How protected are you when surfing the Internet? How often do you expose your sensitive information to spyware or malware? How often does the government see what you’re transferring? If you’re like most people, you really don’t know. The actual answer is pretty stunning – the amount of risk on the modern Internet is staggering. For 10 lucky readers, that won’t be a problem, though, thanks to Kepard’s awesome giveaway.
Kepard is a new VPN service provider that has servers located in 5 different countries: the US, the UK, Germany, Canada and the Netherlands. Additionally, each server has multiple IP addresses and the client program actually allows you to choose your preferred IP address.
Kepard supports all the three major VPN protocols: OpenVPN, L2TP and PPTP. It is possible to use Kepard without installing their client software. L2TP and PPTP protocols are natively supported by Windows. If you want to connect through the more secure OpenVPN protocol and if you already have the OpenVPN software installed then you can simple download the OpenVPN certificates from the website and connect through OpenVPN. However, using Kepard’s own client software is recommended as it allows you to quickly change VPN server locations, VPN protocols and IP addresses.
All Kepard accounts feature unlimited traffic, unrestricted speeds and even allows torrents and P2P downloads. You are also allowed to access Kepard’s services simultaneously on 2 computers.
Generally, people use VPN services either to access geographically restricted services such as Hulu, Pandora, BBC iPlayer and so on, or to remain anonymous in such a way that that their online activities cannot be linked to their true identity. If your primary reason to use Kepard is to protect your identity then you should be aware of their logging practices.
This is what Kepard says about connection logs:
Considering all the frauds happening on the internet we do have to keep logs in order to protect our business from the abuse of using our services. But this should be not a concern for you because we keep the logs just for 3 days. If during this time there are no official complains regarding any illegal activity, the logs containing your IP addresses are automatically deleted. We would like to make clear that no third party can get access to your logs. The reason of keeping the logs is just to protect everybody’s business.
But information in their privacy policy is contradictory:
The way Kepard Applies Collected Data From Kepard VPN Sessions:
This data is preserved for usage with billing, troubleshooting, service offering evaluation, TOS issues, AUP concerns, and for managing violation achieved over the service. We keep this information on a per-session base for a minimum of ninety days. We may continue upload and download bytes at total extended periods of time.
Update: Kepard told me that the 90-days period was an error in their privacy policy, and the actual log retention period is indeed 3 days.
However, Kepard assures us that they “will not provide any personal data - minimal information rationally intended to recognize and no more - or activity information to investigators, attorneys, or agencies in case when we are forced to do it by a court of competent jurisdiction in the domain. If there is a trial in court, the customer will be informed so they will have an occasion to contest the surrender of private information.”
The Giveaway
We have 10 3-months accounts of Kepard Premium VPN for this giveaway. If you are interested in entering the sweepstake, leave your name and email ID in the form below and also tell us what you intend to do with your VPN account. Winners will be selected by a random draw. The contest closes on 21 August, 2012.
