Located in Hong Kong, PureVPN was founded back in 2006 and it launched its first commercial product in 2007. Thanks to its solid service, PureVPN has built quite the name for itself in the world of online security and received praises from the likes of CNET, The New York Times, and Mashable.
As with any other VPN provider, one of the most important question to ask before getting a subscription is whether PureVPN keeps logs.
Legislature
Hong Kong is a very popular location when it comes to VPN companies. But how is this possible when we all know that China is famous for its restrictive Internet censorship?
Hong Kong is not exactly a part of China, although it flies the Chinese flag. Namely, it was designated a Special Administrative Region back in 1997 when the British returned its sovereignty to the Chinese. This means that the region has autonomy in most of its internal matters but not external (things like foreign affairs or defense).
Britain made sure to leave Hong Kong with a Hong Kong Bill of Rights before handing it over in order to protect its citizens from losing their freedom of speech. China has, for the most part, respected this Bill, unwilling to antagonize the international community. Note that the Chinese government still monitors Hong Kong’s online activities to an extent, removing some “politically sensitive” posts from forums.
Basically, there are no data retention laws in Hong Kong, allowing VPN services to operate log-free.
Logging Policy
PureVPN does not log online activity, but it does create session logs. This basically means it will not record the sites you visited, the software you used, your downloads, your set of apps, and similar information. On the other hand, PureVPN will record your attempts to access its servers, the duration of your sessions, the clicks on its software, and the bandwidth used. This is justified by improving the service and should not cause any concern.
We do not like the amount of personal data required for registration, though. PureVPN will ask for your name, email address, and phone number, which is a bit too much since the company does not really need anything other than your email.