VPN Background - bmixonba/vpn-osint GitHub Wiki

VPNs become increasingly critical security and privacy infrastructure used by people all over the world to bypass geoblocking, protect their connections on public Wifi, and hide their connections from snooping ISPs. When a user uses a VPN, they are transferring trust from the ISP to the VPN provider. Because of this, it is critical to knowing who is behind the VPN. Specifically, knowing who owns the VPN, who operates the VPN infrastructure (i.e., the servers across the globe), who developed the application, and other information are vital to users when deciding who to trust. Historically, VPN providers, particularly the free VPN services, that monetize user data and provide ads have used ethically questionable practices when developing, marketing and operating their VPNs. For example, the follow list of VPNs:

were found to all be closely affiliated with China, even though on the surface, a user my initially conclude these VPNs originate from Singapore, a country with strong privacy laws[1]. Though we do not wish to make anyone jump to conclusions about this, clearly the lack of transparency can have an impact on a person's decision making.

[1] https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/companies-secretly-own-dozens-vpns/