Can ExpressVPN be trusted? Is it safe to use this VPN?
4 min. read
Updated on
Share this article
Improve this guide
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial team. Read more
Key notes
- It goes without saying that trust is a major factor you need to consider upon picking a VPN. But how to decide which VPN to trust and which not?
- ExpressVPN, for instance, is one of the most popular VPN services that fueled this debate. Can ExpressVPN be trusted or not?
- Check out our best VPNs that are entirely safe to use.
- Visit the VPN Hub to learn more about securing your online privacy.
It goes without saying that trust is a major factor you need to consider upon picking a VPN.
The market is over-saturated with VPN services, and if you haven’t been around this field for a while, choosing one to stick with can be quite challenging.
There’s an awful lot of categories, too, which can affect your decision. For instance, you’d be more prone to picking a free service that sells itself as being one of the greatest, if you wouldn’t know better.
Can you trust VPNs?
Many such promises are merely marketing gimmicks. You could see for yourself just by looking up past scandals involving certain free services. Privacy-wise, to be more specific.
However, on the opposite side of the ring lay paid services, such as ExpressVPN. These swear by their impenetrable infrastructure, zero-logging policy, and really good value for money.
So let’s see whether this service can really be trusted.
ExpressVPN’s censorship battle
A while back, in 2017, ExpressVPN‘s VPN apps were removed from Apple’s App Store in China.
This knowledge was made public by ExpressVPN in an open letter, which was later picked up by various media outlets.
Apple confirmed that the allegations were, in fact, true and also added that they’ve removed a total of 674 VPN apps from their App Store in China, at the request of China’s government.
Internet censorship in China affects those who want to publish online material, but also those who merely want to view it. Reportedly, Internet censorship in China is more advanced than anywhere else in the world.
It’s based on blocking certain website content, but also involves monitoring the Internet access of individuals.
Thus it’s clear to see why ExpressVPN, a service that promotes privacy and bypassing geo-restrictions, was removed from the Apple App Store in China and is also blacklisted as a whole.
ExpressVPN’s clean slate
Fortunately, ExpressVPN hasn’t lingered under the spotlight for too long, as it doesn’t have a record of breaking the trust of its customers.
Even when the need to unveil the truth was critical, nothing could be found on the ExpressVPN servers.
In December 2016, Andrei Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated by an off-duty Turkish police officer.
In 2017, Turkish authorities seized an ExpressVPN server, which they believed was used to erase information that was crucial to solving the case from the assassin’s Facebook and Gmail accounts.
The Turkish investigators didn’t find any logs that they could use in their investigation. ExpressVPN stated that this event verifies its zero-logging policy claim. The company also stated the following:
While it’s unfortunate that security tools like VPNs can be abused for illicit purposes, they are critical for our safety and the preservation of our right to privacy online. ExpressVPN is fundamentally opposed to any efforts to install “backdoors” or attempts by governments to otherwise undermine such technologies. (ExpressVPN statement on Andrey Karlov investigation)
What does ExpressVPN offer?
- Enables you to browse anonymously
- Unblocks geo-restricted content
- ExpressVPN has more than 3,000 servers in 160 locations, in 94 countries
- Comes with a built-in speed test to help you check the quality of your connection
- Integrated kill switch that prevents any data leaks
- Split tunneling for selective traffic cloaking
- AES-256 (military/government-grade) encryption
- TrustedServer security standards
- All the data is wiped at every reboot (ExpressVPN servers run only on RAM)
- Nothing ever gets written to the hard drive (to minimize data theft risks)
- The whole software solution stack gets reinstalled on every server during startup
- Zero-knowledge DNS on every ExpressVPN server
- Strict no-logging policy
ExpressVPN
Looking for a VPN you can trust? ExpressVPN might be what you need.You can see that, despite its somewhat more expensive subscription plans, ExpressVPN delivers an all-around privacy/security suite.
Yes, you can trust ExpressVPN
To put it shortly, ExpressVPN is among the most trusted VPN services you could stick with. It offers zero-logging, no-compromise policies, and a wide range of security and privacy features.
Its subscription plan pricing might be higher than other services, but you can breathe easy knowing that your private data will never be handed over to third parties, mainly because it won’t be logged.
User forum
0 messages