PureVPN logging

[misam 9]

PureVPN claims no logging but reality seems different.

 

Their claim:

 

We Do Not monitor user activity nor do we keep any logs. (source: https://www.purevpn.com/privacy-policy.php )

 

Reality:

 

https://i.imgur.com/0d4D0AP.png

 

Source:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1001841/download

[DarkSpace-Harbinger 11]

To be fair, AirVPN says pretty much the same thing that PureVPN does.

 

What makes AirVPN different or more trustworthy than any of these other providers?

 

Sure, it's always the assumption that we can trust the provider we use. But can't these providers do anything more than "just take our word for it"?

 

In cases like these, it's apparent what happens when userbases are complicit with taking their word for it.

[bayoumedic 2]

we need a comment from airvpn on this

[Staff 9973]

Hello,

 

we don't monitor and/or inspect (with or without logging) the traffic of any OpenVPN client. The information that you report shows that PureVPN did.

 

If you can't afford to trust our words please apply partition of trust. The fact that we don't block OpenVPN connections over Tor node or any socks or http proxy should say something about our honesty.

 

Furthermore, the fact the you don't have any official statement after seven years of AirVPN activity and hundreds of thousands rotating customers about any compromised customers identity (and you have such information about HideMyAss, PureVPN and other services) should be also taken into serious consideration.

 

Kind regards

[NaDre 157]

Two parties wanting to exchange with each other in private is one thing. Stalking or committing other criminal offenses with a clear victim is something else again.

I personally would not be too upset if AirVPN cooperated with authorities in a situation like this. Also, AirVPN does have terms of service (https://airvpn.org/tos/). I have to wonder if a situation like this might not violate them.

I doubt very much that AirVPN would ignore a valid court order in their jurisdiction. I don't doubt that they would have no information to hand over. But what would they do? Allow this to continue? If they investigate (by using limited short term targeted logging, as they have said in the past they would do to stop abuse of their service) in order to determine what account to suspend, they will now have information that would probably be covered by the court order.

 

I think this sort of thing is very complicated. I can see why AirVPN does not want to go on and on about what their legal options would be. But folks, don't be naive in your expectations. And stalkers f*** off.

[SDBF 22]

Two parties wanting to exchange with each other in private is one thing. Stalking or committing other criminal offenses with a clear victim is something else again.

 

I personally would not be too upset if AirVPN cooperated with authorities in a situation like this. Also, AirVPN does have terms of service (https://airvpn.org/tos/). I have to wonder if a situation like this might not violate them.

 

I doubt very much that AirVPN would ignore a valid court order in their jurisdiction. I don't doubt that they would have no information to hand over. But what would they do? Allow this to continue? If they investigate (by using limited short term targeted logging, as they have said in the past they would do to stop abuse of their service) in order to determine what account to suspend, they will now have information that would probably be covered by the court order.

 

I think this sort of thing is very complicated. I can see why AirVPN does not want to go on and on about what their legal options would be. But folks, don't be naive in your expectations. And stalkers f*** off.

This doesn't make any sense. The minute you start allowing this in one case, it will end up be used in something that you or any one of the rest of us don't like.  I trust AirVPN in this matter.   You cannot make exceptions just because you don't have a problem with it.  That's always a slippery slope to no where any one wants to end up.

[NaDre 157]

...

This doesn't make any sense. The minute you start allowing this in one case, it will end up be used in something that you or any one of the rest of us don't like.  I trust AirVPN in this matter.   You cannot make exceptions just because you don't have a problem with it.  That's always a slippery slope to no where any one wants to end up.

 

Is anyone aware of a statement by any VPN company that they would ignore a court order valid in their jurisdiction? If so does anyone actually believe that? Do you believe that VPN companies do not take their terms of service seriously? Did you read beyond the first sentence?

[SDBF 22]

This was the reply I got from PureVPN regarding my concerns on them logging when they say they don't

 

 

 

Dear,

 

Thanks for contacting us.

 

You can relax and use the internet with complete confidence knowing that we do not keep any Internet activity i-e browsing logs what so ever. This means that even we don't know which websites you visit using our service or which applications you used.

 

For more details, please check our Privacy Policy https://www.purevpn.com/privacy-policy.php

 

For further queries, please email at press@purevpn.com and our Manager will get back to you at earliest.

 

Regards,

McKenzie

 

 

I had even included the court case that showed they logged and the best they can respond with is a canned reply that answers nothing and completely ignores the court case.  That is the difference with AirVPN.  Every time I ask Air a ?, I get real reply that addresses the actual  content in the the ?.  Not some PR reply that shows they are hiding something like PureVPN.  The best that we can do it spread the word, PureVPN is not to be trusted.

[NaDre 157]

There is a section "Prohibited Uses of our Web Site and Services" in their terms of use (https://www.purevpn.com/term.php). Here are the fourth and fifth items in that list:

 

 

• Use our Website and/or Services to transmit any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, torturous, or that can be deemed objectionable in a court of law;
• Use our Website and/or Services to harm, threaten, 'stalk' or otherwise harass another person/business;

 

 

If you violate a companies terms of service, you should expect that they will no longer feel any obligation to provide you with their service. You know this up front. They won't care what promises you pretend they have made. This is simple reality.

 

I have never used PureVPN. This is the first time I looked at their web site. It took me all of 60 seconds to find those points. I am not a fan of any VPN provider (even AirVPN). They are businesses and I am a customer. I expect them to care about their terms of service, and so I make my decisions accordingly.

