Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/03/tigervpn-was-simple-to-set-up.html
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What are their policies on log retention? I’m not reassured by the fact that Slovakian authorities are not allowed to conduct mass surveillance on Slovakian citizens, since I’m not a citizen of Slovakia (or the EU).
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I did some googling. Apparently they keep logs for 3 days on the IP’s your using (not user IPs), but no records about individual users VPNed into those IPs. Meaning even if some one got to those records before they’re discarded, there’s no way to establish which customer was connected/using which of their IPs or which user did what using it. And that’s sort of it. And then there was something out them using a 3rd party software for customers service which could keep logs of some sort, but which they claim they don’t create any records through. So some logs, nothing retained longer than 3 days, and a hard break due to how things are structured between those logs and users.
Given what VPNs cost, if you get 6 months out of this you’ve got your money’s worth and a VPN isn’t exactly going to holding your data hostage.
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I guess my main worry would be it doesn’t go broke. So I bought a lifetime membership for a vpn for a ridiculously small amount and it is still around in 6 years time and still allowing me to use it. The questions then become HOW and WHY.
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Thanks.
Yes, 3 days of retained mass logs without the ability to identify individual users – found that on Reddit where TigerVPN answers/answered questions. They also responded in some Twitter threads Xeni was watching.
I addressed the "lifetime"thing in the post. The new account created to bitch is just that. We removed lifetime deals we can’t vouch for a while back, we don’t like that either. Xeni, Mark, the folks at Stack, and I all work very hard to ensure every customer gets what they expect. We take requests for help and complaints very seriously.
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I think I ran across it on Torrentfreak, just the first thing to pop up on google with more info than “this is a thing that exists”. It looks like they run these deals from time to time as promos to increase their user base. The biggest thing to be concerned about that I noticed is some references (including from them) to bandwidth limitations after the large increases in active users that come with the promos. But they seem to have over come them each time. Otherwise they seem like a fairly standard VPN outfit. Not the best but well regarded.
I’ve been casually looking for a cheapish VPN option, and this is inline with what most places charge for a 6 month membership. They appear to have a good reputation. Even as they aren’t super well known or “top tier”. So probably the only BB Store post I’ve found useful, largely down to the increase in information you gave.
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Just got the VPN and it rules. I am at work and not only have crappy cell coverage but also have a major net nanny on the open WiFi that blocks almost everything. I was able to visit any site that I choose to on the internet. Works great on android.
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I glanced over Tiger’s ToS at their website. They’re problematic to say the least.
-Slovakian law governs
-Tiger has unilateral right to change terms at any time
-You indemnify them
-Mandatory arbitration
-surprise! They actually track some info.
-other misc. crap-ness
Just reporting the facts, folks: https://www.tigervpn.com/terms-and-conditions
They’re not GRRREAT!
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Perhaps quote them, people may not find them as alarming as you imply. The data retention is for capacity planning, pretty clear and non threatening.
Worst bit in there to me? Lifetime may be limited to five years at their discretion. However 5 years for $30 is still a deal.
I added a link to the Ts and Cs in the post, and described the five year thing.
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Compatible with Ubuntu?
Alright then. I would think that signing up for a lifetime deal of any sort where the vendor reserves the right to “make changes to these General Terms and Conditions at any time at own discretion” would be enough to cause one to hiss, show fangs, and back away slowly. But that’s just me. You might be a high rollin’ fat cat gambler!
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I think I have expressed the fact that:
I understand the vendor can do this, and that the risk, having reviewed their online reputation vs the cost of $29, is worth it.
I’ve written this enough times that I am pretty confused as to why you needed me to do it again.
I hear that $29 is more than you feel is appropriate, and that I’m too loose with my wallet. I’ve been waiting for this life advice for a while. Thank you. You were clear.
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this is probably not compatible with the EU law, I see good chances to win a court case if they try to use the clause
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Giving my credit card information to a Solvakian company to protect my privacy seems like a wonderful idea.
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@jlw Do you know if the apps are necessary to use the service? Or can it readily be used by people on Linux also?
They offer a page with all the config options for hand rolling.
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[quote=“jlw, post:1, topic:98195”]
I am getting 10-15mbps down and upload times, with a 60ms ping or so[/quote]
What is your normal (unprotected) speed? At home, where I have 40Mbps internet, I get a speed over my VPN of around 15Mbps, but at work where I have 135Mbps connection I rarely get below 25Mbps, sometimes much faster. In other words, reporting VPN speed without reporting network speed doesn’t give enough information.
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Thank you. That’s pretty decent. If I didn’t have 260 days left on my current VPN, I’d probably take Tiger out for a spin. I do wish it had more than superficial mention on security forums (like Wilders), but for my purposes I don’t need the strongest possible protection.
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Hi all
First of all - any VPN that claims to keep zero logs is lying. If you don’t find any log data in the T&C it’s “BS” It’s simply because you cannot provide a service that requires “authentication” in the way that you need to access another infrastructure without a technical “handshake”.
So we are rather transparent what are the minimum amount of data that our system requires to connect.
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We record the time stamp of the login (not the duration) because in order to verify that you are a genuine customer of tigerVPN the system requires an authentication with your tigerID. Deleted after 24h
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We record the Bandwidth that you consumed (aggregated) meaning that if you connect for 8hrs the total amount of bytes transferred is stored for 1 day. -> Why? because in some cases we have abuse.
This product (at THIS PRICE) is designed for residential (customers) not for businesses. In some cases we have seen entire schools and internet coffees to operate their customer traffic behind tigerVPN. While this is nice for them, we cannot pay off 24 Terabyte (TB) of bandwidth per month with a one time payment.
This is the reason why we need to be able to flag “so called traffic abusers” This does not allow us to make any connection to what you downloaded or from where (because we don’t care) but we must know if you send us Bandwidth that goes above what we can afford to pay off with your installment.
Now something more important and great to highlight.
Its not visible to you but we actually do something pretty awesome in terms of privacy.
We disconnect your email address from your vpn account. If you head to the “geeks” tab inside the tigerVPN dashboard, you notice a tigerID + tigerPassword. When you communicate with tigerVPN, we take the tigerID credentials to verify your connection which allows us to add an additional layer of privacy, plus, unlike others, we decided to share IP addresses on customer nodes which helps us create even more privacy because when you connect to the VPN, you don’t - I repeat - you don’t want to have a dedicated IP, because then its possible to single you out, instead, we add about 250 users per IP which does not allow any website, service to understand what’s going on because you all share the same IP.
Sincerely, tigerVPN
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