Concerns about referral program

[sbvpn 0]

I have a small privacy concern regarding the referral program. See this scenario:

- I have done anything I can to be as much as possible an anonymous AirVPN user (using another VPN to register, paying by cryptocurrency, etc.)

- I have a web site which is obviously mine. It is clearly possible to link that website to my full name and so.

- I put the referral link on that website, including the referral id.

Now:

- Any website visitor knows I am an AirVPN user. If revenues can only be used for paying my AirVPN plan (is this true?), it is also clear that I am an active user.

- The referral ID (12345) is connected to my AirVPN username.

- My username is now connected to my real life name.

 

Is my thinking correct?

What guarantees do AirVPN provide concerning this?

[Staff 10016]

I have a small privacy concern regarding the referral program. See this scenario:

- I have done anything I can to be as much as possible an anonymous AirVPN user (using another VPN to register, paying by cryptocurrency, etc.)

- I have a web site which is obviously mine. It is clearly possible to link that website to my full name and so.

- I put the referral link on that website, including the referral id.

Now:

- Any website visitor knows I am an AirVPN user. If revenues can only be used for paying my AirVPN plan (is this true?), it is also clear that I am an active user.

 

No, that's not true, so the whole argument falls.

 

 

- The referral ID (12345) is connected to my AirVPN username.

- My username is now connected to my real life name.

 

Is my thinking correct?

What guarantees do AirVPN provide concerning this?

 

No, it's not correct, but at the end of the day you could anyway think of something very convoluted to tell the world that you are an AirVPN customer, and we can't do anything about that. Not that we can do anything even if you do so in a very direct way.

 

Kind regards

[sbvpn 0]

Thanks for dedicating my post to a new topic.

And thanks for the fast reply.

 

The problem is not so much being known as a AirVPN user - for nasty authorities and alike it's easy to find out anyway. Forget that part.

Further, maybe I didn't express myself well enough. I'll try again.

 

Currently the situation is like this:

I am user "blabla" and so far pretty anonymous. Only AirVPN knows my IP address while I am connected to the service. And only my ISP knows my name related to my IP address. 

Basically:

user blabla = [unknown]

 

When joining the referral program, I add a referral ID "12345" on my website lovelyjohnny.com.

owner lovelyjohnny.com = John Smith

John Smth = referrer 12345

Referrer 12345 = user blabla

And thus, resulting:

user blabla = John Smith

 

I understand, only AirVPN knows this. But still, what is not known cannot leak.

And btw, don't get me wrong, if there is any VPN-provider I trust, it's AirVPN. That's not the issue here.

 

Do you understand my concern?

Is joining the referral program (like this) decreasing my level of privacy?

 

And so, if so, would it be a better idea to join as a completely separate/additional sleeping AirVPN user, i.e. a user who is doing nothing, no VPN activity?

I mean:

John Smith has two AirVPN accounts:

1. user blabla - to use the VPN services

2. user foobar - only for he referral program

[Staff 10016]

Do you understand my concern?

 

We're sorry, no, we don't understand it.

 

 

And so, if so, would it be a better idea to join as a completely separate/additional sleeping AirVPN user, i.e. a user who is doing nothing, no VPN activity?

 

Why not, this is perfectly possible and you can keep as many accounts as you wish.

 

Kind regards

[go558a83nk 364]

From what I've seen there's no link between referrer URL and the AirVPN username of the account to which it's referring.  You can post your referral link on your web site but people still have no idea what your AirVPN username is.  Am I wrong?

[sbvpn 0]

From what I've seen there's no link between referrer URL and the AirVPN username of the account to which it's referring.  You can post your referral link on your web site but people still have no idea what your AirVPN username is.  Am I wrong?

 

There is no public connection between username and referral ID. But AirVPN knows which username belongs to each referral ID.

Now if my web site is clearly and openly linked to my real life full name, and I post my referral ID on my web site, that means AirVPN directly knows my real life full name.

 

I understand, when we're talking VPN providers, it all comes down to trust. I also understand that AirVPN already knows my IP address. But I rather have only my IP address linked, than also my name. Any hostile party would have to hack or torture AirVPN and my ISP, instead of only AirVPN.

 

We're sorry, no, we don't understand it.

 

You don't understand what I am saying, or you don't understand why I think it is (or could be) a problem...?

 

Anyway, then my solution would be to have two user accounts, user 'blabla' to use for VPN, user 'foobar' for the referral program.

- If any money comes in on my other account foobar I can withdraw that as cash.

- I can extend my VPN plan for user blabla the same way I am doing it now.

- I will be the only one who knows about the connection between users blabla and foobar.

 

All good.

Solved.

Thanks.