NordVPN Logs: A Safe and Anonymous Choice


NordVPN servers

NordVPN Logs: A Safe and Anonymous Choice

Much has been said about VPNs nowadays. While they may be considered close to essential in today’s fast-paced digital world that’s full of security holes that could potentially cause you harm, not all VPNs were made to truly combat such flaws. So, in that regard, some of the best VPN service providers like NordVPN are considered safer and more anonymous than other names in the industry. But does NordVPN keep logs?

NordVPN has a no-logs policy, which means that none of your online behavior is monitored, seen, recorded, stored, or logged by the company running NordVPN. They do not pass your data and online activities to any third party to make sure that you can go online feeling safe and anonymous.

One of the problems that most consumers have when it comes to choosing a VPN is that their providers still keep logs of their online activities. This can be counterproductive to the fact that people do use VPNs so that their internet service providers don’t get to see their online activities. As such, choosing NordVPN might be the best, safe, and anonymous choice for those who are so keen on keeping all of their online activities private.

Does NordVPN store logs?

What is a VPN and how does it work?

When you are surfing the internet and doing all of your online activities, you are actually allowing all of your online traffic to pass through your internet service provider or your ISP. As such, your ISP can basically see everything that you are doing online regardless of what it may be. This comes in the form of logs as basically everything you do is logged and stored by your ISP.

By law, your ISP is not allowed to do anything with your logs because that will be a breach of data privacy. The only exception is when it is for the common good such as when your online activities are a matter of life and death or if you could perhaps be violating certain laws.

However, even those who may be surfing the internet innocently and those who may not be doing anything wrong online can still somehow find themselves at the mercy of different entities that could possibly steal their data and personal information because of how it is now easier for third parties to actually do so.

There are some cases wherein your ISP would actually sell your logs to third parties.

And, sometimes, there are entities that find a workaround for your ISP’s security and will be able to get their hands on your data and personal information at your expense.

At times, some people just simply want to stay anonymous online but that can be impossible because of how their logs show off everything about who they are such as their personal information, where they live, and their IP address.

So, basically, your ISP can see everything that you are doing and some people can basically steal the logs that are kept with your ISP. This is where a VPN comes in.

A virtual private network or a VPN works by making sure that your internet traffic no longer passes through your ISP and would go through the VPN instead. What happens here is that you are basically using your ISP’s network but nothing you do online can be stored as logs with your ISP.

Put it simply, your ISP will not be able to see you as none of your online activity gets stored with them.

So, by using a VPN, you are able to keep your entire online activity hidden from the eyes of your ISP, and you are able to improve your safety and security online.

It would be extremely difficult for third-party entities to acquire your data and your personal information similar to how your ISP won’t be able to sell off your data and personal information to other companies.

The main reason is that you are no longer storing logs with the ISP.

Think of it this way. Imagine yourself wanting to go to the mall but you are trying to hide from the public for one reason or another.

But doing so can be a bit too difficult because there will be eyes and cameras on you the moment you step out of your house.

While people might not flock over to you like a celebrity, you still can’t trust the eyes of the people all over you or the street cameras all over the neighborhood.

So, instead of leaving your house the normal way out through your front door, you decide to go through your backdoor and through different alleys that have fewer eyes. You may even build a tunnel and go through it.

That’s similar to how a VPN works.

It basically acts as the alleyway or the tunnel that helps you get to your destination without the added attention you get from the people watching you or the potential security and safety risk of cameras that can monitor what you are doing.

So, in many ways, you are able to do all of your online activities without getting spotted by your ISP or by any other person on the internet.

The best VPN service providers will also allow you to change your location virtually.

So, even though you are merely checking things online from the comforts of your own home somewhere in California, you can easily change your location to that of Tokyo if there is a need for you to do so.

Not only will you be able to skirt through the usual firewalls that your ISP may be placing on different websites but you can also access other features and services that are only available in certain countries. That is the beauty of using a VPN.

The problem with VPNs

As useful as VPNs might be whenever you would want to keep yourself hidden from your ISP or even from third-party eyes that may be watching your every move online, there is still a security risk you may want to be concerned about.

However, such a risk is not as great as it is whenever you are doing your online activities without the use of a VPN. It’s just that some VPNs still carry a problem that the most security-conscious people are still concerned about.

As we mentioned, when you are using your ISP’s connection to go online and do whatever you do on the internet, you are basically allowing your ISP to see what you are doing because it is keeping your logs and may even end up sharing your online activities and private data to third parties. But, with a VPN, you are able to skirt through that and make sure that all of your internet activity no longer goes through your ISP.

So, if your internet traffic no longer goes through your ISP, where does it go?

Well, at this point, you might have already guessed that it is going through your VPN instead of your ISP. In that regard, your VPN service provider may now store your logs and do whatever it pleases with them similar to how ISPs work.

Most VPNs may still be safe but you can never risk losing your private data to third parties because your VPN service provider kept logs of your online activities.

