Virtual Private Networks, or VPN, is supposed to give you that added sense of security when you are online. When your route your internet browsing through a VPN server you encrypt the connection making it harder for hackers to obtain your information. Or so it would seem. CryptoSeal VPN has recently announced that they will no longer offer their services to regular consumers. (VPN services to business will continue.) The company’s reason: they fear government intrusion.

The company hasn’t been asked, as of yet, to hand over decryption keys for any of its customers but the possibility is there. The company, when asked, referred to the email service Lavabit which chose to shut down rather than comply with government ordered monitoring. The company believes that its customers’ privacy far outweighed the financial gains.

If CryptoSeal continued offering consumer based VPN services there is no guarantee that the NSA would require them to hand over information. The mere threat of the possibility made the CEO take a closer look at what was at stake. He determined the legal implications would make them unable to continue financially.

Due to different regulations on business services versus consumer services CryptoSeal is going to continue their business services. For those consumers who had a CryptoSeal account, all information that may have been recorded has been destroyed and all cryptokeys have been zero filled.

If CryptoSeal can find a way to protect the privacy of their consumers and still abide by US government laws, should the NSA come knocking, they will reopen the consumer side of their business.

[via ArsTechnica, image via Mayhem Chaos]