 

EDIT: By the way, there is an archive of that page on archive.org from July 4:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20170704124517/purevpn.com/term.php

 

So these items have not just now been added.

[zhang888 1066]

Last year I notified the PureVPN team that one of their resources was compromised and some of their resources was spreading malware.

https://airvpn.org/topic/17384-purevpn-got-hacked-website-spreading-windows-malware/

 

This issue even went somewhat viral on some VPN communities:

http://www.hackdonor.com/2016/04/did-purevpn-get-hacked.html

 

Potential users who downloaded this file were at risk for having their password stolen. As we found out here, AirVPN user Zhang888 contacted PureVPN for an answer on the hack, but the chat rep wasn't exactly what I'd call helpful.

 

Needless to say that such proivder, that was also caught using fake GeoIP announcements, cannot be trusted.

[NaDre 157]

Last year I notified the PureVPN team ...

 

It may well be that PureVPN is indeed a very poor service. In fact I see now that a popular private tracker (MoreThanTV) has now banned PureVPN. Perhaps others will.

 

I just get irritated by criticism based on a lot of made up nonsense. And again, I think it is wise to pay attention to the TOS of your provider.

 

EDIT: I hope that MTV's decision is based a better argument than I have seen in this forum. If torrent sites start banning every VPN service that gets bad press after some stalker abuses their service, I could see this happening to AirVPN too. And that would be the end of me (and I suspect many others) here.

[spinmaster 30]

PureVPN claims no logging but reality seems different.

 

Their claim:

 

We Do Not monitor user activity nor do we keep any logs. (source: https://www.purevpn.com/privacy-policy.php )

 

Reality:

 

https://i.imgur.com/0d4D0AP.png

 

Source:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1001841/download

 

For everybody who doesn't have the whole background on the PureVPN logging case, here is the full story:

 

https://torrentfreak.com/purevpn-logs-helped-fbi-net-alleged-cyberstalker-171009/  

[jean claud 45]

Forget all those "big" Vpn only interested by business and consider those who are deeply involved in internet freedom . The selection can easily be done. Consider too that you don't need Servers in hundred countries, for a better privacy it's better to select a server in your time zone ( but not in your country)

AirVpn gets all this criterias

[serenacat 83]

Back in Olden Times, and remembered by Hollywood movies, the police did "wiretaps" to capture future information or evidence rather than trawling past captured call records or other "logged" data. With some control by courts.

If you know a bit about internet networks and have used a diagnostic tool such as Wireshark, it seems possible that input traffic per IP address can be correlated with output traffic to specific social media accounts and email servers. The Snowden info re the NSA seemed to indicate a capability to  intercept entire multi GB links to data centers, and filter out and capture specific traffic of interest.

So maybe as well as PureVPN cooperating in whatever way they did (still a topic on various blogs, eg https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2672086)

there is a difference in law and police process between retained access logs or connection/session logs, and complying with a "wiretap" court order or police demand for subsequent capture, and split streaming offsite in real time.

Without cooperation from the VPN provider or datacentre, just the bandwidth carrier ?

Reading the court document, it seems this Lin creep was rather arrogantly sure of  his own cleverness by adding bomb threats and child molestation material, and widespread harassment of local police and school district and exclassmates etc ad nauseum, beyond his obsession with one unfortunate female student. So he got a rather qualified FBI team and resources going after him as he continued for a long  time.

So a moral might be that the bigger the crime, the more likely to get caught, as well as the size of the penalty. If they lock him up for 5+ years, it should include no access to computers, just have to watch shopping channels on TV.

[pr1v 36]

Anyway, you can't trust VPN,s if you do something illegal. Even if a VPN doesn't log what users do (you'll never know), this doesn't mean they can't be forced to do it with some particular user through a valid court order. EVery user has an username/password, it's own certificate or some unique ticket with a VPN. Of course you can use VPN + Tor.

[DEKY 1]

I tried purevpn for two weeks last month for bbc iplayer,worked fine for a week then for some reason started using 100% processor and kept freezing my machine,only way to stop it was pull plug and restart,on the chatline was told time after time not enough ram,ballocks i got 32gigs .only tried it for bbc. Screw them i am sticking with this outfit.

[bayoumedic 2]

Hello,

 

we don't monitor and/or inspect (with or without logging) the traffic of any OpenVPN client. The information that you report shows that PureVPN did.

 

If you can't afford to trust our words please apply partition of trust. The fact that we don't block OpenVPN connections over Tor node or any socks or http proxy should say something about our honesty.

 

Furthermore, the fact the you don't have any official statement after seven years of AirVPN activity and hundreds of thousands rotating customers about any compromised customers identity (and you have such information about HideMyAss, PureVPN and other services) should be also taken into serious consideration.

 

Kind regards

'sounds good to me

[Old Fella 10]

Hello,

 

we don't monitor and/or inspect (with or without logging) the traffic of any OpenVPN client..

 

Kind regards

nuff said

[Alter94 0]

It's important to note this guy was breaking the law not to mention being incredibly careless about it. According to some reports put out this guy was using PureVPN to log into personal Gmails accounts. Kind of stupid lol. Despite concealing yourself, when you log into personal accounts it personal, lol. Privacy is unfortunately not easy to acquire in today's world. VPN is a tool, but you need more.