That is where the privacy-conscious person should make the choice of shopping for a VPN service provider that makes it a point to never keep your logs.

In other words, none of your internet traffic and online activities get stored with them. Your VPN should never be able to see any of the things you do online or else the purpose of using a VPN will end up defeating itself. 

As such, you might want to take a look at using NordVPN.

NordVPN has a no-logs policy

NordVPN is one of the most popular VPNs on the market today not only because it is more affordable than the other providers but also because it comes with a lot of neat features that consumers will really love when it comes to what a high-quality VPN can offer them.

With over 5,000 servers located in over 60 countries all over the world, NordVPN has an extremely large network and is only getting bigger and bigger.

Moreover, NordVPN is also one of the fastest VPNs on the market and will not hamper your speed whether you are just simply surfing the internet or you are watching high-definition 4K videos on some of the most popular streaming services.

But what privacy-conscious consumers really love about NordVPN is the fact that it maintains a strict no-logs policy that aims to make sure that you are able to surf the internet and do all of your online activities without thinking about how you are probably being monitored by the VPN service provider itself.

NordVPN does this by making sure that all of your online traffic and activities are not monitored, recorded, stored, or logged.

They do not even store connection time stamps, IP addresses, or any other similar data. Instead, the moment you turn on your NordVPN app, your connection is immediately encrypted to the point that not even NordVPN can monitor what you are doing.

All of your online traffic is visible to neither your ISP nor cybercriminals because of how your entire session is encrypted.

But the biggest reason as to why NordVPN does not store your logs, aside from the fact that the company would want to make sure that your connection stays as safe and as anonymous as possible, is that the company is based in Panama, a country that does not require any sort of data storage.

This means that they are not even bound by their domestic laws to store and keep whatever data they gather from you. 

NordVPN’s no-log policy does not simply cover logging but also covers your entire privacy in general. They do not even record your IP address when you try to connect to their service as NordVPN truly aims to give you the most secure and anonymous VPN service available.

This is unlike other VPN service providers, which may claim that they do not keep logs of their users’ online activities but are still able to log in certain details about them such as where they are and what their IP address is.

In that sense, because those certain VPN providers still are aware of your location, you cannot truly say that you are safe and anonymous on the internet because anything can still happen especially when a third party gains access to that VPN’s servers.

What are the implications of NordVPN’s no-log policy?

Now that we have discussed NordVPN’s strict privacy policies and the company’s focus on making sure that they are not keeping or storing logs of your online activities, there are some certain implications that we can get from that:

  1. They have set the bar high for other VPN providers

Because of how NordVPN is so keen on making sure that your privacy is well-protected, it has set the standards high for other VPN providers to try to follow or emulate.

Otherwise, they will always fall short of what NordVPN has to offer to its consumers aside from the fact that NordVPN is actually more affordable in comparison to some other providers on the market.

To set the standards even higher, NordVPN hired an independent auditor back in 2018 to make sure that they are able to prove the claim of their no-logs policy.

The independent audit basically proved NordVPN’s claims and the company now has more evidence that would support its claims that it does not store logs.

On top of that, NordVPN also went on to say that they are planning to regularly audit their services to make sure that they will always provide the most secure and anonymous services available on the market.

NordVPN, in 2019, also hired an independent company that would simulate a malicious attack on its security features. While there were indeed some vulnerabilities found from that simulation, NordVPN has since patched things up is now a lot safer.

This only means that they are truly setting the bar higher than ever and are continuing to make it difficult for other VPN service providers to catch up to their standards.

  1. None of any of your activities are tracked
None of your activities are tracked

While we have indeed mentioned that NordVPN has a strict policy on logging any of your online activities, we also said in a brief that their privacy policies cover a wider range than that and basically cover all kinds of privacy issues you may have on the internet.

This means that NordVPN does not even track the IP addresses of the servers you are on or even records your IP address the moment you turn the service on. You will remain anonymous even to the eyes of NordVPN itself because not even the service knows your IP address or your location.

Of course, none of the websites you visit or the files you download are tracked, recorded, and kept.

You are basically doing all of these activities while wearing an invisible cloak because no one can ever see what you are doing. Not even the one who gave you the invisible cloak knows any of your activities because of NordVPN’s services.

On top of all that, NordVPN does not also keep a record of your internet sessions and the time you spent online, and all of the timestamps are not recorded. You are basically non-existent to time and space the moment you use NordVPN’s services. 

  1. NordVPN can never be forced to share any of your data with external parties

We have discussed that NordVPN makes it a point that all of your private data and personal information as well as your movements are never recorded or monitored even by the company itself.

You are simply doing everything you are doing online without NordVPN even caring about what you are doing. That is simply their goal as a company when it comes to your privacy.

However, NordVPN is also able to do that because they are based in Panama. This Central American country does not require private entities to store data because they are not a member of the 5/9/14-Eyes Alliance.

So, in other words, they are not required to even store your data even if they wanted to, which is something the company is vehemently against.

