[NotAFlightRisk]

Category

New provider

Overview

DotVPN is a Chrome extension with about 500,000 users, run by Smart Security Limited in Hong Kong (on the register since May 2014). It's a browser proxy now: the Chrome one was updated in September, but the Android, iOS and Firefox apps the site still links are gone, and the Opera one stopped in 2018.

The Chrome listing sells a "verified" zero-logs policy, Double VPN, a kill switch and not collecting IPs or connection times. None of it's audited, the extension has no kill switch or second hop, and the user agreement keeps your IP and connection history for 24 hours, so misleading_claims is true. The extension also reports when you open it, connect and disconnect under an install ID with no way to turn it off, so telemetry is forced. Prices only show once you've signed in, so monthly is the $4.99 in the extension and the rest is null.

Sources

• User agreement¹, privacy policy² and refund policy³
• Chrome Web Store listing⁴ and the extension itself⁵
• Hong Kong Companies Registry⁶

Issue number

None

Additional info

No conflicts of interest.

Footnotes

1. DotVPN user agreement ↩

2. DotVPN privacy policy ↩

3. DotVPN refund policy ↩

4. DotVPN on the Chrome Web Store ↩

5. DotVPN Chrome extension 2.8.12 ↩

6. Hong Kong Companies Registry, Smart Security Limited ↩