I received the email below from PIA (private internet access) about their exit from Russia.

Its interesting to read their comment ''We think it’s because we are the most outspoken and only verified no-log VPN provider.''. Surely this is B.S? I thought Pure VPN was also a respected VPN who assure that log files are not collected.

What are your thoughts on this matter...

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The Russian Government has passed a new law that mandates that every provider must log all Russian internet traffic for up to a year. We believe that due to the enforcement regime surrounding this new law, some of our Russian Servers (RU) were recently seized by Russian Authorities, without notice or any type of due process. We think it’s because we are the most outspoken and only verified no-log VPN provider.

Luckily, since we do not log any traffic or session data, period, no data has been compromised. Our users are, and will always be, private and secure.

Upon learning of the above, we immediately discontinued our Russian gateways and will no longer be doing business in the region.

To make it clear, the privacy and security of our users is our number one priority. For preventative reasons, we are rotating all of our certificates. Furthermore, we’re updating our client applications with improved security measures to mitigate circumstances like this in the future, on top of what is already in place. In addition, our manual configurations now support the strongest new encryption algorithms including AES-256, SHA-256, and RSA-4096.

All Private Internet Access users must update their desktop clients at https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/client-support/ and our Android App at Google Play. Manual openvpn configurations users must also download the new config files from the client download page.

We have decided not to do business within the Russian territory. We’re going to be further evaluating other countries and their policies.

In any event, we are aware that there may be times that notice and due process are forgone. However, we do not log and are default secure against seizure.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Thank you for your continued support and helping us fight the good fight.

Yea, many VPN service providers claim a "no-logs" policy such as PIA, PureVPN ExpressVPN, TotalVPN, Ivacy, etc....etc...etc.

Maybe it comes down to what PIA means with "and only verified no-log VPN provider." But who verified that for PIA? Or is PIA just saying that based on their own characterization of their no-log policy. They may refer to cases where they have been subpoena for data from a certain country/law enforcement agency, PIA provided what data they had which was pretty much little to nothing, and consider those cases being the proof of being the only verified no-log VPN provider.

I looked up pure VPN's policy on logs. They said they dont keep log files but only 'session logs' http://www.purevpn.com/term.php".

The session logs are kept and used to identify session durations, bandwidth used, access attempts made to our servers (for security and troubleshooting purposes), and user clicks on our software (to track the popularity of specific features and improvements).

Can we trust our vpn's. Do we have a choice

Hey, Hi Bill, Sarah and Daniel!!!

yea, i got more than just your IP address..

Do you want me to tell your significant other where you were last night at 2 a.m.?

Turning your phone off will not work!!!

I see it all!!!!

Hey, Hi Bill, Sarah and Daniel!!!

yea, i got more than just your IP address..

Do you want me to tell your significant other where you were last night at 2 a.m.?

Turning your phone off will not work!!!

I see it all!!!!

keep taking your medication mate

They appear to have taken the best actions to secure their users, plus their email shows a good level of communication & transparency.