26 of the 115 most popular VPNs are secretly keeping tabs on you

[Solarquest]

A recent investigation into 115 of the world’s most popular VPN services revealed that many are antithetical to their stated claims. To build trust, providers make promises not to track users through logs or other identifying information. But as a popular VPN comparison site found out, this isn’t always true.

The Best VPN recently peeked under the hood of over 100 of the biggest VPN services. All told, 26 of them collect three or more important log files that could contain personal and identifying information — things like your IP address, location, bandwidth data, and connection timestamps.


For VPN users, the goal is increased privacy, a sense of anonymity long-since lost to the likes of Google and Facebook. And it’s a booming market. By 2019, the worldwide demand for VPN services is expected to hit approximately $70 billion — up from $45 billion in 2014.
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[mekelek]

it's an article about an other article
had to click a few to get to the actual results
100+ VPNs & Their Logging Policy (What Logs Are Kept by Who?)
not surprised about any of these providers

 

[Elpibe]

That One Privacy Site | Detailed VPN Comparison Chart did this comparison long time ago. I dont understand how a lot of ppl choose to send all their internet traffic to a company that they dont know about by just trusting other users or webs (that most of the times are paid by the vpn)

 

[HarborFront]

So if the AV companies use those listed VPNs then your privacy data will be collected as well

Kaspersky and BitDefender use HotSpot Shield VPN

 

[Aleeyen]

What if some company says that it doesn't keep logs but actually keeps it.

 

[mekelek]

So if the AV companies use those listed VPNs then your privacy data will be collected as well

Kaspersky and BitDefender use HotSpot Shield VPN

is BD's VPN burnt into the AV or is it a standalone app like Kaspersky's?

 

[upnorth]

What if some company says that it doesn't keep logs but actually keeps it.

Assume all do.

 

[HarborFront]

is BD's VPN burnt into the AV or is it a standalone app like Kaspersky's?

I have no idea on that

 

[ZeroDay]

I use Proton VPN I was happy that wasn't on the list. Do AVIRA use a third party service for their VPN or is it their own?

 

[RoboMan]

is BD's VPN burnt into the AV or is it a standalone app like Kaspersky's?

Aforementioned, BitDefender's VPN relies on HotSpotShield but works as an "add-on" in BitDefender software. You can't use it as a standalone application.

As for the article, i'm not surprised. We have to be careful when we decide on whom we deposit our trust and privacy. Since it's our most valuable item, lots of companies will do their best to take it away from us.

 

[Azure]

Only 26? That actually doesn't seem so bad. So, most VPNs are actually honest about protecting a user's privacy.

 

[mekelek]

Aforementioned, BitDefender's VPN relies on HotSpotShield but works as an "add-on" in BitDefender software. You can't use it as a standalone application.

As for the article, i'm not surprised. We have to be careful when we decide on whom we deposit our trust and privacy. Since it's our most valuable item, lots of companies will do their best to take it away from us.

what i meant is if it's like Kaspersky's that you can uninstall by itself without uninstalling the AV?
if so, it's not that bad imo.

 

[Daviworld]

Wow, out of the 26 the only one I have used was VyperVPN for 3 month's back in 2014, back before I knew much about choosing a proper VPN. All the VPN's I have chosen after, I am glad to see they didn't make the list, including my current VPN provider. But, like another poster mentioned above, only 26?! I honestly was expecting something like 79 out of 115 or even worse 92 out of 115. But, it seem's I have underestimated the integrity of my fellow human kin

 

[Faybert]

Avira Phantom VPN a pity that F-Secure FREEDOME has not been tested.

 

[omidomi]

CG + WindScribe

 

[Arequire]

a pity that F-Secure FREEDOME has not been tested.

Freedome logs your IP address, bandwidth data, connection timestamps and device ID.

To protect the service against fraudulent use, we maintain temporary logs that contain the duration of the VPN sessions, the amount of data transferred, the device ID and the public IP address from where the VPN client connects to our service. Traffic anomalies that look like a potential abuse of our service (such as port scanning or DDOS attacks performed by our clients) are detected by our software and will be logged as well. The logs are stored for 90 days prior to deletion, and can be used to deal with any misuse of our service or attacks against us.

 

[Windows Defender Shill]

There is a lot of good research and evidence that will point you to a legitimate VPN provider if you take 2 seconds to look it up.

 

[Entreri]

Hmmm....

I expect that the majority of them are keeping identifiable information.

 

[Aleeyen]

There's no mention about the Steganos products.

 

[DeepWeb]

The list looks hilariously familiar. Those are all the VPNs that offer $20-40 lifetime subscriptions and you think to yourself it's too good to be true. I wouldn't be surprised if they are honeypots.