TunnelBear is a minimalist VPN provider with a great sense of humor and pretty user-friendly interface. As such, it’s recommended to users without previous technical knowledge or skills. The pricing plans are pretty reasonable and you can test the service with a free version that provides you with 500 MB of traffic.
Having said that, we’re here to explore the company’s logging policy and how its location affects (if at all) its capability of ensuring top-tier online security. Stick around and learn if TunnelBear is the right online security service for you.
Legislature
TunnelBear is based in Canada, which is known for its invasive legislation. According to its Privacy Policy, by subscribing to TunnelBear, you authorize the company to use your data according to Canadian laws, which is very bad news for all VPN users since Canada is a member of the infamous Five Eyes Treaty.
Canada is known for spying on its citizens in recent years and TunnelBear doesn’t add to the overall feeling of safety by “washing its hands” of pretty much any responsibility for providing online security to its users. That’s pretty unfortunate since it’s the main reason people buy VPNs in the first place.
Furthermore, Canada has strict laws against piracy, so TunnelBear is a poor tool for torrenting or downloading any sort of copyrighted material.
Logging Policy
TunnelBear keeps no activity logs, which is a redeeming factor up to a point. This means that TunnelBear won’t record and store data regarding the sites you visit, the apps you use, the content you’re downloading, and so on. So, even if pressed to hand over user information, the company wouldn’t have anything relevant to give to the authorities.
This, alongside a solid Privacy Policy, makes for an ok VPN, but you definitely have some better options out there, especially if you’re into torrenting.
Bottom line, TunnelBear is not the worst choice in the world, but it definitely has a couple of major flaws. Personally, we would look for alternative options to keep us safe online.