100+ VPN Logging Policies Debunked

Editor’s note: Some parts of this article were updated in April 2023 

With over 300 VPN providers on the market, it’s difficult to know who to trust. You want your VPN to be completely private, anonymous and secure.

After all, most VPNs claim “Anonymity & Privacy” when using their services.Unfortunately, what they claim often does not reflect the truth.

To uncover this problem, we fact-checked 100 VPN privacy policies on logging.

Our research revealed that many VPNs store or log some kind of data for the purpose of either; selling/sharing your data to 3rd parties, limiting bandwidth, improving their service, logging with rental servers (VPS) or applying with laws.

Popular VPNs That Keep Usage Logs

Let’s start off with the ones who simply keep usage logs which basically make your VPN not private or anonymous. Table 1 lists out the VPNs that keep your browsing history and compromising the idea of a secure and private connection.

Table 1. VPNs that access your browsing history.

As you can see, many popular VPNs keep your browsing logs, websites you visit, your IP address and many more.

For example, McAfee’s Safe Connect claims to encrypt your online activity and defend you against cybercriminals. On their homepage, they also claim to protect your privacy.

Unfortunately, your privacy is not protected, since in their privacy policy McAfee claims the following:

Another disturbing VPN is Hola VPN with over 50 million installs on Google play alone. They also have a browser extensions. What Hola does it simple,

Hola don’t even try to hide it. Why would they? Hola actively sell access to your device and network through which 3rd parties can access the internet.

As if it’s not concerning enough that a VPN, meant to protect you, is the very one that is abusing your trust and data, popular Chinese based VPNs like Hotspot VPN and Hoxx VPN go further by caliming to Log information and other data from your device, such as webpage addresses and data field.

Popular VPNs That Keep Aggregated Usage Logs

Some very popular VPNs collect aggregated browsing logs. Aggregate means the VPN service is supposedly ensuring the collected data is anonymized and not connected to specific users. However, in some cases these VPNs claim to keep “no logs”. See table 2 which VPNs collect aggregated data.

Table 2. VPN’s that keep aggregated usage logs

Many free VPNs can also share your aggregated data with 3rd parties. Here’s how most of these privacy policies look like:

Usually, when using a VPN, websites that you visit, bandwidth and connection times are put into a form of data that not identifiable at personal level. Below are common sentences or phrases from the privacy policies of VPNs that either store or share aggregated data:

• “Website visited via our servers are aggregated and stored.“
• “Usage Data includes aggregated information about how you use our Services“
• “We may share your general (city level) location“
• “We may aggregate your usage data to … calculate ad impressions clicked on“
• “We may log your data including information about your IP, the webpages you visit, time spent on those pages, access times and dates“
• “… advertisers may be able to collect certain information…“
• “We may also share Anonymous Information with third parties for additional purposes, including marketing, research and analytics purposes.“
• “… advertisers may be able to access your IP address if your device is not connected to the VPN.”
• “… advertisers may be able to collect certain information…“
• “… we may share aggregated information we collect… with third parties including advisors, advertisers…“

All 100 VPNs And What Logs Are Kept:

Aggregate means the VPN service is supposedly ensuring the collected data is anonymized and not connected to specific users.