Setting the record straight
Hola, a popular VPN add-on for browsers, found itself bathed in hot water recently after it came to light that it had inadvertently sold users' bandwidth to a botnet. Users were understandably pissed off that their resources were funding something malicious, and some users didn't understand that by using the free service, they were agreeing to let Hola tap into their bandwidth. It all added up to a PR nightmare, and in response to it all, Hola is being a lot more transparent. The company is also going to implement a bug bounty program in hopes of making its service more secure.
"For the past two years, Hola has been growing steadily - purely via word of mouth and stellar reviews. Our marketing budget was zero $. We grew organically," Hola stated in a blog post. "People simply love Hola and made it the number one VPN in the world.
"Which is why the last week has been so difficult for us. There have been some terrible accusations against Hola which we feel are unjustified. We innovated quickly, but it looks like Steve Jobs was right. We made some mistakes, and now we’re going to fix them, fast. Since May 28, our people have been working literally 24/7."
The Steve Jobs name drop is in reference to one of his quotes -- "Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is bets to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations."
Quoting Apple's late co-founder may not be the best way to make peace with its users, not when Jobs once tried to explain away iPhone connection issues by putting the blame on the way people naturally hold their mobile devices. But let's not nitpick, because it's the sentiment that counts.
In this case, Hola has vowed to be a lot more transparent about its service.
"We assumed that by stating that Hola is a P2P network, it was clear that people were sharing their bandwidth with the community network in return for their free service. After all, people have been doing that for years with services like Skype. It was not clear to all our users, and we want it to be completely clear," Hola said.
Hola changed its website so that the P2P aspect of its service is now "in your face" and no longer an afterthought in the FAQ section. The information is presented in a big blue banner that sits atop Hola's homepage, which also contains a link to the FAQ for more information.
What about the more egregious act of selling bandwidth to a botnet? Well, Hola has two things to say about that. The first is that it was unaware of what was going on. According to Hola, the spammer in question posed as a corporation and was able to pass through the company's filters with relative ease. Hola has since taken measures to prevent that from happening again, and will also be appointing a Chief Security Officer to lead its security team.
The second thing Hola points out is that it doesn't take much of your bandwidth.
"On average about 6MB per day now, which is like an additional 3 web page loads per day or 15 seconds of a YouTube clip. You can choose this 'value exchange' model, or opt out with the Hola premium ($5 per month)," Hola added.
So, that's Hola's side of things. You can read more in the full blog post.
From maximumpc
from http://bit.ly/1SQQsmo
