Concerns About AirVPN

[nsr0546Qyd 0]

Dear forum community, dear AirVPN staff

 

I am creating this topic to address some concerns I have been having about AirVPN as a VPN provider. Maybe other users will be able to help me or point me in the right direction.

 

Over one month ago I have written to AirVPN requesting an account deletion of another account I hold. I am writing this from another account to not draw more attention to the other account which needs to be deleted because of privacy issues. Unfortunately, the account has not been deleted to this day and all my communication attempts since the initial confirmation have been ignored.

 

I have looked through the forum in search of help but have only found a couple other posts of a user which seemed to have the same problem:

https://airvpn.org/topic/8188-cancel-my-account/

https://airvpn.org/topic/8190-cancel-my-account/

 

According to AirVPN, they gladly comply to account deletion requests since it is part of the EU legal framework:

https://airvpn.org/topic/8700-delete-accont/

 

In the FAQ, AirVPN states that a deleted account gets prefixed with "GUEST_":

https://airvpn.org/topic/9240-i-want-to-delete-my-account/

 

I have looked through the forums and have not found one single account that is prefixed with "GUEST_", which I find a bit weird. Maybe I did not search correctly or the deleted accounts get prefixed with something else. I also find it a bit concerning, that AirVPN did not comply to my deletion request. If a VPN provider does not delete an account if requested even when they say they would, then maybe they also log traffic even if they say they don't. I am not saying that AirVPN does this, but this thought has come up in the last weeks since I am struggling with such a simple request like an account deletion.

 

I do not want to criticise only: The VPN service itself works very well, it is fast and reliable. The Eddie client is the best VPN client in terms of functionality that I have used so far, it is very straight forward and offers a ton of functionality. I am going to go as far and say that no other VPN provider offers the same functionality as AirVPN. I really want to keep using the service but do not know what to think about the support ignoring my requests.

 

I have seen that a lot of users praise the responsiveness of the AirVPN support. Maybe all this has been a misunderstanding which can be resolved swiftly...

 

[Staff 10018]

Hello,

 

we do not apply anymore that method. Your personal data are deleted but your account messages are not prefixed with "guest_" etc. etc. anymore.

 

Important: remember that anybody can register an account again with the same username. This is not uncommon if you use a popular widespread nick.

 

Kind regards

[nsr0546Qyd 0]

Thank you very much for your response! This has been the first reply from the AirVPN support team that I have received in over 40 days. I am happy that you approved this topic as well.

It is however only addressing the prefixing of usernames in the forum (maybe it would be good to adjust your FAQ with the new information), the other things I mention are not addressed by your reply. Specifically:

 

My communication attempts with the support were ignored for over one month. I understand that delays can happen, nobody is perfect, but a delay of 40 days seems a bit long...

 

And more importantly, the account is not deleted. I can still see the display name history by accessing https://airvpn.org/index.php?app=members&module=profile&section=dname&id=[iD_REMOVED_FOR_PRIVACY] and I can still access the member profile page.

 

I think you can understand my concerns, the product is great but the support has been a bit shaky the way i experienced it which can raise some doubts whether AirVPN takes their mission seriously or not and is dedicated to protecting the privacy of their users.

 

(I am happy to provide more details through a private message if required)

[Staff 10018]

Hello,

 

when the account personal information is deleted we can't communicate with your account anymore because we consider your account e-mail address a personal information.

 

Kind regards

[altae 22]

Well he or she clearly indicated that there is a second account available. And in the end you have still failed to answer the question why the account concerned has not been deleted yet even though the user asked more than once for it. If what user nsr0546Qyd describes really happened like this it is not very good advertisement for the quality of your support.

[knighthawk 19]

Well he or she clearly indicated that there is a second account available. And in the end you have still failed to answer the question why the account concerned has not been deleted yet even though the user asked more than once for it. If what user nsr0546Qyd describes really happened like this it is not very good advertisement for the quality of your support.

 

 

Have to say I agree, this user's primary issue is still unresolved \ unanswered, at least as he\she describes it, hopefully support is communicating behind the scenes to address this and resolve whatever snafu may have happened with the old account.  Look forward to nsr0546Qyd reporting back in a few days that the issue has been resolved.

[Staff 10018]

Well he or she clearly indicated that there is a second account available. And in the end you have still failed to answer the question why the account concerned has not been deleted yet even though the user asked more than once for it. If what user nsr0546Qyd describes really happened like this it is not very good advertisement for the quality of your support.

 

 

Hello,

 

we don't know which account the writer refers to: the account he/she is writing from has been created very recently, has no tickets history and no subscriptions. All the personal information of an account (if any) are deleted within 30 days after the request according to the Tos and the Privacy Notice. If a totally unverified account owner writing in the forum can undermine our reputation with an old time customer like you, then we should evaluate to not approve posts with claims that we can't verify, but it's a practice that we would like to avoid if possible.

 

EDIT - UPDATE: we have just checked that all account personal information requests for deletion have been accomplished as usual, except one, which anyway was requested a few days ago (so there is still a lot of time to satisfy this request - assuming that personal data have been entered).

 

We would therefore rule out any human error by the person responsible for the treatment of personal data and we confirm that deletion of personal data has been going on regularly as usual in the last five years. As we always did, we anyway recommend that you do not put any personal data in your account during registration in the first place, this a normal and obvious principle of prudence which also makes irrelevant our policy about deletion of personal data. If any mistake is made during the registration process by a user, we're here to assist as we always did in five years.

 

Kind regards