Avira Review 2019

Privacy

When judging a VPN’s privacy, we must always check their log policies with a keen eye. While doing this Avira Phantom VPN review, we found Avira to be quite transparent in terms of logs.

Avira states that they keep no logs, and do not track the following:

• The websites you visit
• The virtual locations (IP addresses) you used while surfing
• Your real IP address
• Any information that can link you to any action, such as downloading a file, or visiting a particular website.”

It’s good to see that Avira does not track this information. This means that it would be hard to identify a particular user or even know what they were doing online. This is the type of privacy to look for with a VPN.

Now let’s now see what records Avira does keeps:

• Diagnostic data, which helps us improve the product (e.g., if bugs were encountered). The tracking of this data is entirely optional: you can easily switch it off from within the product interface.
• Whether you are a free or a paid user. It’s important for our communications to be able to differentiate the two.
• The amount of data that you consume. We do this to help calculate the costs of providing our VPN infrastructure – free of charge.

This is quite a good policy. The data that Avira keeps is reasonable and can’t be used against you. We can, therefore, say that Avira Phantom VPN values your privacy.

However, things get quite complicated when you go for Avira Prime, the Total Security Suite that includes the other Avira security programs. The overall Avira Privacy Policy has some statements that compromise this package.

“This information may include something called personally identifiable information (“PII”). Some examples of PII are your name, address, phone number, email address and credit card information. Some of the information we use about your Device includes its identification number, IP address, location, contents, language settings and IMEI code. We may also use the Device brand, model, battery level, hardware model, operating system version, telephone number, SIM number, network provider and memory status. Finally, we may use some geographical information based on the GPS/Wi-Fi network position.”

This is Avira’s general policy, and it applies if you use the suite with other Avira products. Such a policy shows just how much you will be risking if you leave all your security tasks to one company. For this reason, we would not recommend the Total Security Suite to any privacy-minded user. However, if you only want to subscribe to the Phantom VPN, Avira’s privacy policy is quite attractive.

The Avira VPN jurisdiction of incorporation is not as straightforward as you might have seen with almost all other VPNs. The company divides its users into two groups:

• United States and Canada Users
• Users outside the US and Canada

To quote Avira, “If you live in the United States or Canada, Avira means Avira, Inc., 330 Primrose Avenue, Suite 610, Burlingame, CA 94010, USA. If you live somewhere else, Avira means Avira Operations GmbH & Co. KG, Kaplaneiweg 1, 88069 Tettnang, Germany.”

US & Canada Users

For the users in the US and Canada, Avira Phantom VPN is incorporated in the United States. We all know the US as one of the trickiest locations to operate a VPN. This is because of the country’s strict data retention laws. VPNs incorporated there can’t really promise you zero logs, as federal law requires VPNs to keep logs.

Non-US & Canada Users

For users not based in the US and Canada, Avira Phantom VPN is based in Germany. This may not be the best location in terms of data protection, but it is far better than the US. Germany’s data retention laws are not as strict as those in the US and other jurisdictions like the UK. In Germany, data collected by ISPs is only kept for 10 weeks. To protect digital privacy, this data is only accessible on a case-by-case basis.

Security

Avira Phantom VPN offers good security in that it uses the AES 256-bit encryption between your device and their servers. This is a military-grade encryption, and it is virtually impenetrable.

The VPN also uses the RSA-2048 data authentication with a SHA-512 handshake. Added to this is Perfect Forward Secrecy that is implemented using the Diffie–Hellman key exchange (DHE).

• L2TP/IPSec
• OpenVPN

Unfortunately, Avira does not offer flexibility with the security protocols they provide. The Windows and Android clients only use OpenVPN. The protocol itself is the best industry VPN because it offers excellent security and speed balance. However, we would still love to have the option to use a lighter protocol especially when f legal video and content streaming are a high usage priority.

The Mac and iOS client includes Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)/Internet Protocol Security (IPsec).

Generally, Avira Phantom VPN’s security is reliable and can’t be easily compromised. To boost your security and privacy, the VPN also has IP Leak Protection and an automatic Kill Switch.