No-logs policy
A provider’s commitment not to record which sites you visit, when you connected, or what address you connected from.
Glossary
Independent audit
What is Independent audit?
Independent audit is an examination of a provider’s systems or policy by an external firm, published with the firm’s name, the date, and the scope. It is the only external evidence that a privacy claim is more than an assertion, which is why it carries the most weight in our rubric.
Why it matters
It is the only external evidence that a privacy claim is more than an assertion, which is why it carries the most weight in our rubric.
What most explanations leave out
An audit is a snapshot taken with the provider’s cooperation, of a system that can change the next day. Scope matters enormously: an audit of a browser extension is not an audit of the no-logs claim, and providers sometimes cite one as though it were the other. Check what was examined, not just that something was.
Related terms
Warrant canary
A regularly updated statement that a provider has not received a secret legal demand, whose disappearance implies that it has.
Referenced from
Questions
- What is Independent audit?
- An examination of a provider’s systems or policy by an external firm, published with the firm’s name, the date, and the scope.
- Why does Independent audit matter when choosing a VPN?
- It is the only external evidence that a privacy claim is more than an assertion, which is why it carries the most weight in our rubric.
- What do most explanations of Independent audit leave out?
- An audit is a snapshot taken with the provider’s cooperation, of a system that can change the next day. Scope matters enormously: an audit of a browser extension is not an audit of the no-logs claim, and providers sometimes cite one as though it were the other. Check what was examined, not just that something was.
Terms are defined here because they appear in our scoring rubric or in provider reviews, not to fill a glossary.