Published on December 20th, 2021 | by Bibhuranjan

Can you trust your VPN provider?

When looking for a VPN, there is no easy way to search the best one. The Google search results are flooded with ads and they all seem to make the same promises of anonymity and security. How can you find out which VPN is really the best for you? And how do you know if you can trust the VPN provider more than your internet provider?

Caution is always required when shopping for security. After all, if you hand over your keys to a security guard, or your data to a VPN provider, you want to be sure that they are reliable and not going do exactly the thing you hired them to prevent; stealing from you.

How to know if your VPN provider is reliable?

It is always best to use a paid service from a prominent company. First, because running VPN servers is a costly business. VPN providers are not charity and free services usually come with a catch. Remember, if you aren’t paying, also you’re the product. And second, because the big-name VPN providers like NordVPN and ExpressVPN have been tried and tested by many users and independent parties and have a reputation to protect.

However, this doesn’t automatically mean that lesser-known VPN services cannot be great. They could become the next biggest service. But you have to pay a lot of attention before buying their service. The not-so-funny joke is that if someone (or the government) really wanted to monitor everyone, the best thing they could do would be starting a VPN company.

Things to pay attention to when trying a new or unknown VPN provider

Of course, you will read the information given on the website, and of course it will claim to be the fastest, cheapest, most reliable or to have the most servers. But read the fine print! If the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy state outright that you agree to being tracked and having your data sold, you can run immediately.

But if you really want to know more about the company, try these steps:

Check Who.is: Finding out who registered the domain of the website can tell you a lot. It may also tell you when the domain was registered. If the VPN claims to be providing services for a number of years, but the domain was just registered this year, there may be something fishy going on.
WaybackMachine can show you what the website used to look like in the past? Scammers often reuse their domains for different schemes and do not bother to hide much.
Google Play or AppStore will give you details on the apps, including who the developer is. This can tell you a lot about quality or reliability.
Google any new or strange details you find, like email addresses, developer’s name, etc.

Lastly, keep reading reviews and independent audits. If you cannot find much information, you can always ask tech review sites and third-party VPN testers to have a look for you. They may be happy with the tip for new content, and you can have your independent review.

Tags: buy vpn, VPN, vpn provider, vpn reviews

About the Author

Bibhuranjan Editorial Officer, technofaq.org I'm an avid tech enthusiast at heart. I like to mug up on new and exciting developments on science and tech and have a deep love for PC gaming. Other hobbies include writing blog posts, music and DIY projects.