One of the best sources for information regarding VPN services is a website called Torrentfreak, and they have just published their fifth annual report on the subject. The main focus of the report is to show which of the companies are most serious about protecting the anonymity of their clients by not keeping logs, but they also ask questions regarding many other subjects that may affect the privacy of VPN users.
Fourteen different companies provide detailed information about their services, and Torrentfreak also lists more VPN's, many of which do not keep logs but there are a few that do. Here are the questions posed to the VPN providers:
Do you keep ANY logs which would allow you to match an IP-address and a time stamp to a user of your service? If so, what information and for how long?
2. What is the registered name of the company and under what jurisdiction(s) does it operate?
3. Do you use any external visitor tracking, email providers or support tools that hold information of your users / visitors?
4. In the event you receive a takedown notice (DMCA or other), how are these handled?
5. What steps are taken when a valid court order or subpoena requires your company to identify an active user of your service? Has this ever happened?
6. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? If not, why?
7. Which payment systems do you use and how are these linked to individual user accounts?
8. What is the most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm you would recommend to your users? Do you provide DNS leak protection and tools such as “kill switches” if a connection drops?
9. Do you offer a custom VPN application to your users? If so, for which platforms?
10. Do you use your own DNS servers?
If you'd like to see the answers, go to Torrentfreak and find out which companies you'd trust with your private networking needs. You can find the article here.
