Remote browsing for responsible adults and professionals
Remote browsers provide useful separation between a website and the device you use every day. They can help security professionals investigate unfamiliar sites, allow developers to test web experiences from a clean environment, and give individuals a more isolated way to browse.
Our service is intended for responsible adults and professionals who understand those benefits and use them lawfully. We do not want SafeJAM to attract criminals or become a convenient service for abuse.
No single check can prove how somebody will behave. Identity and age verification can, however, create an appropriate level of accountability and help us manage access to products that carry greater cost or risk.
Why an email address is not always enough
An email address is sufficient for many online services and remains sufficient for our basic browsing product. It provides a simple way for people to register and try the benefits of an isolated remote browser without completing an identity check.
Some of our other products have a different risk profile. Disposable email addresses are easy to obtain, and an email address alone tells us very little about the person using an account. For restricted products, we therefore require the account holder to complete identity and age verification and confirm that they are at least 18 years old.
This does not mean that verified customers surrender their right to privacy. Verification is an eligibility and trust measure for specific products, while the remote browser continues to provide separation between web activity and the customer's local device.
Subscriptions require a greater level of trust
Our subscription includes a monthly allowance and supports overage: if a subscriber uses more than the included minutes, the additional usage is billed at the applicable per-minute rate.
That arrangement allows a useful session to continue after the included allowance has been reached, but it also means that we are providing metered services before the final overage amount is billed. We need a stronger basis for that relationship than possession of an email address alone.
Identity and age verification helps us establish a reasonable level of trust before enabling a subscription. It supports fraud prevention, protects the service from avoidable misuse, and helps us offer the flexibility of overage responsibly.
Media streaming uses specialist infrastructure
Our Media Streaming product runs on more expensive GPU-backed instances so that graphics-intensive websites and applications have suitable remote resources. The resulting display and audio are streamed to the customer's device, supporting good-quality video and audio when the customer's own network connection and the wider network path are also of good quality.
This specialist capacity costs more to operate than a basic browsing session and can be attractive to people attempting to consume resources dishonestly or at scale. Requiring identity and age verification helps us reserve it for accountable adult customers with a legitimate reason to use the additional capability.
Verification cannot guarantee performance. Streaming quality will still depend on factors such as bandwidth, latency, network congestion, the selected session location, and the content provider.
Tor is useful to legitimate professionals
Our DarkNet Browser session features Tor Browser and connects over the Tor network. Tor is used by a wide variety of people to improve anonymity online, including journalists, researchers, privacy-conscious individuals, and security professionals. Like many privacy technologies, it can also be misused.
We want to attract customers who value the legitimate benefits of Tor and do not mind completing identity verification to access our managed service. That includes security professionals investigating threats, checking for exposed company information, and helping to protect their organisations and data.
Verification does not make all activity safe or lawful, and it is not permission to access illegal material or interfere with systems or data. Customers must still use the service responsibly and comply with our policies and the law.
Basic remote browsing remains accessible
We believe these controls should be proportionate. Not every remote browsing session requires the same level of assurance.
Our basic browsing product therefore remains available to anyone who registers with an email address. Identity and age verification is reserved for products where ongoing billing, specialist infrastructure, or the nature of the browsing capability means that a greater level of trust is appropriate.
A considered balance
Introducing verification creates an extra step, and we understand that some people will prefer not to complete it. That is why we continue to offer a basic option that requires only an email address.
For subscriptions, Media Streaming sessions, and DarkNet Browser sessions, we believe identity and age verification is a reasonable safeguard. It helps us serve responsible adults and professionals, discourage criminal use, protect specialist capacity, and provide more flexible products on a sustainable basis.
You can read more about who must complete the checks, what verification involves, and how we handle the result in our Identity and Age Verification Policy.