Started in 2013, Unlocator is a relatively popular Smart DNS and VPN service owned by a Denmark based IT company known as Linkwork ApS. Unlocator provides proxy services designed to help you browse the Internet anonymously and unblock region-specific content that is unavailable in your geographic location through its services.
The service gives you access to a good number of servers in different countries and even offers a smart DNS solution but is Unlocator safe?
When it comes to safety, we believe Unlocator is not the best option for the following reasons.
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Insecure Jurisdiction
Unlocator is based in Denmark, which is a member of the 9-Eyes Surveillance Alliance countries. Countries in the alliance have a pact to share spying data and activities. This means your data can legally be shared with spying agencies of other 9-Eyes member countries such as the UK and the US among others.
Also keep in mind that according to Linkwork ApS terms, the data they collect from you when you make a purchase or sign for a free trial will be kept for a period no less than 5 years in compliance with the Dutch bookkeeping law.
Insecure Logging and Privacy Practices
Another reason why Unlocator scores quite low in terms of safety is the fact they keep logs of users’ activities for at least a day. It seems the company is more focused on circumventing geo-restrictions than privacy, which beats the purpose of getting a VPN in the first place.
They do collect and log some of your personal data. For example, when you purchase a subscription or sign up for a free account, Linkwork ApS collects personal data including your email, name, physical address, IP address, credit card or any other payment details, and all the data they can gather by implementing browser cookies.
To make matters worse, Unlocator logs and saves your IP address for one day before the data is purged. A lot can happen in the 24 hours they have your personal data and IP address in their records. It only takes a single court order or a request from authorities to hand over your P2P sharing data and the exact location to your local law enforcement agencies.
The company states that they keep personally identifiable data to prevent abuse and malicious behavior but their argument doesn’t really hold water because any reasonable VPN user wants complete anonymity and zero-logging.
Security Features
In terms of encryption and protocols, Unlocator doesn’t disappoint. The VPN supports all the leading tunneling protocols including OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, IKEv1/IPsec, and IKEv2. Their VPN also works with PPTP in platforms that already have the connection established. You’ll find all kinds of setup manuals on their website.
However, keep in mind that Unlocator does not support all protocols on all types of devices.
Their protocols work for the following devices:
- Windows – OpenVPN and IKEv2
- Mac OS X – OpenVPN only
- iOS – IKEv2 and IKEv1/IPsec
- Android and Amazon Fire – OpenVPN only
Unlocator uses 256-bit “bank-grade” encryption, which means they have a strong AES 256 cipher used by banks and the military. The VPN also comes with a reliable automatic kill switch feature which helps to protect your real IP address from exposure when the VPN suddenly goes down for whatever reason.
The kill switch immediately cuts off your Internet connection when it drops to avoid a momentary exposure of your data.
Best Privacy-Focused Alternatives
Based on their jurisdiction and logging policy, Unlocator has a few weaknesses that can easily compromise your security. If you are looking for a VPN that doesn’t log the sites you visit, timestamps, and personal data, then look beyond Unlocator and consider the following alternatives.
PureVPN
ExpressVPN
Conclusion
We believe that Unlocator is not a safe VPN to use for the reasons we have discussed in this article. The alternative VPNs that we recommend are a much safer and better choice.