Of course, everything said above applies to when Highwinds Network Group was in charge of IPVanish. Still, we need to highlight that IPVanish did, in fact, log private data despite what its privacy policy said. Of course, we can't blame IPVanish for helping the authorities resolve such a severe crime. Dates and times that clearly describe when the accused individual was actively using IPVanish.Īs you can see, that information proved that IPVanish wasn't only willing to work with the authorities – it actually recorded plenty of personal data as well.Source IP address of the suspected user.After some discussion, the VPN provider decided to hand over 2 types of information: As can be seen from this affidavit, that case involved child abuse and pornography, as well as a suspect who was investigated by the US Department of Homeland Security.Īs per the criminal affidavit, the US Department of Homeland Security asked for data records from Highwinds Network Group, the parent company of IPVanish at the time. In 2016, it was discovered that IPVanish used to log some personal data – even though this VPN claimed to have a strict no-logs policy since 2012. Did IPVanish Leak Private Data in the Past? To mitigate that downside, IPVanish now goes through regular audits to prove its no-logs claims, as explained below. That country is one of the founding members of the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance – created for the purpose of intelligence sharing. We're talking about VPNs such as StrongVPN, SaferVPN, (which merged with Buffered VPN in the meantime), ibVPN, OverPlay VPN, and WLVPN (which acts as a white-label VPN service), among others.įinally, it's important to highlight that IPVanish (still) comes from the USA. You probably haven't heard about this company until now, but it owns several major VPN brands. Today, IPVanish is owned by NetProtect, a brand owned by Ziff Davis (previously known as J2 Global). The new management team, along with its CEO Lance Crosby, decided to turn IPVanish into a no-logs VPN, promising not to collect a single file pointing to your online whereabouts. We can't say this VPN changed drastically except for one thing. Things started to change in 2017 when Highwinds Network Group became a part of a company called StackPath. During that time, this VPN found itself at the center of a privacy-related scandal, which we'll discuss in the following segment of this review. However, it didn't take long for the company to grow its service to cover other devices and more advanced features. Initially, this was a basic VPN designed for Windows PC users. This was a subsidiary of Highwinds Network Group, whose headquarters was in Florida (the USA). IPVanish launched in 2012 as a VPN service of a company called Mudhook Media. Where Does IPVanish Come From? Is It Part of the 5/9/14-Eyes Alliance? So, let's see whether you can trust IPVanish with your sensitive data. With that said, you want to ensure that your VPN doesn't exploit your trust in any way. VPN services deal with a massive volume of sensitive information supplied by their customers. These are all top-tier features, but we wanted to test them out so you can see if they’re a good fit for you. However, before we dive into our detailed IPVanish review, here’s an overview of the key features to help you get a sense of what to expect.Įven though IPVanish comes with a very turbulent past, it's now quite transparent and willing to go through regular audits, proving its commitment to its no-logs policy. It supports P2P traffic on all its servers and has even added support for SOCKS5 proxies to facilitate P2P file sharing and torrenting. IPVanish can unblock a number of popular streaming platforms, including Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer. It also offers split tunneling, allowing users to choose which traffic to route through the VPN, leaving everything else outside of their VPN tunnel. IPVanish uses AES 256-bit encryption to protect your data and features a handy kill switch and DNS leak protection. This means that even if a government agency requests your data, IPVanish won’t have any record of it to share. However, we were glad to find out that the company has a strict no-logs policy that’s been independently audited and verified. Since IPVanish is based in the US, it’s subject to the 5-Eyes, 9-Eyes, and 14-Eyes jurisdictions. It’s an excellent choice for users who want to protect their privacy and access streaming platforms or other blocked sites without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for the best VPN service in the market, chances are that you’ve already heard of IPVanish, a US-based VPN that offers a solid network of over 2,000 servers in more than 50+ countries.
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