Anonymous VPN concerns

June 12, 2013 4:45 PM

As an anonymous VPN user in the United States, are there any risks in using a Canadian server instead of a European one? The VPN provider explicitly states to not use the US servers for certain types of traffic, but has no such warning for the Canadian servers.

Unless I'm doing something very wrong w/ Tunnelblick, I get annoying latency with European servers, which is why I stick to Canada. I'd rather be annoyed than unsafe.

They're a fully-vetted, paid anonymous VPN service and I understand the broad strokes of how that works, but are there any privacy issues I should be concerned about which stem from the US putting pressure on Canada that they couldn't put on an European country?

Any other advice for VPN hygiene (e.g. "check for DNS leaks") appreciated.

posted by A god with hooves, a god with horns to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

The intelligence agencies in Anglosphere countries cooperate extensively. Moreover, I don't believe that Canadian intelligence agencies have any particular obligation to protect the privacy of a non-Canadian living outside of Canada. It may be different if you're a Canadian citizen living in the U.S., but I wouldn't bank on it. It's the same principle by which the NSA argues that that gathering data from Facebook and other U.S. tech companies is okay so long as they're gathering data on foreign users.
posted by jingzuo at 8:42 PM on June 13, 2013