NordVPN is one of the most popular VPNs, which makes the critiques over its privacy practices extra concerning. We investigate the most prominent accusations.
  • socsa@piefed.socialEnglish
    18·
    15 hours ago

    Yes, the advertising is straight up misleading, saying shit like it protects you from viruses, and hides your browsing history from your ISP and lets you get international Netflix. It literally does nothing for viruses, it just exposes you to a different ISP (Nord), and Netflix is usually pretty quick about VPN blocking.

  • el_abuelo@programming.devEnglish
    51·
    15 hours ago

    I’ve used NordVPN for a couple of years and never had reason to switch. None of it gets in my way, and it’s just worked.

    I’m sure others are just the same, but ive no reason to put in effort to change when I have a working solution.

    Plus it’s double effort cus I dont think anyone else does a meshnet alternative so I’d be setting up tailscale too.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 hours ago

      Meshnet is going to be discontinued.

      There’s also local share that is free open source that does the same thing as meshnet. It’s been around for some time now and can be installed on most devices.

      And incognito is not going to be linked to nord anymore. You’d have to pay for that service separate. Nord definitely has been going downhill on services to use. I mean it has locker so there’s that but even then… proton does the same thing. Also there’s proton vpn. At least with proton you get an email and calendar and all that jazz too. Not that there is anything wrong with nord just being a vpn. It’s just shitty they did all this bait and switch bullshit. Leaves à sour taste with trust issues.

      • el_abuelo@programming.devEnglish
        01·
        2 hours ago

        If you’re referring to their announcement last year about discontinuing meshnet, they’ve retracted that.

        I know there are alternatives but why would I go to any effort to set them up when i have something that has worked exactly as I want it to for the last 2yrs? The cost of nordvpn is sufficiently low enough that I wouldn’t switch to something just because it’s free.

        • Smoogs@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          2 hours ago

          You do you. I have trust issues with companies switching their motto every two seconds. I’d rather not be complacent to instability nor discourage anyone who expects some basic standards of consistency where they spend their money.

  • JensSpahnpasta@feddit.orgEnglish
    13·
    23 hours ago

    You do know that you are not getting the best product and prices for something when the company is doing that much advertising

  • scytale@piefed.zipEnglish
    37·
    2 days ago

    Most stuff with obnoxious advertising causes me to avoid them, and that’s usually a bad sign. Compare that to Mullvad, who only do pinpoint relevant ads, and they have the receipts that show they actually do what they say.

    • NotJohnSmith@feddit.ukEnglish
      1·
      1 hour ago

      Mullvad really does sound like the only option if you’re 100% committed to this.

      I’m using Proton as i hear it comes a close 2nd, is alot cheaper and what I’m hiding isn’t massively sensitive

    • ADTJ@feddit.ukEnglish
      6·
      23 hours ago

      I’ve noticed Mullvad advertising a lot in London on billboards, tube station platforms and sides of buses. Not saying it’s a bad thing just that I noticed it, they must have really ramped up spending on marketing.

      Probably in response to UK’s Online Safety Act

      • 123@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        6 hours ago

        They also advertise on the bay area in the US by the highways one time we drove by. Although compared to all the AI garbage companies that promise the world on their billboards, it was generic “protect your privacy - mullvad VPN” and something like that. I only remember it because of the mascot.

  • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    791·
    2 days ago

    Send like most of the valid criticism is based around the fact that the company also is in the business of user data mining. Which is enough for me to never use them.

    Though they also very aggressively advertise, which is also a big red flag.

    Sharing co-owners with Tesonet and receiving funding from the same company that owns a data-mining service isn’t ideal. But there is no evidence, and never has been, that anything is being shared between NordVPN and Oxylabs. Besides, NordVPN states that it follows a strict no-logs policy, which means it doesn’t record, store, or share user activity. And this is backed up by the usage of RAM-only servers and multiple independent audits—most recently the service passed a third-party no-logs audit in late 2025 by security firm Deloitte.

    • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
      9·
      1 day ago

      Deloitte? Lol. My past employer was audited by them, and passed. There is absolutely no way we should have passed. I was flummoxed when I read the report. Since then, any time I see a security or privacy audit by Deloitte, I just assume the company being audited would actually fail a bare-minimum audit.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Tesonet is pretty well known as one of the biggest tech company in the baltics region so obviously they do a lot of different tech.

      VPN itself is mostly harmless and can’t intercept e2e encrypted traffic and today even DSN is under e2e.

      The only red flag is really the inaccurate advertising that vpn protects from public wifi issues which is on page with every VPN ad (except Mullvad) but still wrong.

    • Deestan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      28·
      2 days ago

      I mean… Deloitte is mercenary, and hired by the company wanting a passed audit.

      They get paid to check pre-agreed spots A, B, and C and keep their eyes closed outside those areas.

      A RAM-only server can still send metrics, metadata, “anonymized” metadata…

      • shadshack@feddit.onlineEnglish
        9·
        1 day ago

        Anything Deloitte touches is crap and their employees are as incompetent as they come. Source: my work contracts with Deloitte regularly.

        • the_crotch@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3·
          17 hours ago

          We had a project that, by law, could only be touched by people within the US. We constantly caught Deloitte trying to sneak their (undoubtedly cheaper) off shore staff in there.

  • network_switch@lemmy.mlEnglish
    152·
    2 days ago

    When I paid for nordvpn with a credit card and decided to cancel, it took like a week and a half of emails with them to cancel and remove my payment info. A lot of, are you sure you want to cancel, are you sure you’re who you say you are

    After that no more nordvpn. Pay for these services with crypto

  • SleeplessCityLights@programming.devEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    Yes, NordVPN is garbage. As a SysAdmin, my users that run it on their home PC along with our VPN are a continuous pain in the ass. The product only needs to be 5% of what it is, the rest is Anti-virus bs. It either: does not play well with other VPNs, is impossible to disable, or the people that buy this product are not computer literate enough to use such a complicated peice of shit. All of the above is also a possibility. Since it’s their home PC, we won’t go on it to fix anything and all I can do is blindly troubleshoot. The VPN I use cost me $20 a year and the only thing it does is be a VPN. It should be called NordComplicatedSecuritySuite.

    • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.netEnglish
      1·
      22 hours ago

      I tested all the alternatives and NordVPN was the only one that worked well with my work VPN. What alternatives do you know that work in parallel with tailscale?

  • remon@ani.socialEnglish
    15·
    2 days ago

    I still have 200+ days on my plan, but cancelled it for now. Not because of any major concerns, it’s good enough for what I need it for.

    But they just making the app worse. There used to be like a map where you could select servers, they removed it. You used to have a “pause” and a “disconnect” next to each other. Now the “disconnect” is the last option behind the “pause” menu. Why?

    I hate enshittification and that’s just that.

    Will probably switch to mullvad after it expires.

  • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    My experience with them was bad. Somehow they automatically moved me from a plan for just vpn (which is pretty cheap) to one that included a bunch of bullshit I didn’t need, want, or even know I could use. The new plan was over $30/mo. There are ISPs who charge less than that!

    My previous VPN service has been about $36 per year or something. I remember it was small enough that I just paid it annually out of pocket change, which also lowered the price in comparison.

    I stopped sailing the seas, as it were, and dropped it. Then I needed to briefly, and tried Nord. Meh. Anyways it’s strictly land-lubbing these days.

  • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    210·
    2 days ago

    Reddit also hates people who criticize child predators.

    I question calling something Nordic if it’s based in Panama and headquartered in Lithuania. I get it, it’s just branding, like how Texas Pete isn’t made in Texas (at least it’s not made in New York City, I suppose) but maybe call it something else?

    IIRC Proton is Nordic, but I don’t know if that makes their VPN better or worse. They do have a free ordering and I use it when I’m on public WiFi because I can, but otherwise can’t vouch for it.

    • Eggyhead@lemmings.worldEnglish
      81·
      2 days ago

      The taxes are really high, so Nordic folk tend to base their online businesses in countries with lax tax laws then live off the proceeds in their home countries where the benefits are great.