How would you claim it's a no log VPN?
replyI could just...lie.
replyYou really think someone would do that?
replyWhat, just go on the Internet and tell lies? Who would do such a thing‽
reply*gasp
replyOne person can tell a lie, but a company consists of many people. You must ensure that only few people know of the logging or there will be a risk of a leak.
replyWell, there should only be a few people with the access needed to discover logging is happening. Just put the logging configuration in whatever secure configuration management tool is storing your TLS keys and suchlike.
replyMake it look like an accidental misconfiguration and if an insider who isn't an NSA mole does somehow discover the logging, there's a fair chance they'll turn a blind eye anyway. After all, if you work at a VPN, publicly outing your employer for logging will tank the business, then you and your colleagues will all be out of a job.
An intelligence agency already consists of more people than you need to run a VPN service.
replyStill I think it's easier to avoid the need for more people than necessary. "Just lie" sounds like the easiest solution but on closer inspection maybe it is not?
replyBecause if you lie you get infinitely more data than if you don't lie. And if you lie you can do it completely in secret whereas if you don't lie you get articles like the OP exposing the teeny amount of data you're trying to collect. It makes no sense.
replyLying is almost always the most cost-efficient answer to anything, if you’re not concerned about your trustworthiness, morality, ethics, etc.
replyIntelligence agencies... are generally pretty good at that.
replyleakers and whistleblowers are extremely rare. History is filled with examples of conspiracies involving many people that went on for long periods of time before one person eventually risked everything and said something. The Tuskegee Experiment went on for like 40 years! If keeping secrets were all that hard none of them would have been allowed to go on as long as they did.
replyCompanies can lie at large too. Enron, theranos, and many others come to mind.
replyTheir 3rd party audit didn’t catch this…
replyI guess we’ll see how they respond.
> How would you claim it's a no log VPN?
replyMullvad have been taken to court over this in relation to a copyright infringement case.
TL;DR The judge permitted people to take a fine-tooth comb to Mullvad's infrastructure and no logging was found[1].
[1] https://mullvad.net/en/blog/mullvad-vpn-was-subject-to-a-sea...