The virtual private network provider has just taken an important step in increasing transparency to its customers. Surfshark – one of VPN Creative’s editorial picks for best VPNs – has passed an independent audit on the absence of logs (browsing logs) conducted by auditing firm Deloitte, the publisher said in a blog post on Wednesday.
“The positive outcome of Deloitte’s no-logs audit report provides factual evidence to our users and future customers that Surfshark operates under the highest standards of privacy and quality,” wrote Justas Pukys, owner of Surfshark VPN. “We will continue to conduct various audits and tests to obtain independent verification of our security and privacy measures.”
The purpose of the audit was to examine Surfshark’s computer system configuration and management and support operations. It was conducted between Nov. 21 and Dec. 2, 2022, according to the Deloitte audit report summary (PDF).
As part of the audit, Deloitte inspected the design and configuration of Surfshark’s standard VPN servers, static IP VPN servers, multihop servers and multi-port servers.
Reassuring confirmation for customers
Deloitte’s validation is important because an independent audit is one of the only ways to confirm that a VPN provider’s claims about not keeping logs are legitimate.
While an independent audit from a firm like Deloitte can only confirm its findings for the scope and duration of its audit, it can offer customers some confidence that the VPN they are using is what it promises.
“[The] no-logging policy is one of the most important features of our services,” Surfshark says in its terms of service. “This means that your activities are not recorded, stored or transferred to third parties in any way when you log in to our Services. We do not collect any information about what you do online (your visited IP addresses, browsing history, session information, bandwidth used, connection time stamps, network traffic or any other similar data).”
Surfshark’s announcement comes two weeks after its sister company NordVPN announced its own independent log-free audit, also conducted by Deloitte. Surfshark had its browser extensions independently audited in 2018 and its server infrastructure in 2021, but Deloitte’s audit is Surfshark’s first independent no-logs audit.
To learn more about VPNs, check out this topic explaining concretely what a VPN can be used for and our article on the best VPNs.
