How safe is Surfshark? What the Dutch VPN logs and who has audited it

Yes, within the limits of everyday privacy. VPNRadarLab gives Surfshark 5.3 of 10, ranking it 8th overall and 8th among consumer VPNs, with no red flag in the published data. Privacy (4.4) and security (6.1) both land far above what a typical consumer service scores. The trade-offs are few but specific: servers hold a connection record for up to 15 minutes after a session, your email anchors the account, and Dutch law inside the 9 Eyes alliance applies.

Surfshark B.V., Dutch law and the 9 Eyes question

The contract is with Surfshark B.V., a company registered in the Netherlands with an Amsterdam address, operating under Dutch and EU law including the GDPR. The Netherlands belongs to the 9 Eyes intelligence-sharing group, and the score reflects it: only 0.6 out of the 2 alliance points. Softening the picture is the enforcement wording: disclosure happens only where the law legally obliges it. A transparency report exists (1 point earned). A warrant canary, a notice that would warn of secret legal pressure, goes unmentioned in the policy, which costs that point. The corporate background is covered on the VPNRadarLab owner page.

What the no-logs policy still lets Surfshark keep

Traffic itself is not logged. The account and app layer is where retention lives:

Support conversations stay for 6 years, payment records for 10, and the policy was updated 12 October 2026. Remember the 15-minute window: a request arriving after it finds no connection record to match, since the temporary IP and timestamps are gone, while account data such as your email and device info remains on file. The exact wording is in the official privacy policy.

Audits and the protections built into the apps

Deloitte audited both the no-logs claim and the infrastructure; Cure53 checked the infrastructure. The site data records no audit years.

WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2 are the protocol lineup. On a café hotspot, the kill switch is the piece that keeps your home IP hidden once the tunnel drops.

Where Surfshark loses points on safety

Privacy takes 6.6 of 15, security 8.5 of 14; the audits, transparency report, RAM-only hardware and 2FA score full marks. The privacy deficit comes down to the account setup: an email is mandatory at sign-up, logging in by bare account number is not offered, and the temporary connection IP plus timestamps count as partial, so those items score zero. On the security side, 2.5 points go missing because open-source apps and a bug bounty are not on record, and another 1.5 because DNS leak protection is not documented.

Breaches, seizures and court cases: what the record shows

The published data records no public security incident, so that penalty does not apply. Equally, no courtroom or raid has tested the no-logs promise on record, keeping that point at zero. RAM-only servers limit what a seized machine could hand over, and no seizure is on record to confirm it.

Surfshark safety questions

Will Surfshark sell my data?

The policy names its processors: payment firms, support and analytics tools, Cloudflare, plus group companies. Cookies and pixels on the website run only with consent. No data protection officer is named.

Is Surfshark safe on iPhone and against hackers on public Wi-Fi?

Yes. The iOS app carries the kill switch, so a dropped tunnel on hotel Wi-Fi does not expose your home IP, and 2FA protects the account itself if the password leaks.

Can you use Surfshark without revealing who you are?

Partly. No phone number, no identity check, and crypto through Coingate or gift cards keep your bank card out of the trail (no cash). The email stays mandatory, so register a dedicated inbox.

Does Surfshark get through heavy censorship?

Weakly. NoBorders is the only bypass tool available, which explains the bypass score of 1.9.

Should you trust Surfshark with your traffic?

For public Wi-Fi, travel and torrenting: yes, on the published record. Walk away if an email-linked account or a 9 Eyes jurisdiction is a dealbreaker. VPNRadarLab's audited no-logs VPN ranking shows how it compares.