The recent proposed revisions to U.S. privacy laws, viewed by many as a giant slap in the face to the general public, have caused a surge in the demand of VPN products. Unfortunately, this has also lead to a string of dishonest companies attempting to drain the wallets of privacy-conscious individuals while giving little in return.
Luckily, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a long-standing champion of digital consumer rights, has drafted a series of questions that prospective buyers should be asking themselves before putting down their hard-earned cash on a VPN. In the spirit of complete transparency, here are the FREEDOME VPN team’s honest answers to these questions.
Question 1: Is your VPN service dirt-cheap or free? Does the service cost $20 for a lifetime service? There’s probably a reason for that and your browsing history may be the actual product that the company is selling to others.
Our self-assessment: Pass
The saying “There is no such thing as a free lunch” applies to VPN services more than you might think, as keeping and maintaining a global server network is an incredibly costly endeavor. Our prices are very competitive, but they’re designed so that our business model can continue to provide you with the online privacy that you deserve.
Question 2: How long has your VPN provider been around? If it is relatively new and without a reliable history, you’d have to trust the provider a great deal in order to use such a service.
Our self-assessment: Pass
It’s no exaggeration to say that this isn’t our first rodeo. F-Secure is a global cyber security pioneer with almost 30 years of experience in the field, and FREEDOME enjoys wide trust from customers and industry experts alike.
Question 3: Does the VPN provider log your traffic? If yes, what kind of information is logged? You should look for one that explicitly promises to not log your Internet traffic and how active the VPN provider is in advocating for user privacy.
Our self-assessment: Pass
The answer is simply “no, we do not log your traffic”. Our business is in giving our users privacy, not taking it away. Our privacy policy outlines all the data we collect (none of which is your traffic). Our company has proudly supported and lobbied for consumer rights in digital matters over the years, including testifying before the British Parliament against the intrusive Investigatory Powers Act.
Question 4: Does the VPN provider use encryption in providing the service? It’s generally recommended to use services that support a well-vetted open source protocol like OpenVPN or IPSec. Utilizing these protocols ensures best security available.
Our self-assessment: Pass
We use OpenVPN on Android, PC and Mac, and IPsec on iOS.
Question 5: If your VPN provider uses encryption, but has a single shared password for all of the users, it’s not sufficient encryption.
Our self-assessment: Pass
FREEDOME does not share a single password among its users. To encrypt data, we use session keys which are generated at the beginning of a session and then regenerated once every 30-60 minutes.
Question 6: Do you need to use the VPN provider’s proprietary client to use the service? You should avoid these and look for services that you can use with an open source client. There are many clients that support the above-mentioned OpenVPN or IPSec protocols.
Our self-assessment: Fail
This is one box that we don’t check, but we believe it’s for good reasons. We wanted to make FREEDOME a VPN that is accessible to a wide variety of people and take all the difficulty out of online privacy. In addition, FREEDOME boasts a number of unique features such as protection against intrusive tracking and malicious websites, which would not be available in open source clients.
Question 7: Would using the VPN service still leak your DNS queries to your ISP?
Our self-assessment: Pass (with a tiny caveat)
When reports arose a while ago regarding DNS leaks on VPNs using certain operating systems, we took them very seriously and made sure they were patched quickly. The only time it is possible for DNS queries to leak are when a VPN connection is interrupted (usually when switching networks, such as going from one Wi-Fi to another). However, as long as the VPN is running and you are connected to a mobile or Wi-Fi network, there will be no DNS leaks with FREEDOME.
Question 8: Does the VPN support IPv6? As the Internet transitions from IPv4 to the IPv6 protocol, some VPN providers may not support it.
Our self-assessment: Pass (On Android, PC and Mac. Coming soon on iOS)
As of April 2017, FREEDOME currently supports IPV6-only websites on all platforms except iOS, but development of iOS support is quite far along and will be out in a near-future update.
If the answers to the above questions meet your needs (we really hope they do!), you can download FREEDOME VPN for free.
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