Why the claim is hard to check
A log is a file on a machine that you will never see. When VPNs with no logs say that they keep nothing, there is no button you can press to confirm it. What you can do is look at the evidence that surrounds the claim. Some of that evidence is strong and some is decoration. Services with good evidence are rarer than the slogan suggests, and those that offer none are asking you for blind trust.
Five tests from the outside
- The wording: does the policy say no activity logs, which is narrow, or no connection logs, which is broad? Does it list what is kept?
- The account form: every field at registration is a record. Email, name and card details all have to be stored somewhere.
- Audits: who carried them out, when, and did the scope include the servers or only the apps?
- Court and breach history: search the provider's name with subpoena, court or breach. Some have been tested and had nothing to hand over. Others did hand over data.
- Design: a service that never learns who you are has very little to keep.
Kinds of logs, so you know the words
Activity logs record what you did, and no reputable provider admits to keeping them. Connection logs record when you connected, from which address and to which server, and many VPNs without logs in their slogan still keep some of these for a while. Aggregate statistics count total traffic per server and are harmless. Account and billing records exist wherever there are accounts. Support messages are kept as long as the help desk keeps them. A policy that names all five categories is one that somebody has thought about.
How Valideo is built
We removed the account. There is no registration, no email, no name and no password. The bot hands a key to a Telegram chat, and we store the key, its end date and that chat identifier. Payment runs through Telegram's own flow, so card details never reach us. We keep no connection logs at all. The client software belongs to independent open source projects, so nothing on your device reports to us.
What we do not have yet is an outside audit. Until we do, weigh the design and not our word.
Questions to send any provider
- Exactly which data points are written when I connect?
- How long is each of them kept?
- When was the last audit, and what did it cover?
- Have you ever received a legal demand, and what did you provide?
- Who owns you, and under which country's law do you operate?
A quick check on us
Open @valideo_bot and ask for the free days.
Notice what it asks you for: nothing.
Connect and run a DNS leak test, so that your own provider is not building the log you were trying to avoid.
Read the no logs page in the footer. It lists what we hold.
Decide whether that is enough for you.
Q.Are VPNs with no logs really log free?
A.Some are, and audits or court cases have shown it. Others keep connection data despite the slogan.
Q.What is the difference between activity logs and connection logs?
A.Activity logs record what you did. Connection logs record when and from where you connected.
Q.Does no logs mean anonymous?
A.No. It limits what the operator could reveal. Your accounts elsewhere still identify you.
Q.Do VPNs without logs keep billing data?
A.Most do, because accounts need it. We have no accounts, and payment is handled by Telegram.
Q.Can a court force logging?
A.In some countries, yes, for a specific target. Where the operator is based matters.
Q.What does Valideo keep?
A.A key, its end date and the Telegram chat that it is delivered to.