ExpressVPN’s Apple privacy labels rated 100% for accuracy

We are pleased to share that ExpressVPN scored full marks in Top10VPN’s analysis of Apple privacy label accuracy for VPNs! We are the only major VPN iOS app to achieve this standard.

Top10VPN identified 20 top-ranked VPN apps in each of the U.S., UK, Australia and Canada App Stores and analyzed their privacy labels to determine their accuracy and compliance with Apple’s new guidelines. They found that the majority of privacy labels displayed by VPN apps in the iOS App Stores had inaccuracies.

“Our investigation not only revealed the disturbing proportion of apps with inaccurate or missing privacy labels but also highlighted further flaws in Apple’s system even beyond the fundamental problem posed by self-certification,” the report stated.

Apple recently introduced mandatory privacy labels in its App Store to make it easier for consumers to get insight into individual apps’ data collection practices. However, experts have warned that these privacy labels could be false or misleading, because the information is self-submitted by app developers and isn’t audited by Apple or a third party.

Read more: App Store’s privacy labels: Fact or fiction?

How Top10VPN conducted the research

Top10VPN identified the top 20 apps displayed in Apple’s App Store in the search results for “VPN” for the U.S., UK, Australia and Canada. This constituted a cohort of 49 apps for analysis and testing, as many apps appeared in the top 20 results for more than one location.

The contents of each app’s labels were cross-referenced with its respective privacy policy (read ours here), while traffic was tested using mitmproxy, an open source HTTPS proxy. Any discrepancies were checked against the Apple Developer Guidelines to see whether they met the criteria for optional disclosure.

At ExpressVPN, our goal is to deliver a safer online experience for everyone, which includes being clear and transparent about our data practices. In fact, our guiding principle toward data collection is to collect only the minimal data required to operate a world-class VPN service at scale. We are happy that Top10VPN’s independent research further confirms that we live up to our promise!

Read more about Top10VPN’s research methodology and findings.

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