"No logs" is a claim, not a feature - how to check it

Every provider says it. Some of them have been proved wrong in court documents. Here is how to tell the difference before you pay.

The claim has been tested, and failed

In 2016 IPVanish advertised zero logs and then supplied timestamps, source addresses and server details to investigators. In 2017 PureVPN said it kept no logs and provided connection records to the FBI. Neither company was lying about having a policy - the policy simply did not match the systems.

Five things worth checking

• Is the list specific? "We respect your privacy" is marketing. A real policy enumerates: traffic, DNS queries, connection timestamps, addresses, bandwidth.
• Does it admit exceptions? Every service stores something - a plan counter, a payment reference. A policy claiming absolute zero has not been read carefully by its own authors.
• Has anyone independent looked? An audit of the actual infrastructure, not a lawyer reading the policy. Recent, too: a 2019 audit says little about a 2026 system.
• Where is it incorporated? Architecture beats promises. Proton was compelled by Swiss authorities in 2021 to start logging one user's address - a policy cannot outvote a court.
• What about DNS? Frequently skipped. A provider running its own resolver can see every domain you visit even while the traffic stays encrypted.

Why architecture beats promises

The strongest version of "no logs" is not a stronger promise - it is a system where the data never exists. If a server never writes a connection record, there is nothing to subpoena, nothing to leak in a breach, and nothing an employee can be pressured into producing.

Ask what a provider could hand over if it wanted to. That answer is the real policy.

Where we stand

We publish the specific list, name the two places data does exist, and name our hosts on the servers page with a warrant canary. What we do not have yet is an independent audit - and we say so on the comparison page , where Mullvad and Proton beat us on exactly that line. If audit history is your bar, that is a reasonable bar.

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