There are two aspects to server safety and privacy for a very good VPN service:
The 1st is whether or not the VPN provider’s server network is safe and can’t be hacked into by criminals attempting to sniff information and private info or get information about the overall network configuration and principal server.
The second is the place of the servers. If all the servers AND the VPN provider’s location are in cooperative regions such as the United States and Europe, the security is about as great as making use of your neighborhood ISP. If privacycritic of the servers are in non cooperative or off shore locations, then information retention laws apply to that VPN provider just as if they have been your ISP.
A recent criminal investigation involving the encrypted email provider, Hushmail, which is primarily based in Canada, is a case in point. Unbeknown to one particular of its customers, Hushmail (against its stated privacy policy) logged and cached information about the user for months and delivered that information and facts to government authorities in one more country pursuant to court orders (this was a run of the mill criminal- not terrorism or human trafficking). Had Hushmail been situated in Panama or some other off shore location, it is much less likely that Hushmail would have acted on behalf of the police authorities.
If the VPN provider is physically situated in a cooperative jurisdiction but has servers in non cooperative jurisdictions like Panama, Russia, China, then this is superior privacy. But the highest privacy is if Each the physical location of the VPN provider and at least some of their servers are in non cooperative off shore locations. Then information retention laws cannot be enforced and the VPN provider is far significantly less likely to breach its stated privacy policy to log, cache and hand over your data/facts/IPs.