{"id":423109,"date":"2022-03-28T16:00:25","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement\/"},"modified":"2022-03-28T16:00:25","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T13:00:25","slug":"what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement\/","title":{"rendered":"#What Do VPNs Share with Law Enforcement?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a279d5f5d47e\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a279d5f5d47e\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement\/#%E2%80%9CWhat_Do_VPNs_Share_with_Law_Enforcement%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;What Do VPNs Share with Law Enforcement?&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement\/#VPNs_and_Data_Requests\" >VPNs and Data Requests<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement\/#Going_Across_Borders\" >Going Across Borders<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement\/#Server_Seizures\" >Server Seizures<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement\/#VPNs_Anonymity_and_Logs\" >VPNs, Anonymity and Logs<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement\/#What_VPNs_Know_About_You\" >What VPNs Know About You<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-do-vpns-share-with-law-enforcement\/#How_VPNs_Protect_You\" >How VPNs Protect You<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWhat_Do_VPNs_Share_with_Law_Enforcement%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;What Do VPNs Share with Law Enforcement?&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage size-full wp-image-789447\" data-pagespeed-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/shutterstock_254229670.jpg?width=398&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 400w, https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/shutterstock_254229670.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, 400w, 1200w\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/shutterstock_254229670.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"A gavel and handcuffs on a book.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/gavel-handcuffs-on-legal-book-254229670\">Valery Evlakhov\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>VPNs promise to protect your privacy, but law enforcement and courts the world over have the legal right to ask for your records\u2014provided they can make a case against you. How do VPNs handle these requests, and how much do they end up sharing with the authorities?<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"VPNs_and_Data_Requests\"><\/span>VPNs and Data Requests<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In most countries where the rule of law <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lies, the police or other law enforcement agencies need permission from a judge or some other kind of higher authority to know more about you. For example, if they want to search your house, they need some kind of search warrant. If they want to know who you\u2019ve been calling\u2014or even to whom a certain telephone number belongs\u2014they need to produce some kind of warrant to your telecom provider.<\/p>\n<p>VPNs are no different.\u00a0For example, if somebody committed a crime and masked their location using a VPN, the police can approach the VPN provider with a warrant demanding that person\u2019s details and connection logs (the records of which sites were visited when).<\/p>\n<p>Now, to be clear, if you receive a warrant either as a private person or a company, you need to obey it: it\u2019s not like you can refuse. The best any recipient that doesn\u2019t want to comply can do is argue a warrant in front of a judge, and it\u2019s not often that they\u2019re overturned. However, most VPN users will still count themselves as safe for two reasons. The first is because the service they\u2019re using is promising anonymity. The second has to do with location.<\/p>\n<p>Many VPNs have foreign locales as their headquarters, and they will often advertise this fact, claiming that the strict privacy laws of their official country of residence protect them from warrants. However, this is very much not the case.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Going_Across_Borders\"><\/span>Going Across Borders<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>For example, NordVPN banks hard on it being based in Panama, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.anrdoezrs.net\/links\/3607085\/type\/am\/sid\/787544\/https:\/\/support.nordvpn.com\/General-info\/Features\/1061811142\/Jurisdiction-we-operate-in.htm\">claiming<\/a> it\u2019s a great place to settle because there are no \u201cdata retention laws,\u201d whatever they may be. In practice, though, NordVPN has in the past and will continue in the future to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/uk\/news\/nordvpn-will-now-comply-with-law-enforcement-data-requests\">comply with law enforcement requests<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The same goes for Proton, the company behind ProtonVPN and ProtonMail. It calls Switzerland its home and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/protonvpn.com\/it\/secure-vpn\/swiss-based\">relies heavily<\/a> on the Alpine country\u2019s reputation for secrecy in its marketing material. However, as Proton explains on its <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/redirect.viglink.com\/?key=204a528a336ede4177fff0d84a044482&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fprotonmail.com%2Fblog%2Ftransparency-report%2F\">own blog<\/a>, Swiss authorities have requested data thousands of times over the years. To give ProtonVPN its due, it does often fight these warrants, but it\u2019s not always successful.<\/p>\n<p>This is because of something few VPNs seem willing to admit, namely that countries talk to each other and are often more than happy to help each other out with simple requests. When the French police wanted to apprehend a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/9\/6\/22659861\/protonmail-swiss-court-order-french-climate-activist-arrest-identification\">climate activist<\/a>, they asked the Swiss government to issue a warrant for Proton to give out the man\u2019s details. Swiss courts approved the order, and ProtonVPN began logging the IP information on the account. At that point, Proton had no choice.