Ivacy VPN

[calcu007 5]

What you think about Ivacy ? or comments. It looks good

[LZ1 672]

Hello!
 

Another run-of-the-mill "VPN", which can't be compared to AirVPN at all haha . I like how they have servers in Russia, China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia, Colombia... Heck, they even managed Nigeria!(There goes that plan) . I think they're pretty much everything AirVPN isn't. Just another "Netflix VPN", judging by how they market themselves on their site. They have "all the protocols!" and "all the server locations!" so to speak and while they claim they don't log, they employ Google Analytics on their site. Not to mention they say they have "256-bit encryption" --- Which encryption? (They later mention it's AES). I also thought that this was funny: 

Is P2P file sharing allowed on our servers?

All our servers are P2P optimized except for the servers in UK, Canada, Mexico, India, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, France, Brazil, Egypt, Hong Kong, Italy, South Africa, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Czech, Finland, Jordan and Kuwait.

Isn't that virtually all the servers? Haha. This also contradicts what it says on their main page, wherein the UK and Canada are listed as being two of the P2P optimized locations.

 

They also don't offer free trials, which is curious. But a 7 day money back scheme, which as Lifehacker points out: "At $1.83 a month (when you purchase a yearly subscription) it's not a hard sell for anyone who might be strapped for cash. Just be careful about their 7-day money-back guarantee, which is only valid if less than 500mb in data transfers have been made." Maybe isn't the best.

 

They refer to sites like Lifehacker having "mentioned" them, but give no links. I searched it and found that Lifehacker said a few things including:

"It does have a slightly dodgy history of essentially bribing bloggers and reviewers with free subscriptions, however, so some of the more glowingly positive reviews and comments should be taken with a very large grain of salt." The only place they were "mentioned" on TechCrunch seems to be for a short commentary about using a VPN while gaming. Totally unrelated to their service. As for their "TechInAsia" review, it's actually authored by their marketing manager it seems. It's also funny to consider that the name of their marketing manager changed, between the Techcrunch article in June 2016 and the TechinAsia article or post in August 2016 - unless they have multiple marketing managers for some reason. Then there's the Geektime review, which reads like a paid-for review, as it lists Ivacy as the number 1 VPN for 2016. They also included PureVPN and other suchs legends in the top 5 .

 

Another thing I found really funny was when they answered the question

What Level of Encryption Does Ivacy VPN Provide?

Our network supports all encryption levels ranging from No Encryption to the highest SSL or AES 256 bit encryption. If you are using our Windows software, you can change encryption settings from the Settings tab. Mac users can adjust settings under System Preference –> Network –> Ivacy.

For other devices, our server will go with the default settings which are usually encryption enabled.

How can you list support for "No Encryption" as an encryption level hahahaha .

 

Then there's some of the legal stuff:

Ivacy does not limit bandwidth or data usage per user; however the use of service is subjected to fair usage. Creating automated or manual VPN sessions in a manner that would impersonate a bot or exerting excessive load on the network that may disturb other users on the network, or utilizing substantially excessive bandwidth that exceeds the average user bandwidth usage for an extended duration etc., all will be considered as unfair usage of the network. Ivacy reserves the right to temporary suspend or permanently terminate users found involved in unfair usage of its services.

No bandwidth limitations, except if you use too much they'll ban you. Okay then.

 

Oh, this is good:

Anti-Fraud Policy

Ivacy hereby notifies that, no accounts will be offered to clients residing in African nations except South Africa. Ivacy had to take this step because of increasing complaints regarding fraudulent activities originating from Nigeria. However, Ivacy reserves its right to allow any one as an exception to get an account, on receipt of government issued IDs or  landline phone. Anyone who tries to bypass the conditions therein, will immediately get his account terminated. All fraudulent activities may be reported to the respective police and related law enforcement authorities.

Who knew there might be claims of fraudulent activities originating from Nigeria? Hahaha. So if you're an African user, no account for you. But if you give them your real ID, they can make an exception. Wow. Maybe one could be cheeky and ask... But if there's "no logging" and all that as you claim, how would you know where they reside?

 

On their main page, they also list their customers by their full name, which seems like a really odd thing for a VPN to do. All the customer reviews read like wholesale advertisements as well, unsurprisingly.

 

Of the good things:

1. They support pretty much all platforms. At least in a barebones sort of way it seems.
2. Their website is pretty nice and makes things look appealing. Especially to the novice user I imagine.
3. They do indeed support many locations and protocols. Although I doubt the locations are real nor effective. While the protocols aren't that groundbreaking.
4. They have some nice how-to guides with pictures. Although perhaps this also is for substituting an active community and support system.
5. They do have some nice blogs, wherein they touch on many facets of privacy. So from an educational standpoint, that's good. Ed Snowden is mentioned for example.
6. They seem to support various payment methods, including maybe bitcoin. But there's no refunds this way.

