CyberGhost VPN’s Transparency Report

You know what they say. The year isn’t truly over until we publish our final Transparency Report.

So, here we are today, with the last numbers of the oh-so-unprecedented 2020, when cybercrime and social engineering have reached an all-time high as working from home became more common.

While the normalization of digital surveillance systems continued, we received even more legal requests. But we stay true to our mission and keep protecting the privacy of our Ghosties.

Let’s see how the past months have been for us.

Our October, November, and December numbers

This is the number of DMCA complaints, malicious activity flags, and police requests we got in these past three months.

That’s a whopping 40% increase compared to our previous report!

 

Unaffected by the increase, we have not complied with any of these requests, and we have nothing to show.

Ever since our very beginning, we have stayed true to our no-logs policy. We are not keeping tabs on any of our users, their digital lives, browsing habits, IP addresses, or anything else. Thanks to this, we have nothing to show to the authorities.

What’s more, we’re headquartered in Europe, in Bucharest, Romania. And while we’re not vampires, we’re privileged enough not to be a part of any international surveillance alliance, like the 5 or 14 Eyes. As a result, we aren’t legally obligated to contribute to worldwide intelligence-sharing efforts.

Now that we’ve cleared this let’s take an in-depth look at our latest numbers.

DMCA complaints

In the legal world, DMCA complaints are copyright infringement claims, and they’re the most common type of notice we get.

Various entities, like 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.

DMCA complaints make up 90% of all requests we got in the past three months. Percentage-wise, we were in the same situation in the third quarter of 2020.

Malicious activity flags

As their name implies, we receive this type of notification when companies signal abusive behaviors originating from our IP addresses. DDoS attacks, scams, or suspicious login attempts are all in this category.

Malicious activity flags make up just 9% of all requests we got. Coincidentally, it’s the same percentage as Q3 when we reached 2,185 requests.

Police requests

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

As usual, less than 1% of all requests now came from law enforcement agencies. We’ve had a similar situation in the previous months when we received a total of 15 requests.

Putting the numbers in perspective

We’ve been sharing our Transparency Report numbers with you ever since 2011. That’s when we became the first VPN to publish such information.

In 2019, we began publishing our Transparency Reports every three months. If you’d like to revisit them and get more context, here they are:

• • • CyberGhost VPN’s Transparency Report Q1 2019
    • CyberGhost VPN’s Transparency Report Q2 2019
    • CyberGhost VPN’s Transparency Report Q3 2019
    • CyberGhost VPN’s Transparency Report Q4 2019
    • CyberGhost VPN’s Transparency Report Q1 2020
    • CyberGhost VPN’s Transparency Report Q2 2020
    • CyberGhost VPN’s Transparency Report Q3 2020

Of course, you can see the yearly figures in the dedicated Transparency Report section on our website.

The fight for protecting your privacy continues

Our focus here at CyberGhost is on building the best tools for protecting your privacy and security online. And in the last months of 2020, we had some important product launches.

Discover the latest CyberGhost VPN experience! 👻 Download the brand new 🎉 CyberGhost 8 🎉 app now. ➡️ https://t.co/BCz3UGVbDF ⬅️ pic.twitter.com/DjaAFExv5l

— CyberGhost VPN (@CyberGhost_EN) October 16, 2020

🎉Ghosties, we have some amazing news! 🎉 Our all-in-one digital freedom, data privacy, and system security suite for Windows is here. Check it out! 👇https://t.co/CPFMHFGqGx

— CyberGhost VPN (@CyberGhost_EN) December 16, 2020

To learn more about the CyberGhost Security Suite for Windows and our Private Browser, check out this 2020 retrospective.

 

We have no plans for slowing down in 2021. Our roadmap is jampacked with exciting releases, and we’ll share everything with you in due time.

Meanwhile, we’ll continue to publish our Transparency Report’s quarterly editions right here on the Privacy Hub.

 

Until next time, stay safe and secure!