Can a VPN Company See My Passwords and Data?

The answer to this question heavily depends on your VPN provider, the choice of your VPN protocol and the encryption level used. It’s a VPN company’s log policy that determines whether they hold onto your online data or not. All VPN providers use military-grade encryption and VPN protocols, thus your online traffic and data remains anonymous and protected.

Protocols are responsible for your connection speed and safety as the bigger their encryption level, the more speed you’ll see being sacrificed. Different VPN companies offer different protocol range options – although OpenVPN is pretty much the best and most common choice – and the right protocol choice depends on the online activities you’re undertaking.

The level of encryption presents the most variation as each provider offers a different one. The most common encryption type you’ll find is AES 256-bit which is a decently high standard, though there are companies that allow you more than one choice – usually between AES-256, SSL-256 or AES-128 – while others feature some exclusive and rarely seen top notch encryption technologies. NordVPN for instance offers 2048-bit double encryption that the company guarantees is unbreakable.