Is Panda VPN safe? Logging policy, audits and jurisdiction

Panda VPN scores 0 out of 10 for both privacy and security, while the median for VPN products built into antivirus suites is 1.3 for privacy and 2.5 for security. Privacy scores zero because of IP address collection under the company-wide policy, and security scores zero because there is no kill switch, no audits and no open-source code.

The promise and the policy don't match

For the VPN, Panda states that it does not store or share any of your browsing information. At the same time, the general Panda Security privacy policy, which applies to all products, explicitly lists IP addresses and location down to country level, as well as email, device data, app usage statistics and crash reports. There is no separate exemption for the VPN, so we raise a red flag over the storage of connection IPs. The policy does not say whether the service stores session times or bandwidth.

Under the policy, data may be shared with resellers, WatchGuard affiliates, and contractors for hosting, payments, analytics and marketing. The company complies with government requests when the law requires it. There is no transparency report and no warrant canary. The jurisdiction is Spain, part of the 14 Eyes alliance, and Panda itself belongs to the US-based WatchGuard. See who owns Panda VPN for more details.

Audits and in-app protection

The awards from AV-Comparatives, AV-Test and SE Labs apply to the antivirus. There is no VPN audit, either for logs or for security, and the apps are closed-source. According to the latest independent review we found, the VPN has no kill switch and no protocol choice: if the connection drops, traffic may leak outside the tunnel. Panda does not say whether it protects against DNS leaks.

If privacy is your priority, start with VPNs with an independently audited no-logs policy.