The subject of logging and VPNs is an important one to pay attention to when you’re considering how protected you want to be. A
This is because Hide My Ass logging is a bone that the hacker community likes to pick at every chance they get. I’m going to look at why we still rank Hide My Ass at number 2 despite their logging policy, and expand on the issues some face with this provider.
Hide My Ass Logging policy and you
The comments we’ve seen on Twitter regarding Hide My Ass go from the simple comments that have been sent to the @BestVPNs account like “They log,” to more complex ones like this:
Where the user mistakenly gave an MT to IPVanish, who have never been accused of logging. A reminder that Twitter is a pretty poor place to go for advice on…anything.
Both of these statements are correct. Hide My Ass does indeed log IP address data. They state this in their terms of service, we state this in our review. So why the controversy?
The problem with the Hide My Ass logging policy
The misunderstanding that comes up again and again is that those in the hacking community seem to think that every
- Geo restriction unblocking
- Protection from WiFi security threats
- Getting around all types of online censorship
- Protection from hackers themselves
- Getting around geo-based data restrictions
- To stop advertisers and social media from tracking their every move
For these people, who make up the largest bulk of users who pay for a
Hackers and Hide My Ass
Speaking in general terms from my time talking with hackers, and those who claim to be hackers, their big problem is how Hide My Ass has turned their logs over to the police in regards to a case involving one of their own.
The case dealt with a LulzSec member who was using Hide My Ass to gain anonymity as he carried out a hack. The problem, of course, came when the hacker was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures and exposing user data. In short, he committed a crime and was caught.
Hide My Ass had no knowledge of this as they don’t monitor user activity. It was even rumoured through a leaked IRC chat that they were involved, but they didn’t do anything because it’s not their job to investigate crime. They did, however, receive a court order for accounts on their servers. To quote Hide My Ass from the time of the court order on this case:
As stated in our terms of service and privacy policy our service is not to be used for illegal activity, and as a legitimate company we will cooperate with law enforcement if we receive a court order (equivalent of a subpoena in the US).”
At this time, I can’t look back into history and see what the privacy policy of Hide My Ass was back then. I can’t say if their privacy policy included a clause about working with law enforcement or not, or if they kept logs.
I can say that it does now. If you’re not looking to engage in crimes, or subversive and protesting activity, there is no reason why Hide My Ass won’t work for you. There will be no court order being sent to them, you’ll have the protection you need from a vast majority of threats out there.
To quote them again:
In 2005 we set up HMA primarily as a way to bypass censorship of the world-wide-web whether this be on a government or a corporate/localized scale. We truly believe the world-wide-web should be world-wide and not censored in any way.”
This is exactly what their service is meant for.
If you do need a high level of protection, first, I’m never going to advocate using VPNs for crimes. But if you’re involved in good hacking causes that many people support, such as #OpKKK, #OccupyWallStreet, or Operation Ice ISIS, then I implore you to spend less time trying to knock down a service which is not meant for you, and instead focus on building up those which are, such as:
They all have a strict no-logging policy which they adhere to. CyberGhost even cite a case where German lawmakers actually sent them a court order for information, but they provided them with nothing as they had nothing to give.
To conclude, our name is Best
Feature image via Zhitkov Bori / Shutterstock