![]() We're left to take iTop on trust, and hope the firm is delivering what it promises. ![]() Whatever you think of iTop VPN's claims, the real problem here is the company hasn't had them confirmed by any kind of security or logging audit. A privacy policy should be clear and precise, not leave us with more questions than it answers. Some of that looks like it's referring to the website, not iTop's apps, but the fact that we're left to guess is a problem. Scroll down the page and you'll find a 'What information we collect' section, which could also include a lot of data: '.operating system, device ID, Internet protocol addresses, browser type, browser language, referring/exit pages, clickstream data of our websites and our products or services, and the pages or features of our software or services accessed by you and the time spent there.' iTop VPN limits its free plan to 700MB a day, so to make this work it must log the bandwidth you use and associate it with a device ID. Sounds good, but we already know this can't be entirely true. We do not store your original IP address or the server IP address that you connect to.' The company does its best to sound reassuring, telling users: 'We do not log your activity while you are utilizing the Services, including your browsing history, the bandwidth you used, or how long you connected to VPN servers. ITop VPN claims to have a no logging policy, and the privacy policy (opens in new tab) spells out what this means. A tooltip tried to justify this by saying that the details 'allow us to contact you if there are any issues with your order.' Uh, isn't that what our email address is for? Logging ITop scores another privacy thumbs-down for its order form, where it insisted we entered our full name, city and post or ZIP code. Unless you're using the VPN, that risks exposing your credentials to snoopers. Its SSL certificate wasn't properly configured, and this allowed us to access areas of the site, including the Login page, using an unencrypted HTTP connection. We noticed a separate privacy issue on the iTop VPN website. You can't check the encryption it uses, for instance. ![]() ![]() Maybe this is secure, maybe it's not, but the company doesn't provide enough information to judge. The Windows app appears to make a fast proxy connection to the VPN server, then uses an open source package called WinDivert to direct your traffic through the tunnel, apparently encrypting it with iTop's own protocol. However, iTop uses a custom scheme of its own. This doesn't guarantee you'll be safe – a provider can easily make mistakes in how they're set up – but they're open source, so anyone can see how they work or check the code for problems. Most VPNs protect your privacy by using secure VPN protocols such as WireGuard and OpenVPN. ITop VPN's protocols are not standard, and it's far from clear how they work (Image credit: iTop VPN) Privacy It's good to see that you can turn off auto-renewal when you purchase the service, too, ensuring you won't accidentally pay for a second term that you don't want.Įven better, if you're unhappy, a 15-day 'no questions asked' money-back guarantee (7 days for monthly-billed plans) means you're able to get your first payment back, too. ITop supports payments via card, PayPal and bank transfers. A handful of providers are even cheaper – Private Internet Access has a three-year plan for $2.19 a month, Ivacy and PrivadoVPN go even lower – but that still looks like a real bargain. Opt for its annual plan (opens in new tab) and you'll get an extra year thrown in, giving you two years of protection for $2.31 a month. You're paying iTop $41.94 to get your six months of cover, for instance, but Private Internet Access only asks $39.95 for a full year ($3.33 a month). Paying six months (opens in new tab) upfront cuts the cost to $6.99 a month, but that's still above average. This VPN's monthly plan (opens in new tab) is priced at $11.99, not the highest we've seen, but more expensive than most. You get 100+ locations and 1,800+ streaming and gaming-optimized servers with iTop (Image credit: iTop VPN) iTop VPN pricing
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