Though you wouldn’t know it looking at all of the trackers spread across the internet, privacy is a fundamental right. Every person should be able to keep their life private and stay in control of the information that is available about themselves. Without privacy, it is not possible to express yourself without fear of personal repercussion. This philosophy extends to Virtual Private Servers, where users rent a remote server in order to host blogs, websites, business services, private media libraries, and more.
Let’s take a look at some specific examples where privacy is key:
- You are running a political blog, and do not want your friends or employer to know your views.
- You are organizing a union, and do not want to face action from your employer.
- You are organizing a protest or other action, and do not want to become a target for law enforcement or malicious opposing parties.
- You are starting a new business, and do not want it to affect your other ventures.
When a VPS provider collects your information, you have no real guarantee that they will keep it safe. Any stored information is information that can be hacked, shared with third-party marketing agencies, or subject to a law enforcement request. Sure, most providers have terms of service, they’re often at best hard to understand and at worst intentionally misleading. It’s best, then, to choose an anonymous VPS provider who will put your privacy first.
What to look for in an anonymous VPS provider
The important thing to note is that any provider can promise privacy, but these claims are often misleading. You should be looking at actions and features, rather than the promises on their homepage:
- Do they use cookies and trackers on their website?
- How easy is to use privacy tools on their service (VPNs, Tor, etc.)?
- What control do you have over your data? Are you able to permanently delete it at a moment’s notice? Can you permanently destroy your server?
- Are there private payment options? Paying with credit card, debit card, or PayPal will require you to disclose your name, address, etc. Anonymous providers offer a bitcoin vps option to avoid this.
- What information do they ask for on sign-up? Some providers require your full name, ID verification, and address.
Only a VPS provider that meets all of these requirements can offer you true privacy. Naturally, though, you’ll also want one that still ticks all the basic requirements, such as good performance, uptime, and support.
Closing words
Privacy might not be one of the first things you think about when it comes to choosing a VPS provider, but perhaps it should be. With the vast majority providers offering a similar experience and price point, one that can do so while keeping you anonymous can be very attractive.