What Is An Offshore VPN Service? The Cold Hard Truth.

What is an Offshore VPN Service?

An Offshore VPN is a VPN service provider who is based outside of your country of origin, whose servers are also hopefully based outside of your home country as well.

Here are the qualities you need to look for when shopping around for an Offshore VPN Service:

• Fast and secure. Let’s you surf the web protected, access any website securely, stream videos, download movies and music, and stay safe all at the same time.
• Your Offshore VPN Service is operated and located outside any of the countries that spy on its residents.
• The best Offshore VPN Services are all non-US, UK, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand as well as non-EU. These also include authoritarian regimes that are non-Chinese or non-Russian based providers, since you can’t rely on them to protect your online privacy and security. These regimes will also shut you down even faster, if they fear you are visiting websites that are anti-“their regime” oriented.
• Offshore VPN Service allows you to enjoy your favorite apps and websites without worrying about strict regional censorship controls.
• An Offshore VPN Service that is connected to one of 100+ military-grade encrypted servers.
• An Offshore VPN Service that has a “no-logs” VPN. Runs on its own server network and offers unique Chameleon obfuscation (stealth) technology.
• An Offshore VPN Service that accepts Bitcoin or other “crypto currencies”.

However, there seems to be a lot of confusion over which Offshore VPN Service is truly offshore and which aren’t. 

There’s also a little confusion on what an Offshore VPN Service can and can’t do. 

We know that a VPN is basically a service that acts like a middleman between your computer and your ISP.

The VPN blocks, or is supposed to block, any logging or trail of where and which websites you visit while using that VPN from your ISP.

In this post, I’m going to go over these frequently asked questions so that by the end of this post you will have a much better idea on what an Offshore VPN Service can do for you and how to go about deciding which Offshore VPN Service is best for you.

Is using an Offshore VPN Service legal?

In most countries of the world using an Offshore VPN Service is perfectly legal. Although any activities that you use it for which are illegal, are in fact, illegal. 

A simple analogy you can use is that of driving a car. Driving a car in and of itself is perfectly legal. However, if you use that car to purposely, or in some cases accidentally, run someone over with it, that is illegal. 

Therefore, if you use your Offshore VPN Service to engage in any illegal activities, that of course is illegal as well.

What can an Offshore VPN Service do for you?

Here are the benefits of using an Offshore VPN Service.

• Increases your security on untrusted public WiFi networks by preventing MITM attacks.
• Encrypts your DNS requests so your ISP or cellular network provider can’t monitor or log the websites you visit.
• Gets around censorship or geographical blocks on websites and content, like Netflix or any blocked websites whose content is forbidden in the country you’re accessing it from.
• A VPN provides increased anonymity on peer-to-peer networks. 
• Encrypts your data so your ISP or cellular network provider can’t monitor or log your web activity. Without a VPN, the HTTPS in your browser will still expose the domain name or IP you are visiting to your ISP.

Here are some additional privacy benefits of encryption. 

By using a VPN you can hide your browsing history from your ISP, including your cellular network provider. 

A list of websites you have visited in a period gives powerful insights into your life. If you connect to a VPN, your ISP won’t be able to sell your browsing history to advertisers and data brokers. 

Governments in many countries, including the US, the UK and the other 3, of the “5 eyes”, have a wide range of investigative powers and can also get your detailed browsing history from ISPs. 

These ISPs, especially cellular network providers are highly unlikely to put up any fight against official requests and risk being dragged into court, fined and even losing their licenses to protect you. 

Your VPN provider might, but are less likely to keep logs on your online activities and internet browsing history.

This is where you need a transparent and trusting VPN service with a clear no-logs policy.

If you care about your privacy, you should definitely use a VPN when accessing the Internet in hotels, cafes, libraries and government run locations.  

A VPN is necessary if you’re connecting to a VPN server in another country and can unlock websites and content that would otherwise be blocked from you. 

What an Offshore VPN Service can’t do for you.

Keep in mind that the following risks and exposure to these risks don’t come from or are not caused by access to your ISP or even the ISP’s of your Offshore VPN Service provider, but through your computer and your internet browser itself.

