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By Matt Birchler
I've been writing here since 2010! Back when personal blogs were all the rage. Kids, ask your parents.

“No Logging” VPNs Often Have…Logs

Seven 'no log' VPN providers accused of leaking – yup, you guessed it – 1.2TB of user logs onto the internet • The Register

A string of "zero logging" VPN providers have some explaining to do after more than a terabyte of user logs were found on their servers unprotected and facing the public internet.
This data, we are told, included in at least some cases clear-text passwords, personal information, and lists of websites visited, all for anyone to stumble upon.

This involved 7 VPN services that were all white labeling the same back end service, which is in a way better than finding 7 unrelated companies who were doing their own logging, but it’s still not great.

I don’t have a suggestion for what VPN client to use because I frankly don’t use one myself, and it’s for this exact reason. It’s incredibly simple to get a VPN up and running, and it’s led to a rush on the market. I’m sure some VPN providers are more trustworthy than others, but I’ll say what I always say when talking about VPNs:

A VPN does not make you anonymous, it is just entrusting a different company with all of your browsing data.

I know we all hate our ISPs, but do you trust a random “free VPN” service you find on the App Store more than them? Maybe you do, and in that case go for it, but think about that when using a VPN: do you trust this VPN provider more than your ISP? If so, use it, if not, get it the hell of your device. Oh, and if it’s a free service, really look into why it’s free, because as we always say, if you’re not paying, you’re the product, and your internet browsing data is a lot of product that could be resold by less reputable services.

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