CyberGhost VPN’s Transparency Report

January, February, and March 2021

If 2020 seemed never-ending, the first three months of 2021 have whisked right by. And you know what that means: it’s time for our Transparency Report covering the first quarter of the year!

Let’s take a look at the requests we registered in January, February, and March 2021 at CyberGhost VPN.

Our January, February, and March numbers

24,074

This is the number of DMCA complaints, malicious activity flags, and police requests we got since the beginning of 2021.

The figure marks a 35% decrease in requests compared to our previous report.

But this number changes nothing for us.

Because we have no data to show, we have not complied with any of these requests.

As part of our commitment to protecting online privacy, we have a strict no-logs policy in place. We keep no records of our users. Not their online activity, not their browsing history, not their digital footprint.

We’re also headquartered in Bucharest, Romania, a country famous not only for Dracula but also for its privacy-friendly laws. So, we’re under no obligation to store any data on our Ghosties, and we have nothing to share with the authorities.

Romania also strays away from any surveillance alliances, like the 5 or 14 Eyes, so we’re under no legal obligation to participate in any intelligence-sharing efforts.

Now that this introduction is out of the way, let’s investigate what happened in the first months of 2021.

DMCA complaints

21,531

DMCA complaints are copyright infringement claims. They are consistently the most common type of request we receive.

Various entertainment companies can file a DMCA notice on behalf of copyright holders. They do this when something has been shared and distributed using one of our IP addresses.

January
February
March
6,922
5,787
8,822

DMCA complaints make 89% of all requests we received these past three months. The situation was similar in the last quarter of 2020 when DMCA complaints made up 90% of requests.

Malicious activity flags

2,518

The name is self-explanatory, as this type of inquiries generally signals abusive behavior originating from CyberGhost VPN IP addresses.

This can include anything from DDoS attacks to spam emails and anything in between.

January
February
March
970
700
848

Malicious activity flags make up around 10% of the requests we got. It’s just a tiny increase compared to the 9% in our previous report.

Police requests

25

We generally get police requests from various law enforcement agencies and police departments from around the world. Representatives contact us after they’ve traced back an IP address to one of our data centers. They’re usually looking for logs to help with their investigations.

January
February
March
3
17
5

As usual, police requests make 1% of all requests we receive. That’s on par with what we had every quarter in 2020. However, compared to our previous report with 11 police requests, the incidence has more than doubled.

The bigger picture

Transparency Reports have become a tradition for us. Ever since 2011, when we became the first VPN company to publish such a document, we’ve been pushing them out regularly.

In 2019, we decided to take it a step further with a quarterly transparency report, right here on the Privacy Hub. Here’s where you can check the latest editions:

For the bigger picture, head to the dedicated Transparency Report section on our website.

New year, new goals

Update: As of December 12 2022, we’ve discontinued our Password Manager.

We, the team behind CyberGhost VPN, have always focused on building the best tools for you to protect your digital privacy.

And now, we’re more focused than ever. Because we know that, in the age of digital surveillance, you need more than a VPN. In the age of constant data breaches, you need more to protect your digital identity.

This is why we’re continuously expanding our arsenal of privacy and security tools. The latest addition is our Password Manager.

Life’s better with a password manager, that’s for sure. And we’ve cut no corner in developing the safest and easiest to use tool for you to manage and store your passwords.

With CyberGhost Password Manager, you can:

      • Store all your essential passwords in an encrypted, super-secure, and hacker-free place
      • Generate unbreakable passwords quick and easy
      • Instantly log in to your online accounts
      • Import your saved passwords
      • Store an unlimited number of credentials
      • Track every change you make to your passwords
      • Filter credentials based on title or date
      • Better organize, find, and use passwords by assigning tags

Going forward, we have plenty of ambitious plans. So ambitious that we had to grow our team, and we’re ready to tackle new challenges and continue improving our products.

And don’t worry! We’ll share all exciting new details with you, so make sure you keep an eye out for them. 😉

Until next time, stay safe and secure!

Leave a comment

We know that cyberghost (and other vpns) use servers rented from other ISPs, in other countries. is it possible that they are saving their own logs capable of identifying the user?

Reply

Hi John,

In order to provide our Ghosties with a wide choice of locations and an affordable product, our network is a mix of owned infrastructures, like our NoSpy servers, and VPN servers that are located in vetted datacenters.
We have a history of over 15 years of carefully choosing our collaborators and a dedicated Infrastructure team ensuring our community always stays safe and protected.
Because we take privacy seriously, we secure our servers and service on multiple levels.
For example, the server installation process is handled exclusively by our Infrastructure team. Our servers run on RAM-only; they are fully encrypted and have no ties with our databases or management infrastructure. Every reboot wipes them down, and even if they’re removed from the rack, they’re completely useless and can’t be accessed. This approach allowed us to keep our server fleet in Hong Kong. More details on the matter are here.
All our servers are firewall-protected, and this prevents unauthorized access or traffic towards server nodes. We run a highly customized OS, configured in-house, and our operating system data partitions are encrypted.
CyberGhost VPN is built in a container-like style, ensuring there’s always safe isolation between the nodes in our fleet. A compromised node can’t be used to access other servers or core resources.
Furthermore, we have additional server authenticity tests in place to eliminate the risk of man-in-the-middle attacks. We also use self-managed DNS servers to ensure full end-to-end protection.

If I have the VPN on what is the purpose of the private browser? Isn’t the private browser redundant when we’re connected to the VPN?

Reply

Hi Erwin. It’s true that a VPN is a great tool to secure your connection and protect your digital data. However, the private browser simply adds another layer of security on top.

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