And if that is not enough for you, NordVPN can also choose to refuse to share any user logs with third parties even if they do have access to those logs or have kept them.

They can never be compelled to share any of your information with third parties and external bodies no matter what the reasons may be.

Is NordVPN really private?

Now that you know more about NordVPN, its no-logs policy, and what it stands for as a company, you may begin to ask yourself if this VPN service provider truly is as private as they say they are.

After all, it is easy to doubt especially when your safety, security, identity, and anonymity are all on the line when it comes to choosing a high-quality VPN provider.

But when it comes to NordVPN, you really don’t have to worry about your privacy because the company makes it a point to protect your privacy in any way possible and even against NordVPN itself because not even they are able to check up on you, see what you are doing, record your IP address, and share your information to any other third party.

We already know that you stay private because NordVPN doesn’t keep any logs of its users while the company also makes it a point to implement other features that would help improve their protection over the privacy of their users. 

A good example of that is the NordVPN kill switch, which is able to easily protect any of your personal data, sensitive or not, from suddenly leaking in case your connection to the VPN suddenly gets cut. In other words, when you are using NordVPN and your connection to the VPN drops, the feature instantly hides your IP address and your personal data so that no one will see them.

NordVPN also has plenty of different server types. This includes a double VPN and Onion over VPN, which both have their own advantages when it comes to improving your privacy over the internet.

For example, a double VPN sends all of your internet traffic through two servers that are unique from one another twice to make sure that your data is truly encrypted.

Meanwhile, the Onion over VPN uses NordVPN’s servers and then passes your traffic through the Onion network before any of your traffic reaches the internet.

If you are also concerned about the privacy of your payment schemes, you may use cryptocurrency to pay for your NordVPN services so that your credit card details and your personal information are also kept hidden from NordVPN itself.

Of course, we have also mentioned that NordVPN is located in Panama, which doesn’t require data storage and allows NordVPN to refuse to share any information it might have over its users.

Can the police track NordVPN?

Nowadays it might be pretty difficult to trust the police because of how there have been people arrested and killed due to wrong information gathered by the authorities through your internet traffic and online activities.

You may suddenly find yourself getting raided by multiple police officers for crimes you are innocent of just because they were able to track your online activities and probably made mistakes in analyzing and assessing what you have been doing on the internet.

In some cases, potential offenders are listed through an automated process that tracks your every movement over the internet.

So, in other words, the police leave it to an AI to make a list of possible offenders but it still they who analyze whether or not there is a need to make an arrest or to monitor those who are on the list.

But the very fact that you made it to the list just because you might have done something suspicious but still lawful may still pose some danger to yourself.

While being able to monitor your online activities will help the police and other law enforcement bodies in tracking down potential and existing criminals, offenders, and terrorists, it can lead to abuse on the part of the executing bodies.

Crime prediction programs can be flawed, and it was revealed that a similar program used by the LAPD was scrapped because it was found that over half of the people in their database were actually innocent or had no history of violence or crimes.

But what if the LAPD did not scrap the program? It could have very well been used for abuse, and several innocent lives could have been lost or destroyed because of how a program was not able to properly tell which online activities were lawful and which ones were not.

So, what are we saying here? Well, we are simply implying that it would be even more difficult for the police to track what you are doing online by using NordVPN’s services. 

If you are doubting as to whether or not NordVPN can share your information with the police or if the police can still trace and monitor you, you shouldn’t be questioning their services because the company has implemented all types of privacy features and encryptions that all work to make sure that your online sessions are safe, protected, and anonymous.

On top of all that, NordVPN cannot be compelled by the authorities to share whatever information they have of their consumers by the use of subpoenas. But because NordVPN is based in Panama, authorities cannot compel them to do so.

In Panama, there is no data retention required and gag orders cannot be legally enforced. Meanwhile, NordVPN also regularly publishes a statement that says that they have not received any secret warrants and subpoenas from government authorities.

Can NordVPN be trusted?

So, with that all said, can you really trust NordVPN? We safely say that we can put our money on the bet that this VPN service provider can be trusted to make sure that all of your connections are encrypted and none of your data or personal information gets shared with third parties or even government authorities.

Being Panama-based is the cream of the crop when it comes to how you can trust NordVPN because they 100% operate under the domestic laws of that country and cannot be subjected to any warrant or subpoena that can be issued by another country or by domestic authorities to demand them to hand over any of your data.

And even if NordVPN can indeed be compelled, it’s not as if they actually have records of your online activity given the fact that they have a no-logs policy and they made it a point to have themselves audited to prove their claims.

Sources:

  • https://www.techradar.com/vpn/does-nordvpn-keep-logs
https://nordvpn.com/features/strict-no-logs-policy/
https://nordvpn.com/blog/nordvpn-introduces-a-warrant-canary/
https://nordvpn.com/blog/police-surveillance/

Mark Lewis

Security nerd with a Data Privacy First mindset!

Recent Posts