UPDATED 01:12 EDT / JULY 28 2017

INFRA

AnchorFree says it’s saving net neutrality by helping apps circumvent ISPs

Silicon Valley software company AnchorFree Inc. has come up with a solution to the possibility of Internet service providers throttling certain content on the Internet: a way to get around those providers.

AnchorFree, which claims to be the “world’s largest Internet Freedom and Privacy Platform,” has developed a free Software Development Kit that will protect apps from ISPs and so preserve the “free and open Internet.”

“Since the FCC doesn’t want to regulate net neutrality, the private sector will self-regulate,” David Gorodyansky, AnchorFree’s founder and chief executive, told SiliconANGLE. The threat that ISPs will start collecting user data and throttling video streaming sites is a real one, he said, so “companies like AnchorFree can provide free solutions to preserve net neutrality and to enable Internet freedom for the masses.”

It’s still not clear what will happen to the rules established in 2015 under the Obama administration, but Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has proposed taking a “weed-whacker” to present regulations. This has been met with resistance from the public and many tech leaders. Executives from some of those tech companies as well as executives from telecom companies will be meeting with Congress on Sept. 7 to attempt to come to an agreement in what’s been called a “ping-pong” debate.

Gorodyansky believes that the changes will be in line with the fears expressed by voices in the tech community, and even the likes of comedian John Oliver. “In the likely case that net neutrality is repealed and Internet service providers gain the ability to censor, slow down or throttle access to certain sites and applications, any app developer can now add AnchorFree’s SDK to protect their app and the privacy of its users,” he said.

AnchorFree said the SDK will allow companies that use a large amount of bandwidth – including Netflix, Spotify YouTube, and thousands of others that stream video and music – to leverage its virtual private network technology to send their traffic through the company’s secure servers. The process, it says, will prevent ISPs such as Comcast Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. from tracking what apps are used, censoring or throttling traffic, or collecting any user data.

“Most companies address net neutrality as a policy issue; we are responding to the challenge by launching a real product solution that can be used by app developers to protect their service and their users,” said Gorodyansky.

Image: Tim Pierce via Flickr

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