LiquidVPN Ethics and Transparency

Every VPN service has to decide how to handle transparency.  Some choose to be vague or offer blanket policies.  While others try to be as transparent as possible.  LiquidVPN is working hard to fall into the second category.  They recently released a detailed ethics policy that outlines how they respond to complaints.  In an effort to provide full disclosure they have also added a transparency report that shows all the abuse reports and actions taken to remedy each complaint.

LiquidVPN transparency

Code of Ethics

LiquidVPN starts out with their code of ethics.  Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of the ethics policy that explains their position:

LiquidVPN maintains assets around the globe and is subject to the laws set forth by the jurisdictions where these assets reside. LiquidVPN will uphold the laws, respond in an appropriate way to infringements and let law enforcement investigate criminal activity on our network if required by law.

Additionally LiquidVPN would choose to voluntarily shut down some or all of its network and relocate to another jurisdiction before allowing a violation of your privacy to occur. We have begun publishing a daily Warrant Canary to prevent any interventions with an accompanying “gag order.”

LiquidVPN will always keep you informed via its Transparency Reports and Network Status updates about the status of its network including abuse complaints, how it responds to abuse and interventions from government agencies. Our abuse department is always available to handle and receive abuse complaints. Any time LiquidVPN receives a complaint related to activities harmful to another human being it will be prioritized and handled by our Ethics group.

Transparency Report

LiquidVPN is being as transparent as possible with any abuse notices, warrants of complaints they receive.  Their transparency report lists each complaint in detail along with their response.  The reports will be made public within 12 hours of LiquidVPN receiving them.  They will then be acted upon and the resolution will also be posted at the bottom of the report.  From what we could tell the reports listed so far were all copyright related.  For example in response to one complaint LiquidVPN blocked port 51413 and reset the accounts on the server.

Network Status Reports

As you might guess the network status reports list any current issues related to the network, VPN service or website.  This is a good place for LiquidVPN to share any current support issues.  When we looked there were two open tickets.  One had to do with their VPN configuration file repository and the other was an issue with their new VPN server monitor.  Each problem included a description along with the date it was added to the list and a last updated date.

Warrant Canary

The last piece of the LiquidVPN transparency puzzle is their new warrant canary.  Think of this as a way for them to let members know if they ever receive a government request to monitor the network that includes a gag order.  In that case the staff would not be able to talk about the actions being taken.  Instead they would stop updating the warrant canary page.  That means if you visit the page and it’s out of date you can assume their network is being monitored.

As you can see LiquidVPN is taking a number of actions to ensure that members know what’s going on at all time.  We like the efforts they are taking to ensure transparency and I would imagine those looking for a good VPN service will appreciate them as well.

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