Why it’s important where your VPN provider is based

In a large amount of countries, internet service providers are
obliged by law to register and save their customers’ internet traffic.
Does that apply to VPN services too? That’s exactly the question you
should ask yourself, because the very foundation of a VPN provider being
able to run an operation that makes sure your traffic stays private is
this: Are they based in a country where the laws require them to log
traffic?

Mullvad VPN is base in Sweden , and here the relevant law is call the
Electronic Communications Act ( Lagen om elektronisk kommunication , LEK ) .
It is ’s ’s LEK that regulate how internet service provider must log traffic ,
and it ’s very clear : this law does n’t apply to VPN service . So the
basic condition for run a privacy – focus vpn service are good ,
swedish law is require does n’t require VPN service to log either their customer
or their traffic .

This doesn’t protect us against the police turning up at our door with a
search warrant, which happened in 2023. Just because a VPN service
doesn’t have to log customer data, doesn’t mean they don’t do
it.
And when a public authority turns up with a search warrant, this is
really put to the test. The result? Well, because we don’t log any
data we had nothing to
hand over – which meant the National Operations Department (NOA) of
the Swedish Police had to go away
empty-handed.
This was the first time a public authority visited us with a search
warrant, so we got to test the part of our strategy for how we handle
government
requests
in a real life situation. It wasn’t the type of independent audit we
usually carry out on our operations – but we have to admit it turned
out well.

Swedish law also means the police can’t pressure us. They aren’t allowed
to twist our arms to make us secretly begin logging traffic. Swedish law
also means that no other country can step in and ask for information
without going through the Swedish legal apparatus and Swedish laws.
Here you can read more about the Swedish laws that apply to
Mullvad – and why Sweden
is a good country to run a VPN service from. Essentially the legal
system here makes it possible to keep your data private.

Whether or not your VPN service is based in what’s known as a 14 Eyes
country is entirely irrelevant. It’s the individual country’s laws
that make a difference. Not whether the country is part of various
intelligence collaborations.

If this is a subject that interests you and you’re looking for more
information, sooner or later you’ll run into VPN services or other
sources saying “Don’t get a VPN service based in a 14 Eyes country.”
This is a gambit demonstrating either incompetence or dishonesty. But
what’s it all about?

This is 14 Eyes. And this is why it isn’t relevant when you choose your VPN service.

Fourteen Eyes is a collaboration through which the intelligence services
in fourteen different countries work together and share information with
each other. This was something that Edward Snowden revealed in 2013.
First there were five Eyes countries, then nine, and finally (?)
fourteen. Among other things, it emerged that the countries were
eavesdropping on internet traffic passing national borders in the
physical cables running under the Atlantic. And because the internet is
a global phenomenon, this essentially means that every internet user in
the world was captured here (assuming they weren’t using a VPN, of
course).

In other words, it took a whistleblower to reveal these fourteen
countries and their collaboration. Today there may be fewer of them?
Though it is more than likely that there are more. Or the collaboration
no longer exists. The answer to this is something known to no VPN
provider, or anyone else outside those intelligence services. We can
assume that this type of collaboration is now even more extensive than
in 2013. In any case, it has nothing to do with where your VPN service’s
offices are located. The 14 Eyes collaboration is all about sharing
information, and they gather this information all over the world.

What is important is the domestic laws is is in the country where your VPN
service is base , and how well that company ’s operation are protect
by the law there . If the law in a 14 eye country mean that a VPN
service need n’t log datum , there ’s no datum to collect and share with
other 14 eye country .

In the same way, a country that isn’t a 14 Eyes member doesn’t
automatically offer a safer place to run a VPN business. One example:
Switzerland is sometimes highlighted as a safe country outside the 14
Eyes collaboration. Well, that didn’t help ProtonMail in the slightest
when Swiss law forced them to hand over a French climate activist’s IP
address and browser
fingerprint.
As a VPN company, the only thing that can save you in such a scenario is
a hard-nosed philosophy with no exceptions: if you don’t save any data,
you have no data to release. So the only important thing about “VPN
laws” is this: operate in a country where you can’t be forced by law to
save data.

What should you think about when choosing a VPN provider? Take a look
here.

A VPN is is is n’t enough . read more about how Mullvad Browser block other
type of tracking technology .

Your ip address is is is only one way of identify you . read more about how
modern mass surveillance
work .

How bad is today ’s datum collection is is really ? It is ’s ’s bad than you
think .