Why does Air have such low score?

[Waterwater10 2]

I was looking at this VPN comparison https://thatoneprivacysite.net/simple-vpn-comparison-chart/ and noticed that Air has some red flags according to this sites tests/research.

 

One of the bigger concerns is why the "business ethics" is red, and also logging is yellow, but I have read from users and it's advertised on the homepage that "No monitoring nor logging of your online activities".

 

Edit:  I just looked at the site more and found the in depth review and have found the reasons for the poor ethics. Could you expand on the reasoning for the red scoring on them particular issues?

 

https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart/

[Staff 9972]

Hello!

 

About the business ethics, the maintainer of the web site you mention has been caught lying in the past and insisted on the lies and other questionable behavior. See for example https://airvpn.org/topic/19586-a-review-on-another-site/?do=findComment&comment=48945 - where his lies have been publicly revealed as well as hidden corrections to his articles. Compare the lies of the web site maintainer with the facts of the web site and judge yourself whether we have been faithful to our mission or not https://airvpn.org/mission

 

About the "yellow" flag on logging, that's just another proof of the poor competence of this self proclaimed "expert". Compare the Privacy Notice and Terms (linked at the bottom of all of our web site pages, https://airvpn.org/privacy ) and see yourself - let us know if you can find anything that can deserve a "yellow flag" on our complete and total no-logging policy and total lack of personal data collection. It's also worth to mention that, contrarily to what happens with some of our biggest competitors, in 8 years of activity no identity of any Air customer has been revealed, another fact supporting the truth of our no logging and no traffic inspection policy.

 

In general (and NOT related to this case, which we are confident we have exhaustively proved as a blatant set of lies and misconceptions) also stay away from those web sites which publish "VPN reviews" together with "top x VPN services" and all that jazz: many "reviewers" can voluntarily write a surreptitiously bad review, partially or totally detached from reality, when we refuse to pay for the review OR to pay for advertisements in their web site pages. Since we have never paid for reviews (and we will never do) and for ads on such web sites, it may happen that reviews are voluntarily "biased".

 

A flourishing business around VPN reviews has been created in the last years, and is fueled by those companies which are willing to "pay for reviews". Such companies harm the image and reputation of the whole sector and show total disrespect for their potential customers. It's disgusting that such a game can be played when personal freedom and safety are at stake in a sector which was originally born exactly to protect people from all abuses deriving from the infringement of a fundamental right, privacy.

 

Kind regards

[SDBF 22]

Because ThatGuy(Asshole) doesn't like it when someone pushes back on his testing methods nor does he like it when someone refutes his claims and he is shown to be wrong.   He hates that, so when it happens, then the company gets dinged.   Why this guy hasn't been sued to oblivion is beyond me.   In the fitness supplement world, when people have tried to rate different companies, supplements etc., if they didn't have all of their ducks in a row, meaning chain of custody, licensed third party testing oversight and a whole host of other things that insure the integrity of the testing, they have gone down hard.   I mean, they lost everything.   I'm not necessarily saying I want this guys life ruined, but it would nice if someone checked his ass and showed him that when he does something like this, there are consequences to rating someone low just because they showed you to be wrong.    I'm not an AirVPN fanboi.   I use them and so far they've given me everything they said they would.   They answer ?'s when posed to them and they back it all up with proof.  If they didn't do this, I wouldn't defend them in this one thing.  But they've shown every concern he has to be false and he still persists.   FUCK HIM. 

[corrado 100]

@SDBF: I think that is a little harsh. Overall, AirVPN scores great in his chart except for the policy section which is controversial, subjective and in blatantly wrong. Handing AirVPN the "Shady"-badge really irritates me, too, and reading up on his detailed review one gets the feeling he is on some crusade against AirVPN the reasons for which are barely comprehensible. But as of now, the logging section has a green flag, so he obviously changed that. Personally, I think this chart while far from perfect and surely not 100% reliable is not nearly as bad as those VPN review sites. In many ways, it is a rather superficial review of the market of VPN providers salted with some personal beliefs and opinions of ThatOnePrivacyGuy.

[serenacat 83]

I can't be bothered reading through his website, but noted that the About page brags of much coverage from many of the "popular/consumer" media such as Gizmodo and Wired. Geotool says hosted at ISP: Namecheap, Inc in Los Angeles. So "typical" American marketing emphasis and income.

 

Personally, I prefer a VPN supplier such as Air under jurisdiction of European Union law and legal procedure, rather than the shadowy US system of FISA courts, NSA monitoring, carrier compliance, and cooperation with various US and non-US government agencies. Bad things have happened to non Americans if  entering US territory, even if just in airline transit to Canada etc, but their data systems are far from 100%, and justice sucks dollars.

 

One suggestion re Air marketing and "reputation" is the Linux Mint home page at https://linuxmint.com/

where PIA has prominence as a sponsor, the Mint people seem happy for quite small amounts of money, and produce a quality product well suited  as an alternative to Windows. Mint 19 is about to be released so many will go there, and likely to be more tech savvy and/or professional users than say the readers of Torrent Freak into high bandwidth/quota "stuff".