Of the bad:

1. They're inconsistent with information. Some places they have 100+ servers, other places it's listed as 250+. But *real* info on their systems and infrastructure is scarce.
2. They oversell, lie and actively distort reality, when they do things like listing review sites, simply because their name was mentioned on them.
3. Their location policy and policies in general are abysmal to the say the least and as we know, PPTP and similar protocols aren't the most secure.
4. They're all over the place in terms of their product and thus seem to lack focus. It would seem they're better suited to running a news site than a VPN.
5. Their policies are unclear. They support P2P, but apparently don't care about DMCA's, yet dislike copyright infringement? I'm not sure honestly.

Bottom line: Another horrible so-called "VPN" that probably introduces more insecurity than if you just avoided it altogether. Despite the good points, the bad points simply weigh much heavier.

 

But of course, it's easy to be a nay-sayer, so maybe I'm just biased and being overly negative .

 

EDIT: I found more reviews on Trustpilot and oddly enough, 99% of the reviews have this in common: reviewers profile is in the US, they've only ever reviewed Ivacy, they give 5 stars and think Ivacy is the most amazing thing ever. So, fake accounts I guess? Some of them even claimed they were from Canada, yet their account was showing US. While the remaining 1% of reviews were either 1 star or 4.5. Ones like Pete from the UK. All the 1 star reviews share the fact that the VPN is terrible and the refund policy is pretty much unworkable.

[FromtheWalls 83]

@LZ1: Thanks for a hilarious read, this VPN seems more like a borderline scam. The "All our servers are P2P optimized except for.." part cracked me up, and the claim that they do not limit bandwidth usage when they right afterwards mention they might suspend or terminate your account if you use more bandwidth than the average user is gold. Good digging, definitely a bottom tier provider

[LZ1 672]

@LZ1: Thanks for a hilarious read, this VPN seems more like a borderline scam. The "All our servers are P2P optimized except for.." part cracked me up, and the claim that they do not limit bandwidth usage when they right afterwards mention they might suspend or terminate your account if you use more bandwidth than the average user is gold. Good digging, definitely a bottom tier provider

 

Hahaha, thank you, I aim to amuse. Despite calling it a Netflix VPN, I must admit that I think even Netflix would feel a little offended if their service was attempted accessed by someone using Ivacy haha! "Sigh, they're not even trying anymore...This was just getting fun *sadface*" - Netflix CEO. Haha. Also, I want to reinforce how crazy that Geektime review actually is, because it's really hilarious if you take a look at the other entries:

1. Ivacy
2. ExpressVPN
3. PureVPN
4. Hola
5. ZenMate

Now before you read the Hola part, keep in mind this is for the BEST VPNs of 2016:

"One of the most important aspects of Hola is that it’s absolutely free of cost. You don’t have to pay a single penny. Just activate the Hola extension and there you go! The downside to it being free, however, is that it slows down your computer, has basically ho privacy, and uses your computer to power other servers around the world."

Imagine how ZenMate must feel. Hola slows you down, exploits your connection and "basically has no privacy", but they're still better than ZenMate! Wow. If this is sarcasm, it's masterful

 

Meanwhile the Pros and Cons list is digital gold:

 

Pros

• Browser-based VPN
• Free
• 66 million trusted users
• 30-day money back guarantee
• Supports Windows, Mac iOS, Android

Cons

• Keeps user logs
• No protection for P2P file sharing
• Issues in customer support services
• No security for browsing
• Extension is a bit buggy 

Thank God for Hola and their 66 million trusted users . Imagine the nightmares Staff would have, rolling around in bed, sweating, repeating "partition of trust, partition of trust, partition of trust!" Note that it's not Hola who's trusted - it's the users lol. I also wonder how valuable a 30-day money back guarantee is, when the VPN is free!

This cons list reads like something I would expect to see in The Onion articles about what to look for in a VPN. The Cons list should really just list one bullet point:

• You're more secure without Hola.

I think that's a pretty serious con, if you're more secure if you don't use a security-related service!

 

Ahhh, this is all so entertaining . I hope zhang888 pays a visit to Ivacy too - it'll be devastating no doubt.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

 

• 66 million trusted users

 

Years ago, when I googled TrustedInstaller because it kept showing up in Windows I learned the difference between trustworthy and trusted: Either others trust you or others trust you to do the "right" thing. 66 million trusted users therefore means they have 66 million clients which do exactly what Ivacy want them to do. We're therefore talking about bots.

 

 

All our servers are P2P optimized except for the servers in UK, Canada, Mexico, India, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, France, Brazil, Egypt, Hong Kong, Italy, South Africa, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Czech, Finland, Jordan and Kuwait.

 

"You can P2P on all our servers except for all our servers"?

[zhang888 1066]

Fake GeoIP on half of the servers, where the real location is USA and Germany.

Actually it is PureVPN just under another label, same DDNS on hosts and some IP whois on their servers include PureVPN.

Same junk as PureVPN with the same tricks, this is not false marketing which can be somewhat tolerated, this is outright scam.

[Staff 9972]

Hello,

 

Ivacy brand was for sale some years ago but we were not interested in the deal. Ivacy is no more owned by the original founders to the best of our knowledge.

 

Kind regards

[Khariz 109]

Yep. Looks like PureVPN bought them.