VPN providers
ExpressVPN privacy rating
Commercial VPN service run by Express Technologies Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands, a subsidiary of Kape Technologies. It uses its own open-source Lightway protocol.
Summary
ExpressVPN scores 56 out of 100 (grade D) on the VPN providers criteria. It meets 6 of 12 criteria: no ads or data sales, independent audit, transparency report, TLS configuration, audited no-logs policy and modern protocols. It partly meets security headers and anonymous payment. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, tells users about requests and open-source apps. It is based in the British Virgin Islands: Not in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B.
Score 56 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
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No
Open source Weight 3 of 3
Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
The apps and servers are closed source. Only the Lightway protocol implementation is published under AGPL-3.0.
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No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
The privacy policy lists Google Analytics and AppsFlyer, and the Android app includes AppsFlyer and Google Firebase Analytics.
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Yes
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
Funded by paid subscriptions. The policy states personal data is not sold.
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Yes
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
Full reports are published, including Cure53 on the Lightway protocol and KPMG on the no-logs policy.
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Yes
Transparency report Weight 2 of 3
Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
Twice-yearly counts of government requests, warrants and DMCA requests are published.
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No
Tells users about requests Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
No published policy on notifying users about data requests.
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Yes
Audited no-logs policy Weight 3 of 3
Has an independent audit confirmed that activity and connection logs are not kept?
KPMG assessed that the TrustedServer design prevents activity and connection logging. The full report is public after accepting KPMG terms.
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Partial
Anonymous payment Weight 2 of 3
Can an account be created and paid for without an email address, name or card?
Bitcoin is accepted, but an email address is needed for the account.
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No
Open-source apps Weight 2 of 3
Are the apps for every platform open source?
The apps are closed source.
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Yes
Modern protocols Weight 1 of 3
Is WireGuard (or another modern audited protocol) supported?
The Lightway protocol, audited by Cure53 and Praetorian, is the default.
Automated tests
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Yes
TLS configuration Weight 2 of 3
Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
Grade A+
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Partial
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade B (70/100+)
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Not tested yet
Modern web standards Weight 1 of 3
Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
Not tested yet.