What is the VPN Trust Initiative, and why is it important?

Features
By Contributions from published

The VPN Trust Initiative is an industry-led consortium, but what does it do?

VPN icons hovering above a laptop
(Image credit: Supatman via Shutterstock)

Trust is essential when using a virtual private network (VPN) to protect your IP address and mask your online activity while traveling abroad. However, it can be difficult to discern the best VPNs from those who shouldn't be trusted.

Luckily, the VPN Trust Initiative (VTI) was established to build public transparency and responsible practices to aid in guiding VPN users away from untrustworthy services.

What is the VPN Trust Initiative?

The VTI is an industry-led consortium that champions digital rights for all who utilize VPNs. In its own words, it is a "unified voice of the VPN industry – committed to advancing online privacy, security, and freedom through clear standards and trusted practices."

The VTI’s primary goal is to address concerns about VPNs and take the initiative to solve problems, with the outcome that consumers of their products feel safe using them.

The methods used to further its goals are:

  • Defining VPN best practices
  • Designing and reinforcing industry standards
  • Providing accurate information to government officials and policymakers
  • Promoting appropriate industry-led regulations
  • Informing the broader technology industry

The VTI explains: "Together, these principles serve as a code of conduct for ethical VPN providers, a reference point for policymakers, and the basis for the VPN Trust Seal, our public mark of accountability and compliance."

Of the many VPN providers on the market, the VPN Trust Seal is awarded to VPNs that align with the VTI's core principles. It is a symbol of the network's integrity and commitment to its users' privacy and security.

The VTI’s co-founder and executive director, Christian Dawson, summed it the Trust's aims by saying: "Now when VPN customers try to determine which providers align with their ethics, they can look for the VPN Trust Seal and gain some assurance about the commitments behind the products they are looking to purchase."

Who founded the VPN Trust Initiative?

The VTI is a subsidiary of the Internet Infrastructure Collation, otherwise known as the i2 Collation. In 2011, many of its founding members joined forces to prevent SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). Both bills failed and were never passed into law in the

United States after massive online opposition. In 2012, the i2 Collation was founded in the wake of that debate, thus allowing a free-flowing internet for all users. The i2 Collation is at the forefront of giving a voice to web hosting companies, data centers, domain registrars and registries, cloud

infrastructure providers, managed services providers, and related tech.

i2 Collation has many areas of interest. While its major one is an open internet for all, it also focuses heavily on:

  • Encryption and cyber security
  • Internet governance
  • Trade (it is a huge advocate of trade policies, for example, net neutrality)
  • Government access to data (due process is "strictly" provided when the government requests access to data held by infrastructure providers.
  • Intermediary liability (educating policy makers on the importance of liability protections of businesses)
  • Cross-border data flows (keeping you safe when using a VPN while traveling abroad)

What VPNs are part of the VPN Trust Initiative?

Some of the top VPN’s on the market are a part of the VTI. Virtual Private Networks like NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN (ranked #1, #2, and #3 on our list of best VPN services) are all members of the VPN Trust Initiative and all three have the VTI Trust Seal.

Other VPNs that are members of the VTI are:

  • encrypt.me
  • golden frog
  • Hide me
  • IP Vanish
  • Ivacy VPN
  • Net Project
  • PureVPN
  • SaferVPN
  • StrongVPn
  • Vipre
  • Vyprvpn
  • WLVPN
  • Ziff Davis
  • fastvpn

Being members of the initiative shows VPN customers that a product provides safety, integrity, trust, and transparency.

Users need reassurance when utilizing a VPN that it will keep them protected online. So, being part of a group that promotes these core values demonstrates to users that they can be trusted.

Tyler Geis
Tyler Geis
Freelance Writer

Tyler Geis is a freelance writer with a background in the technical side of broadcast television.

With contributions from

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.