As those of you who have followed this journey from the beginning know, I started TOPS because I wanted to take back my privacy, and I’ve always wanted to help others do the same.

I knew I had to dig deep and do my own research to find the tools that would genuinely protect my privacy online, starting with VPNs. With your help, what started out as a research project grew from a simple Google sheet and a few Reddit posts to a full-fledged website — one which has helped (and still helps) thousands of people from all over the world stay protected online.

In the years since, with your support, patience, and contributions, That One Privacy Site has continued to grow, with several more people even joining the team last year — some of whom have taken over the role of “That One Privacy Guy”. Indeed, like the Dread Pirate Roberts (the pirate from The Princess Bride), we have all operated under this alias, and each one of us has been tasked with the awesome power of maintaining the most objective and informational VPN review website in the world.

But with great power comes great responsibility — and even greater problems.

Our servers have been struggling to host the traffic we receive (traffic for which we’re incredibly grateful). We recently suffered four consecutive downtime incidents from our hosting service, and it took us a very long time to get these fixed because our small team was busy with other urgent tasks.

Finally, the Covid-19 crisis has had a massive impact on us all. And ultimately, it’s forced me to reassess how I run the project.

As I can no longer manage the site alone (or even with my small team), we’ve partnered with SafetyDetectives to ensure That One Privacy Site is able to survive and continue to grow.

SafetyDetectives has the people, experience, resources, and technical chops necessary to handle the site’s growing demands without compromising its core values.

I will maintain our research and editorial independence, and nothing will change on how I scrutinize and report on VPN providers. SafetyDetectives will have no input into what I publish, and I’ll continue to work without affiliation or bias toward any corporation or business interests. SafetyDetectives is merely here to keep the website running and growing.

This partnership means you’ll never have to worry about That One Privacy Site going offline due to a lack of resources. It also means that I can focus on providing better and more valuable content — like translating our reviews into other languages (something our community has asked for since the beginning, but something that I was never able to provide). Overall, this is a very good thing. TOPS will now have the space to grow, to build, and to bring even greater value to our community.

I want to thank you all for being part of this journey and for supporting us. Your continued support has kept us both online and independent, and understand that neither of those things will change. That One Privacy Site is a community of amazing people, and it will continue to be my favorite community anywhere on the internet.