I've only recommended one VPN service, ever (and no, I don't have any financial relationship to them): Mullvad. They have always seemed to be one of the few entities that practices the mantra, "You don't have to protect what you don't collect."
This quite a press release:
"Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant. Customer data not compromised
20 April 2023 NEWS
On April 18 at least six police officers from the National Operations Department (NOA) of the Swedish Police visited the Mullvad VPN office in Gothenburg with a search warrant.
They intended to seize computers with customer data.
In line with our policies such customer data did not exist. We argued they had no reason to expect to find what they were looking for and any seizures would therefore be illegal under Swedish law. After demonstrating that this is indeed how our service works and them consulting the prosecutor they left without taking anything and without any customer information.
If they had taken something that would not have given them access to any customer information.
Mullvad has been operating our VPN service for over 14 years. This is the first time our offices have been visited with a search warrant."
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/07/a-deep-dive-into-the-residential-proxy-service-911/
@briankrebs What were the cops after? If it wasn't a truly legitimate search, being based in a country where cops demand information is still a potential minus.
Is there a country where the cops don't demand information?
@nlarson830 Some are worse than others. I wouldn't want a VPN based in Russia, China, or even the USA. I don't know how Sweden's cops and legal protections stack up against other countries. NordVPN, for instance, is based in Iceland, and promotes that as a safer country from searches than nearly all others.
I guess the discriminant you are looking for is a judge's warrant as a requirement but the judiciary can be corrupt and the warrant granted without accountability of the judge.
