This VPN wants you to sign up through the Tor Browser, so it can’t track you

Signing up for a VPN usually follows the same routine. You enter an email address, create a password, and pay with a credit card or another payment method tied to your identity. Not so private after all, right?

Well, Obscura wants to avoid all of that.

In a recent post on X, the privacy-focused VPN provider explained that anyone can open Tor Browser, visit its .onion website, generate a random account number, and pay using Monero. The company summed up its philosophy with a simple line: “We simply do not want to know anything about you.”

For those unaware, Tor Browser is designed to make it much harder to trace your online activity. Instead of sending your traffic directly to a website, it routes it through several relays before it reaches its destination. Obscura also has a .onion version of its website, which is only accessible through Tor. That means you can create an account without using a regular browser or exposing your IP address to the service in the usual way.

The account itself is different too. Instead of signing in with an email address, you’re given a randomly generated account number. If you also pay with Monero, there isn’t much personal information attached to the account in the first place. Monero was built with privacy in mind and hides transaction details that are visible on many other cryptocurrencies.

Obscura’s privacy claims aren’t just coming from the company itself. The service is also listed on KYCnot.me, a website that tracks privacy-focused products and services. The listing gives Obscura a high privacy rating and points to features such as anonymous signups, a no-logs policy, and a design that routes traffic through separate Mullvad servers so that no single provider has the complete picture.

Interest in privacy tools has been climbing in recent months. After the UK’s Online Safety Act introduced mandatory age verification for certain online services last year, several VPN providers reported a sharp increase in new users. Proton, for example, said demand briefly reached levels it normally associates with periods of major civil unrest.

Still, there was talk about a potential crackdown on VPNs too. And this is where Obscura’s approach comes in handy. Since they have a way for you to get and pay for it anonymously, there’s no need to worry about your privacy.

Of course, your privacy still depends on how you use the internet and the choices you make. Even so, Obscura’s approach stands out because it removes many of the personal details that VPN providers typically collect during signup.

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