to be a central pillar of our commitment to users, as we believe they are essential to enabling users to assess which VPN service they can trust and rely on.
A cornerstone of our privacy practice transparency will be an annual audit to recertify that our processes and systems are fully compliant with our Privacy Policy, including our policy of not storing any activity or connection logs.
How will ExpressVPN continue to uphold its high privacy standards?
ExpressVPN is, first and foremost, a privacy company, and our service has always been built on key privacy and security principles to ensure users are protected.
Our first principle has always been to collect only the minimal data required to operate a world-class VPN service at scale. This is key to minimizing data risk for users—no one can have access to data if we don’t collect it to begin with. That’s why we have a clear policy of not collecting any activity or connection logs, which we will continue as part of Kape.
In addition, all our services and operations follow the least-privilege model. Even ExpressVPN employees are authorized access to only the services and production systems necessary for their roles. We explain this and how else we protect your privacy and security in greater detail here on our Trust Center.
As per our Privacy Policy, the minimal data that we do have will only be used for the purposes outlined in the Policy, which primarily relate to providing the ExpressVPN service and customer support, managing user subscriptions and processing payments, communicating with users, and enhancing our site and services. ExpressVPN customer data will continue to be held in its own entity, under BVI jurisdiction.
Digital privacy has never been more important. Together with Kape Technologies, we believe we’ll have the vision, talent, and resources to define the next generation of privacy and security protection and return greater control over the digital sphere to individuals.
Enjoy a safer online experience with powerful privacy protection
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Comments
Now just finished looking for new vpn, and finally found one, although i loved expressvpn, with expressvpn being bought by Kape, it seems everything is about profit more than privacy anymore. I am sure that expressvpn would still safe to use, but still with Kape own multiple vpn services and vpn review sites, it’s really major red flags, sometimes if it walk like a duck, it’s quack like a duck, it’s just a duck. Well now after years using expressvpn, i never really try to find other services, now i will try and see if it’s as good as expressvpn, if it’s as good as express, then i guess this is a good bye, again thank you for the good services of the years, it’s good while it last
ps : it’s proton
We have the same firm commitment to protecting your privacy. We’ve worked hard to prove to our users how highly we value them and their privacy for over a decade—and we don’t plan to stop now.
Hello, I’m using the ExpressVPN Mobile app. I really appreciate your efforts but I want to know what to do if sometimes it stops working?
It would be best to contact our Support agents, who are available on live chat and email 24 hours a day.
I’ve been an ExpressVPN for years for the explicit reason of where your company is registered and your log and privacy policies. This latest development involving Kape or should I call them by their real name, Crossrider, is not only concerning but a show-stopper for me. It is really disappointing but being even remotely close to one of the five eyes countries is not an option for me. Thank you for the years of service!
Hi, thanks for your comment. You can confidently continue to use ExpressVPN because:
-We are still committed to zero connection and activity logs.
-Our service will still operate via a British Virgin Islands company.
Ensuring that Kape shared our commitment to privacy was a non-negotiable in our company’s due diligence process, and we were thorough in our assessment. Kape’s past product Crossrider was a development platform for browser extensions that was misused by external developers, and their malicious apps became misattributed to Crossrider itself by automated scanners. Nonetheless, Crossrider has long been shut down; its co-founders, the entire C-suite, and most of its original team are no longer with the company.
Moreover, ExpressVPN will continue to operate as a separate service, run by our existing team.
We’ve worked hard to prove to our users how highly we value them and their privacy for over a decade, and we certainly don’t plan to stop now.
ExpressVPN was acquired by Kape Technologies?
Thanks for the notification.
I have an Express VPN account.
There is an icon on my iPhone. When I click on it I an instructed to enter the PW number to open my phone. This doesn’t sound right. Why would I handover that important information? I don’t remember doing this when I downloaded Express VPN on my computer.
It sounds like your phone was locked when you tried to open ExpressVPN and your phone was asking you to unlock it. You’re right, ExpressVPN would not ask for your phone password.
Given Kape’s somewhat dubious history, I will give serious consideration to another VPN provider.
Thanks for your comment. Here is an article by Restore Privacy on Kape’s history: https://restoreprivacy.com/kape-technologies-crossrider-malware/
Interesting. Have you read this article? Some highlights: Kape buying up independent VPNs is a concerning trend. They also have bought review websites to put themselves/their products (sams thing) above the competition. Thoughts? https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn-review-websites-owned-by-vpns
It’s important to scrutinize businesses and how they operate.
On our end, ExpressVPN’s rankings have always been high on review sites of all kinds, before and after Kape’s acquisition. Ultimately, we remain confident in the quality of our VPN and strive to exceed our own high standards.
I just heard about the Kape alliance.
Kape is apparently a UK company, and the UK is part of Echelon and the 5 eyes mass surveillance program. What guarantees are there that the UK government won’t force you to hand over all of your data?
Many of us had specifically chosen Express VPN because you are based outside of the UK, Hong Kong the US or any other mass surveillance region.
Thanks for your question. We answer such questions in two parts:
-We are still a BVI-registered company, and the BVI affords users a high level of privacy and anonymity.
-We go to great lengths to NOT collect or retain data on our customers and their VPN usage. We don’t have activity logs or connection logs to hand over, even if legally compelled to provide data.
We elaborate here: https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/bvi-privacy-legislation/