VPN providers
Private Internet Access privacy rating
Commercial VPN service from Private Internet Access, Inc. in the United States, a subsidiary of Kape Technologies. The apps are open source and support WireGuard and OpenVPN.
Summary
Private Internet Access scores 71 out of 100 (grade C) on the VPN providers criteria. It meets 7 of 12 criteria: no ads or data sales, independent audit, transparency report, TLS configuration, audited no-logs policy, open-source apps and modern protocols. It partly meets open source, tells users about requests and anonymous payment. It does not meet no trackers or telemetry and security headers. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade F.
Score 71 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
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Partial
Open source Weight 3 of 3
Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
The desktop app is GPL-3.0 and the mobile apps are MIT-licensed. The server side is closed source.
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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 website uses Google Analytics. The Android app has no known trackers on Exodus.
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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 privacy policy states user data is not shared or 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 Deloitte ISAE 3000 assurance report on the VPN infrastructure is downloadable after accepting terms.
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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?
Counts of government, civil and foreign requests are published regularly.
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Partial
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?
The policy says users are given a chance to object to disclosures when possible, without a firm notice promise.
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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?
Deloitte Audit Romania examined the server configuration and found no data that identifies users or their activity. The full report is public.
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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?
Cryptocurrency is accepted through BitPay, but an email address is needed for the account.
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Yes
Open-source apps Weight 2 of 3
Are the apps for every platform open source?
Apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS are open source.
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Yes
Modern protocols Weight 1 of 3
Is WireGuard (or another modern audited protocol) supported?
WireGuard is supported alongside OpenVPN.
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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No
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade F (20/100+)
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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.