We know what you must be thinking: what on earth is a ‘warrant canary?’ A warrant for an arrest issued by a canary? Or an insurance for canaries? None of that, here’s a hint: coalminers used canaries to alert them of high levels of carbon monoxide in the mines. As canaries are more sensitive to this toxic gas, miners had one with them to release it deep down in the mines. If the bird died, the miners would be aware of the danger and would never attempt going deeper to their certain doom.
In case of VPN providers, warrant canaries work the same way as their real-life bird counterparts, only figuratively: they warn customers if the company received any secret notice from authorities regarding user logs.
In some countries the law allows authorities to send secret warrants to companies like ISPs or VPN providers, forcing them to hand over customers’ logs. And before you think that these strict laws are exclusive to less fortunate countries, think again: our infamous Patriot Act is actually one of these laws. As a matter of fact, this is the reason why it’s common to see top-tier providers located in foreign countries: they are not subject to U.S. laws, but to the ones of the countries they’re based in, where laws are usually more permissive. Thus, they can evade these warrants alongside accompanying legal orders that prevent the affected company to directly warn customers about the ongoing investigation.
Warrant canaries are ‘released’ by VPN companies for this very reason. When displayed on a website that didn’t receive a secret subpoena by government agencies, they would usually tell something like ‘company X didn’t receive any legal notice for Y amount of time.’ However, if these warrant canaries simply disappear or stop being updated overnight, then it is safe to assume that the affected company received a secret notice and shall, therefore, be considered a ‘red zone’ until further notice. Interestingly, having a warrant canary placed on the site is entirely legal, because no law prohibits companies from reporting legal processes that they have not received.
With warrant canaries on their side users can easily – albeit indirectly – learn for how long their VPN provider has been left alone by government agencies. And, as Private Internet Access (PIA) fittingly stated, a warrant canary actually tells a lot about a company’s no-log policy.
After many users were wondering whether PIA has a warrant canary or not, the company dedicated an interesting article to this topic, stating that they use no warrant canaries whatsoever as they don’t keep any user logs that they would be able to provide to authorities anyway. But if we reverse the answer of PIA, it becomes crystal clear that the presence of a warrant canary in a VPN service’s terms of use indicates that the company can indeed collect logs.
On the other hand, as PIA is a provider based in the U.S., many people take the company’s words with a pinch of salt, even though the company has a public court record that clearly states nothing is logged that can identify users. Additionally, PIA reminds doubters that it immediately terminated their operations in Russia when the country’s regime wanted to force the company to start logging users’ identities.
Trust.Zone is a Seychelles based VPN company that enjoys the benefits of the online privacy legislation of this offshore paradise. Handled by Extra Solutions Ltd, Trust.Zone is a fairly new addition to the competitors of the online safety market. The parent company has been in existence since 2008, and Trust.Zone as a VPN project is in the running since 2014. Apart from some pretty good prices, another strength of the company is the free trial program they run. While not available indefinitely, you can try out their services for three days with unlimited bandwidth before making a decision. We also have to highlight how the country and location selection might not be the best, though there are some rarely seen places included. There are some interesting networking choices included as well. Security protocols are strongly divided between Windows – that receives the most support – and other devices. In the case of the former, this is mainly represented in the presence of a client and extra networking options. Still, we were met with a user-friendly environment, and thus it is safe to say that Trust.Zone deserves a look.
NordVPN has already managed to conquer the market by being one of the most reputable and trustworthy services ever made. Among its vast arsenal of features, the close attention given to security is one of the major highlights, thanks to the presence of an automatic kill switch, protection against DNS leaks, ads and malware, and even double VPN servers.
Speaking of which, these are only some of NordVPN's special servers that compose a global network filled with unusual locations, P2P countries, support for Onion over VPN, and more. NordVPN has a handful of different subscriptions in the form of simple apps for all kinds of devices and user types.
For as little as $3.09 per month, users can enjoy all the perks of having a secure and high-speed VPN. Plus, a generous refund policy allows you to get your money back if you decide NordVPN isn't for you during the first 30 days.
SlickVPN is an up and coming US-based VPN provider that has been achieving good success in a short amount of time. There is ample amount of proof for this: SlickVPN managed to secure global presence with surprising quickness. With 151 servers across 46 countries, they have really stepped on the pedal. Several factors contribute towards their steady rise. Usually, longer-term refund policies come with cruel restrictions, but the more lenient rules of SlickVPN definitely benefit them. Another appealing aspect of their service is that connections naturally come in either OpenVPN or IPSec, depending on your device. These offer a good mix of speed and safety. Through the means of offering a free proxy for anonymous browsing, SlickVPN gives new users a warm welcome. Though a free trial isn't available, the company's unique pricing structure allowing you to order different blocks of four to twenty days for as low as $0.75 per day does make it easy to try the service.
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