Under English law, the priority is given to the terms agreed between the parties. For example, Romanian or German law impose statutory requirements additional or different from what the parties agree. "English law was intentionally selected to protect both the users and our company because it is less invasive. When it comes to authorities' requests, we are a Romanian company, and as per Romanian law and our no-logs policy, we do not provide any information about our users," the company replied. "The choice of jurisdiction applies between the company and the user. I also asked why someone should bother choosing a VPN in Romanian jurisdiction outside of Five Eyes if potential legal disputes would be settled in UK courts, and their information may be shared with a UK-based parent company along with its German and US-based sibling companies. "We will clarify this in our next policy update."ĬyberGhost also said that user information is not shared with Private Internet Access or any party outside the EU "other than as disclosed in the Privacy Policy" and that the clause in the company's privacy policy that allows CyberGhost to disclose your personal data to its sibling companies "covers situations of employees working on cross-group projects." Notably, as far as our US entities are concerned, we do not share EU user data with them," a CyberGhost spokesperson told me. "Our parent company and sisters are public information, so users can easily become aware of the entities that may have access to their data.
CYBERGHOST REVIEW UPDATE
When I asked whether CyberGhost is willing to update its terms and privacy policy in the interest of better disclosure and transparency, the spokesperson for the company said it would. In an email, I asked CyberGhost why neither its privacy policy nor terms of service list UK-based Kape Technologies as the parent company (or ZenMate and Private Internet Access as its sibling companies) with which it reserves the right to share user information. The same clause is found in ZenMate's terms of service, which also fails to openly name Kape. "In case of disputes arising from the terms of this Agreement, the Parties hereby irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of London, UK," it says. "We may disclose your Personal Data to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy," the document says.įurthermore, CyberGhost's current terms of service hold that any potential customer disputes will be handled in the UK. CyberGhost's privacy policy does say that CyberGhost can share your data with its unnamed parent company.
CYBERGHOST REVIEW ARCHIVE
More concerning than UK-based Crossrider's previous access to user data, however, is that CyberGhost's current terms and conditions ( Web Archive version here) don't appear to disclose that the company is still owned by the same (renamed) company, Kape Technologies.
This includes Customer identification and data regarding time and volume of use."Īsked about the terms and conditions in August of 2019, a CyberGhost spokesperson told CNET it would look into it but was unclear at the time on why Crossrider's name appeared in them. "(The company) may process and use personal data collected in the setup and delivery of service (connection data). "Crossrider may cooperate with public or private authorities at its sole discretion as provided by law," the document read. While CyberGhost may currently function as an entirely independent holding under Crossider-turned-Kape, it's worth pointing out that as late as 2018, Crossrider was still listed in CyberGhost's terms and conditions.
And we have our own goals and strategies, vision and also our culture."Īfter buying CyberGhost, Kape then bought VPN ZenMate in 2018 and more recently Private Internet Access, a US-based VPN, in a move which Erlichman said in a press release would allow Kape to "aggressively expand our footprint in North America." Terms of service We have, of course, the Kape Group which is, from a strategic perspective, holding CyberGhost, an independent entity. "So I can tell you right now CyberGhost is working independently. "CyberGhost was never involved in Crossrider's technologies," Beyel told CNET in June. When I spoke to CyberGhost CTO Timo Beyel, he was quick to distance his company and technology from Crossrider's previous practices. And new Crossrider-Kape mutations have been cropping up on the web as recently as August 2019, even as people are still jumping through hoops to remove older Crossrider malware.
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