We’re halfway through 2023, which means it’s time for another chapter in our Transparency Report story. While many are busy preparing for summer vacation, we’ve spent the past 3 months looking for opportunities to improve ourselves and empower others.
Of course, we also prepared an overview of the legal requests we received in April, May, and June 2023. Without further ado, let’s delve into the numbers!
Legal Requests — Q2 Edition
In the past three months, we received a total of 223,104 legal requests. The number is fairly similar to our Q1 edition, when we received 224,021 requests.
As usual, we’ll be breaking down this number into 3 main categories. These are:
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- Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Complaints
- Malicious activity flags
- Police requests
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| April | May | June | |
| DMCA Complaints | 39,228 | 34,340 | 38,753 |
| Malicious Activity Flags | 39,250 | 34,300 | 37,233 |
| Police Requests | 0 | 0 | 0 |
This edition, we’re almost looking at a 50/50 split between DMCA complaints and malicious activity flags.
Various institutions can send us a legal request to inquire about user data. Normally, this pertains to personally identifiable information, like IP address or browsing history.
We’re unable to comply with these requests. We uphold a strict No Logs policy, which means we don’t monitor or store user data. Our server network is designed to wipe out all data with every reboot.
With that in mind, let’s have a closer look at the numbers.
DMCA Complaints
Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a copyright law that protects intellectual property. Various copyright holders send us DMCA complaints to signal that one of our IP addresses was used to illegally distribute copyrighted material.
| April | May | June |
|---|---|---|
| 39,228 | 34,340 | 38,753 |
This edition, DMCA complaints make up 50.3% of all the requests we received. It’s a small increase from our previous edition’s 41%.
With the slight exception of February and March, the numbers seem fairly consistent.
Services like Netflix began cracking on password sharing, while inflation prompted many people to drop off their streaming service subscriptions. This might be what’s contributing to the increase in DMCA complaints.
Malicious Activity Flags
Various authorities send us malicious activity flags when they notice one of our IP addresses was used in a cyberattack. This can encompass anything from botnet attacks to Distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to suspicious login attempts.
| April | May | June |
|---|---|---|
| 39,250 | 34,300 | 37,233 |
Malicious activity flags represent 49.7% of requests this quarter. We can notice a 16% decrease in reports from Q1’s 59%.
Our server team is working to block illegal and malicious domains on our network, which might have contributed to keeping the numbers down.
Police Requests
We receive police requests from law enforcement agencies across the world, whenever a criminal investigation leads them to one of our IP addresses. Law enforcement usually ask for help in identifying a perpetrator or request user data. Due to our No Logs policy, we’re unable to comply with these requests.
| April | May | March |
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
In our previous edition, we received 0 requests and acknowledged this hadn’t happened since May 2013. Our infrastructure team worked to tackle abuse within our service, and it seems they were successful in mitigating malicious activity.
We’re Improving Ourselves and Others
We took these past three months as an opportunity to look for areas of improvement and share our expertise with others.
Our Bug Bounty Program Proves to Be a Success
Our Bug Bounty Program is a great program in our arsenal. We’re grateful for the opportunity to connect with various cybersecurity professionals. We received 83 submissions in Q2, with 56 of these issues being unique. In total, 23 of the unique submissions were valid, with the other 33 reported issues being false positives or invalid.
We Hosted a Cybersecurity Challenge Workshop for AIESEC Student Day
We’re also looking for opportunities to teach others about cybersecurity and data protection. This is why we partnered with AIESEC and hosted a workshop for 40 students eager to learn about VPN technology. It was a fun, rewarding day, and we’re thankful to lead these conversations with up-and-coming young talent.
Our Director of Product Marketing Talked Online Privacy
Our Director of Product Marketing, Mihai Rida, spoke to Euronews in an effort to raise awareness about digital threats and how they affect online privacy. We’re honored to have him lend his expertise on the threats online data poses to individuals’ privacy.
Today, most people can be found to be sharing a wealth of information about themselves in some form or another online. By doing so, we open ourselves up to certain risks we should be aware of.
Mihai Rida, Director of Product Marketing at CyberGhost VPN
Our Mission Is Not Yet Over
CyberGhost VPN was built with digital privacy in mind. We made it our mission to protect online freedom and enhance digital safety. Unfortunately, recent developments make it clear that for governments and businesses an open internet isn’t a priority.
The US RESTRICT Act
The US RESTRICT Act made headlines as the act that would ban TikTok. In reality, RESTRICT would allow the US government to decide what platforms can US citizens access, while deeming others as a threat to national security. The provisions are suspiciously broad, which has digital privacy activists alarmed.
Canada Restricts Online Content
Canada’s C-11 act aims to promote local Canadian content as opposed to other media. While this sounds good on paper, the act aims to regulate content on online streaming services. It forces giants like Netflix or Disney+ to prioritize and invest in Canadian content, which might prompt smaller services from leaving the market.
OpenAI Was Already Banned in Some Countries
ChatGPT quickly gained notoriety these past few months. With no discussion over AI regulation in sight and ChatGPT’s potential for legal complications, some countries decided to ban the platform. ChatGPT can still be accessed with a VPN, but it’s not yet clear how much this ban would impact free speech and the free flow of information going forward.
We will continue monitoring how the digital landscape develops, and we’ll keep a close eye on whether legislators can catch up with the latest technological advancements. As always, we’ll report on them in our quarterly Transparency Reports.
Missed our previous editions? You can read our Q1 edition right here on the Privacy Hub, or check out the yearly report on our website.
Until next time, stay safe and secure!
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