Advice Request Which VPN Providers Really Take Anonymity Seriously in 2020?

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upnorth

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Picking the best VPN can be a tricky endeavor. There are hundreds of VPN services out there, all promising to keep you private. Some are more anonymous than others, however. To help you pick the best one for your needs, we asked dozens of VPNs what their logging policies are, how they handle torrent users, and what else they do to keep you anonymous. The VPN industry is booming and prospective users have hundreds of options to pick from. All claim to be the best, but some are more anonymous than others. The VPN review business is also flourishing. Just do a random search for “best VPN service” or “VPN review” and you’ll see dozens of sites filled with recommendations and preferred picks.

We don’t want to make any recommendations. When it comes to privacy and anonymity, an outsider can’t offer any guarantees. Vulnerabilities are always lurking around the corner and even with the most secure VPN, you still have to trust the VPN company with your data. Instead, we aim to provide an unranked overview of VPN providers, asking them questions we believe are important. Many of these questions relate to anonymity and security, and the various companies answer them in their own words. We hope that this helps users to make an informed choice. However, we stress that users themselves should always make sure that their VPN setup is secure, working correctly, and not leaking.
Quote : "
1. Do you keep (or share with third parties) ANY data that would allow you to match an IP-address and a timestamp to a current or former user of your service? If so, exactly what information do you hold/share and for how long?

2. What is the name under which your company is incorporated (+ parent companies, if applicable) and under which jurisdiction does your company operate?

3. What tools are used to monitor and mitigate abuse of your service, including limits on concurrent connections if these are enforced?

4. Do you use any external email providers (e.g. Google Apps), analytics, or support tools ( e.g Live support, Zendesk) that hold information provided by users?

5. In the event you receive a DMCA takedown notice or a non-US equivalent, how are these handled?

6. What steps would be taken in the event a court orders your company to identify an active or former user of your service? How would your company respond to a court order that requires you to log activity for a user going forward? Have these scenarios ever played out in the past?

7. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? If not, why? Do you provide port forwarding services? Are any ports blocked?

8. Which payment systems/providers do you use? Do you take any measures to ensure that payment details can’t be linked to account usage or IP-assignments?

9. What is the most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm you would recommend to your users?

10. Do you provide tools such as “kill switches” if a connection drops and DNS/IPv6 leak protection? Do you support Dual Stack IPv4/IPv6 functionality?

11. Are any of your VPN servers hosted by third parties? If so, what measures do you take to prevent those partners from snooping on any inbound and/or outbound traffic? Do you use your own DNS servers?

12. In which countries are your servers physically located? Do you offer virtual locations?"

Full source :
 

Like a Western!

Level 9
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Apr 6, 2016
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years ago someone i know, told me that he actually witnessed that Cyber Police in Iran needed CyberGhost VPN' help to catch a criminal who used their VPN for whatever he did, and their response was a big NO plus a reminder to their no log policy
so i do trust CyberGhost VPN at least

i've heard NordVPN is really good as well
 

omidomi

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years ago someone i know, told me that he actually witnessed that Cyber Police in Iran needed CyberGhost VPN' help to catch a criminal who used their VPN for whatever he did, and their response was a big NO plus a reminder to their no log policy
so i do trust CyberGhost VPN at least

i've heard NordVPN is really good as well
Now cyberghost was sold to bad guys :(
a bad company with horrible story ....
 

MegenM

Level 3
Well-known
Jun 8, 2020
119
The points mentioned are great. I usually follow them. Besides, I mainly look for VPNs that provide unlimited simultaneous device support at the best price. I prefer VPN services that publish the annual Warrant Canary report; it is an actual scenario of how many legal data queries they received and in how many cases they gave the requested data to the government.

Also, I go through their Privacy policy thoroughly and try to find most of the points mentioned here, like third-party tracking, data policy, and log policy. Also, some VPNs mention the amount of anonymous data they are collecting during the session.

Considering all the points above, I have been using Surfshark for more than a year now. I never faced any issues.
 

Thales

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Nov 26, 2017
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I think Mullvad is a proper VPN provider. If a VPN doesn't support Wireguard protocol I don't use it.
I use VPN to protect myself on other WIfi networks even if they are password protected.
 

ChoiceVoice

Level 6
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Oct 10, 2014
280
the vpn's country of origin is important, and how seriously the laws are in that country concerning privacy violations.

and while i like vpns, i believe the tor browser is still the most anonymous (and easiest) way to remain unseen and unknown. i use it for all my serial killing contracts, lol.
 

sirius777

Level 2
Oct 24, 2019
50
I only use VPN to access region restricted content and that's it.

Yeah. That's the reason I use a VPN too.

The country I'm currently staying in blocks certain websites (e.g., Reddit).

I also noticed that some websites load faster with a VPN, so it's like the ISP I'm using is throttling my internet.

The ISP I'm using also injected ads on some non-HTTPS websites a few years ago.

So now I'm always connected to a VPN. On this moment, it's Mullvad VPN via WireGuard.

I also agree with the statement below.

Privacy/anonymity is non existing once you are connected to the Web

Some people think they're anonymous by using a VPN and incognito mode in their web browser.

You will have to do way more to stay anonymous, and even then, you'll never know for sure if you're really anonymous.

VPN's are good to access blocked websites, bypass region restricted content, maybe prevent throttling by internet service providers, and they also offer some protection when you're connected to a public WiFi network.
 
Last edited:

enaph

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Yeah. That's the reason I use a VPN too.

The country I'm currently staying in blocks certain websites (e.g., Reddit).

I also noticed that some websites load faster with a VPN, so it's like the ISP I'm using is throttling my internet.

The ISP I'm using also injected ads on some non-HTTPS websites a few years ago.

So now I'm always connected to a VPN. On this moment, it's Mullvad VPN via WireGuard.

I also agree with the statement below.



Some people think they're anonymous by using a VPN and incognito mode in their web browser.

You will have to do way more to stay anonymous, and even then, you'll never know for sure if you're really anonymous.

VPN's are good to access blocked websites, bypass region restricted content, maybe prevent throttling by internet service providers, and they also offer some protection when you're connected to a public WiFi network.
Don't get me wrong - some sort of privacy might be achieved by controlling what you are uploading to the Web.
Avoiding publishing your whole life to social media might be the first step, then you can ditch Google Chrome and Google's services to protect you from being targeted with tailored ads.
 

upnorth

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Jul 27, 2015
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Number 10 and 11 is pretty important IMO when selecting or considering a VPN company/service.

I like the honest note from F-Secure.
After all, our goal is to secure your privacy when browsing the web, not securing your anonymity when committing crimes.
 

Klettern

Level 1
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Jun 26, 2018
21
Any of the top 5 subscription based brands are ok in my opinion. Nordvpn, express vpn, surfshark and others offer no log policies and are vetted by 3-rd party auditors.
 

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