Privax

Privax is the UK-based software house behind the HMA (HideMyAss) brand, a veteran presence in the consumer privacy market since 2005. The company’s single-window portfolio is anchored by HMA VPN, a Windows client that wraps the entire Privax ecosystem into one installer. Once launched, the application presents a world map dotted with exit nodes in more than 190 countries, letting users switch IP addresses, encrypt traffic, and bypass regional blocks for streaming, gaming, banking, or remote work. Under the hood, the client supports OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols, an automatic kill-switch, and a “smart kill” feature that can bind selected apps to the tunnel so that, for example, only the browser uses the VPN while the rest of the system rides the regular connection. A built-in speed test and “lightning connect” button aim to reduce guess-work for non-technical audiences, while advanced tabs allow manual server selection, port randomisation, and SOCKS5 proxy setup for torrent clients. Licensing is subscription-based, with simultaneous coverage for five or ten devices across Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux through a single account. The publisher’s software is available for free on get.nero.com, where downloads are delivered through trusted Windows package sources such as winget, always installing the newest release and supporting batch installation alongside other applications.