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Surfers who value their privacy have lost an ally with SafeWeb's suspension of its free anonymous Web-surfing service.

The service, which PC World editors recently picked as a "Best of the Web" service, stopped functioning November 14, according to a company spokesperson. A series of events--ranging from economic woes to Internet service provider problems--has led to the company canceling the free service, although there's a small chance SafeWeb will launch a subscription-based one in the future.

"One thing is clear, the free service is over. Period," says Sandra Song, a SafeWeb spokesperson.

Victim of Circumstance

The SafeWeb service let users surf via its servers, making it impossible for other Web sites, or employers, to see where a person pointed their Web browser. The company planned to make money through limited banner advertising as well as licensing deals with Internet service providers and others, Song says. Unfortunately, with banner advertising in the doldrums and the overall economy in a slump, that plan wasn't working out very well.

Plus, SafeWeb was experiencing ongoing problems with bankrupt Web hosting company Exodus, which caused its service to slow dramatically. In the end, it just wasn't feasible to keep the service running, Song says.

Many faithful users have contacted the company suggesting they would pay to use SafeWeb's technology again. But SafeWeb is instead focusing its energy on creating a new, different product.

"There is a greater than 50 percent chance that we will not offer a subscription service," she says.

Refocusing Attention

The SafeWeb team is beta-testing the SafeWeb Secure Extranet Appliance, a new product scheduled to launch by the end of this year, Song says.

A combination of software and hardware, the unit builds on SafeWeb's core privacy technology, she says. You plug it into a corporate network and it lets remote users access company data securely via the Internet.

"We still consider ourselves an Internet security provider; we still are Web-based; and the reason we have faith in this area is it is ubiquitous and easy to implement," Song says.

The Secure Extranet Appliance was already in the works when it became clear the Web service was not sustainable, Song explains. SafeWeb started developing SEA in March 2000. Now, with the Web service gone, the company can focus its full attention on this product launch, she says.

"To succeed, we need to focus. We are a company of 18 full-time employees--we're just not that large for the task [of launching the new product] we have given ourselves," she says.

Any Alternatives?

Song says she understands customer frustration over the end of the free service.

"I can see why users would be disappointed. We didn't give much notice; we didn't have much notice ourselves," she says.

While she feels their pain, Song hesitates to offer suggestions for former SafeWeb users seeking a new privacy service.

"I don't want to direct people to our previous competitors, since they don't work as well. But there are other services out there," she says.

Most recognizable is probably Anonymizer.com, which offers both a free ad-based service and an ad-free subscription service, she says. Anonymizer also recently introduced a plug-in version for use with Microsoft Internet Explorer.

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