<\/p>\n<p>ExpressVPN, which is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands admits it could be compelled to disclose information on <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/uxnzmft.com\/offer\/coupon?offer=3monthsfree&amp;a_fid=howtogeek&amp;data1=htg&amp;data2=787544blog\/bvi-privacy-legislation\/\">its website<\/a>, but reassures you that \u201cmost investigators would not go through such painstaking effort.\u201d Though this may be true, it\u2019s still cold comfort for anybody hoping their VPN would protect them.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Server_Seizures\"><\/span>Server Seizures<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Even if one country resists a warrant issued by another\u2014a big if, especially if we\u2019re talking about countries like the United States which have a lot of diplomatic clout\u2014there\u2019s another way in which your data can be traced, namely through server seizures. In this case, the authorities simply figure out which server is being used by the person they\u2019re looking for and\u2014if it\u2019s in their jurisdiction\u2014they go and get it and the data it contains.<\/p>\n<p>Though it\u2019s not common yet, the past few years have seen some big operations by law enforcement. In 2021, Ukrainian authorities <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2021\/07\/vpn-servers-seized-by-ukrainian-authorities-werent-encrypted\/\">seized servers<\/a> belonging to Windscribe as part of a larger investigation, while this year saw a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.securityweek.com\/vpnlab-goes-down-after-servers-seized-law-enforcement-operation\">massive pan-European raid<\/a> on server farms all over the continent.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, governments have a lot of power to go after your data if they want to. So what are VPNs doing to stop this?<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"VPNs_Anonymity_and_Logs\"><\/span>VPNs, Anonymity and Logs<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>VPNs will often try to assuage your worries about warrants and the like by promising a number of things. Most importantly, they claim that you\u2019re anonymous when signing up and using the service, as well as claiming that your connection logs are either destroyed or not even kept at all.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_VPNs_Know_About_You\"><\/span>What VPNs Know About You<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>When it comes to identifying data, it\u2019s difficult to gauge what VPNs do and don\u2019t know about you. However, the idea that you\u2019re some kind of digital ghost most likely isn\u2019t true unless you made sure to take precautions and signed up anonymously\u2014something that not all VPNs allow. The fact is that there\u2019s a good chance your VPN knows a lot about you: things like your name, email address, location, and a host of other data points can be gleaned from you simply visiting the site.<\/p>\n<p>If you sign up to the service, you\u2019re surrendering even more information as almost all VPNs require an email address (a valuable data point) as well as the motherlode of personal information: a credit card. Most payment providers will share a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.creditcardinsider.com\/learn\/anatomy-of-a-credit-card\/\">cardholder\u2019s information<\/a> with the service they\u2019re buying and this will include your full name and address.<\/p>\n<p>Besides knowing who you are, VPNs also have access to what you\u2019ve been doing online through what are called connection logs. These show everything you\u2019ve been up to the web while connected through the VPN, and we do mean <i>everything<\/i>. It\u2019s not just the sites you\u2019ve visited, but also the files you\u2019ve downloaded and the internet activity of your apps.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <strong><em>What Is a VPN, and Why Would I Need One?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_VPNs_Protect_You\"><\/span>How VPNs Protect You<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>This data is sensitive to you, but also quite valuable to the kind of people that track others\u2019 behavior online. To protect your privacy, VPNs <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly have some kind of promise that they don\u2019t collect personal information or connection logs.<\/p>\n<p>These are called\u00a0no-log VPNs.\u00a0Despite the name, in most cases, we suspect that your logs are destroyed as soon as they\u2019re created. That would allow normal internet connectivity while also protecting users.<\/p>\n<p>Note that we\u2019re not sure how this works: while VPNs claim that they keep no logs\u2014with a few fly-by-night companies even claiming they create none in the first place, a tall tale indeed\u2014there\u2019s no good way to actually check this claim. While a growing number of VPNs are undergoing third-party audits to back up their claims, there are plenty of ways to make things seem better than they are.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is that we don\u2019t know exactly what VPNs know about their users. They could know an awful lot about you if they wanted to, from what you do on the internet to who you are. This is balanced out by their claims to destroy all, or at least most, of your data. In the end, though, their claims of anonymity are based on trust: without a good way to check, all you can do is take their claims on faith.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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How do VPNs handle these requests, and how much do they end up sharing with the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":423110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/shutterstock_254229670.jpg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}