Jun 9, 2007 : HostingPanama Adds Offshore Browsing

📅 June 9, 2007 - Offshore web hosting provider HostingPanama (hostingpanama.com) announced a new service this week, extending the concept of its offshore services to web browsing.


On Monday, the company launched its Xpass service, a secure proxy service that enables customers to browse the web from a Panamanian IP address.

Starting at $49 per month, the service creates a high-speed and secure proxy connection to the Internet using HostingPanama's infrastructure. Customers connect, using a web browser, to a SLL-protected portal, or install an authentication application on their machines.

Xpass, says the company, is powered by Citrix secure access software, and includes a set of server management tools, including Shell and Remote Desktop.

The basic concept of "offshore" hosting is generally that servers located in a place like Panama are not subject to certain restrictions normally imposed by government, for instance. HostingPanama makes a particular point of describing the value of privacy in promoting its services.

It is sort of assumed that customers might have more illicit reasons for wanting to operate outside the reaches of law, but HostingPanama's acceptable uses policy describes in very certain terms that the company is not interested in hosting illegal sites, saying "Confidential + Private + Offshore does not give you a criminal safe haven, it gives you freedom and privacy."

The Xpass service would seem to follow the same lines as HostingPanama's hosting service in targeting a somewhat vague base of users who apparently value privacy a great deal.

"For many, it has become increasingly important to have an ability to browse the Web privately and securely," says chief sales officer Eduardo Vila, in the company's announcement. The press release generally avoids going into the specifics of why one might need a Panamanian proxy address, though Vila mentions, "handling sensitive data."

HostingPanama is running banner ads on its own website, promoting the service with fairly straightforward language: "Looking for a tool to conduct business activities from a Panamanian IP address?"

The ads lead to a more general information page describing the Xpass service. The page includes an illustration of the kind of privacy the service affords, saying, "Without Xpass, your IP address is very easy to track," and offering a selection of the user's ISP and IP information.