How We Chose
VPN providers often say they don’t keep logs, which means they don’t know anything about what you do using their services. There are a variety of suspicious reasons for this claim, as they need to have some form of ID linked to the payment method, which means that there is a possibility to connect your credit card number (and your name) to browsing activity.
For this reason, I only give my tests to donors in the US or Europe and they have failed to make logs or to be illuminated by other security personnel. While this may not guarantee that providers do not keep track of type records, this option provides us with a start-up filter through hundreds of VPN providers.
Using this, I narrowed down the section to the most popular, well-known VPN providers and started testing them on a variety of networks (4G, cable, FiOS, and many slow-moving networks) over the past nine months. I tested the speed of the network and the ease of use (how you connect), and I also considered the payment methods available, the amount of connectivity goes down, and any decrease I experienced.
What Happened to ExpressVPN?
ExpressVPN, which was one of our favorites, was acquired by Kape Technologies earlier this year. Selling any VPN service is a cause for concern, but here it is more difficult than usual. Kape Technologies, formerly known as Crossrider, accuses him of distributing crime and fraud. It also has a reliable Private Internet Access (also known as PIA), which we no longer recommend, as well as a few VPN monitoring pages.
Given the history of Cape Town and its organization, which includes links to British and Israeli government agencies, we also do not recommend using ExpressVPN or PIA. If you would like more information on the industry, see the article at Import Privacy.
Why You Should Not Need a VPN
It is important to understand not only what a VPN can do, but also what it cannot do. As mentioned above, VPNs act as a security channel. A VPN protects you from people trying to track the amount of traffic you are passing between your computer and the website you are looking at or the application you are using.
The social network that anyone can access – even if they use a password to connect – is an easy-to-find search engine that wants to see the content on your network. If your data is sent anonymously – if the webpage you are not using has an HTTPS-protected system – the amount of information that an adversary can collect from you could be compromised. Internet browsers make it easy to determine if your connection is secure. Just look for the green lock icon at the top of your screen next to the internet address. Nowadays, most websites connect using HTTPS, so you are fine. But if the green lock sign is not there, because sometimes it is not in schools, libraries, and small websites, everyone can see everything you post. Unless you use a VPN, which hides all your activities, even on an unlocked page.