• Provide complete security when working remotely.
• Protect against “cyber criminal threats” and identity theft.
• Stop Google, Facebook, Social Media or any other Big Tech Giants like Apple from collecting and selling your private data to advertisers.
• Provide you with complete anonymity online.
• Stop unwanted profiling by social networks, search engines or advertisers.
• Protect your passwords stored on your local devices.
• Hide your cell phone’s geographic location. Shield yourself from GPS tracking.
• Prevent data breaches on the services you use online.

Again, no ISP or VPN, Offshore or otherwise can protect you from all the above vulnerabilities, since they can all be done through your internet browser directly on your device.

What should I look for in an Offshore VPN Service?

But, before choosing any VPN, it is better to use an Offshore VPN Service that includes the following features:

• Native apps for all devices and platforms.
• The VPN’s servers operate Offshore to ensure no interference of national governments like the US or the EU, yet whose servers operate close enough to the US or EU to provide fast connection speeds.
• Has high-grade encryption.
• Simple and easy to use the app.
• Has a great reputation and doesn’t keep logs on its users.

Where can I get an Offshore VPN Service?

There are many Offshore VPN Service providers who offer “Offshore VPN Services” and claim to actually be “offshore”.

However, just because a country claims to be offshore, doesn’t necessarily mean it is or the use of a VPN within that country itself is even legal.

I used the country of Russia in another example below. Russia is known to be an Offshore Web Hosting provider as well as an Offshore VPN Service provider. 

Many think that because of the current political climate (and theater) that Russia is not afraid of the West and doesn’t need to bow down to them when ordered, that it must be a great place to get an Offshore VPN Service from.

However, you can only use their Offshore VPN Service outside of the borders. The use of a VPN inside Russia’s borders is actually illegal. 

Not to mention, that they will more than likely require their “Offshore VPN Service”  provider based inside of Russia to have logs on their clients’ usage, including yours. 

Besides, if the authorities in your home country discover that you are using an Offshore VPN Service provider based in Russia, you can all but guarantee that you may be on their radar already. It’s quite easy for them to find out too. How? 

Well, a VPN may hide your web and internet usage, which sites you visit etc. from your ISP. But, it can’t hide you accessing that Russian Offshore VPN Service from your ISP’s servers to begin with.

There’s also the case for countries like the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden as well as Bulgaria. These are considered not only Offshore Web Hosting providers, but also Offshore VPN Service providers as well. 

But did you know that, for example, the Netherlands is part of the “9 eyes” and that Sweden is a member of the “14 eyes”. 

Also the countries of Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden all have an MLAT treaty in force with the United States and the United Kingdom. 

So can they really be considered trusted Offshore VPN Service providers?

In general, you can consider any country which does not belong to the “5 eyes”, the “9 eyes”, the “14 eyes” as well as not being “MLAT treaty” signatories to truly be Offshore VPN Service providers. 

I have left relevant links within the section above for you to explore these and what they mean even further. 

My favorite country of course, would be Iceland. Whether you get anonymous Offshore Hosting or an Offshore VPN Service, you can rest assured that you will be protected as much as anyone can be through their strong privacy protections as well as their stringent freedom of speech legislation.

Is using an Offshore VPN Service for Netflix illegal? 

The most common way of accessing Netflix outside of a paid subscription, is to use a VPN. As you know a VPN essentially changes the IP address and encrypts the traffic. This allows you to access Netflix, wherever you are. 

However, is using a VPN to access Netflix even legal? Is there a way to get around it if it’s not?

Watching Netflix outside the US with a VPN is legal, unless you are in a country like Belarus, China, Iraq, North Korea, Oman, the U.A.E. and even Russia, where the use of VPNs is illegal. 

I find it ironic that Russia has outlawed the use of VPNs inside the country, yet there are VPN services based in Russia that allow its use outside the country. 

However, if you use a VPN to access Netflix, you could be violating the Netflix terms and conditions, even as a paying subscriber of Netflix. Though, it’s not illegal. You do, risk getting your account terminated by Netflix, if you’re caught.

Is using an Offshore VPN legal to download video games?

If you are using a VPN, whether that’s an Offshore VPN Service or a more traditional VPN Service, if you are using it to download video games that are copyrighted, then that is not legal.

Is using an Offshore VPN Service safe for online banking?

Using an Offshore VPN Service, like any other VPN service, is definitely much safer for online banking to use, than for example, a public Wi-Fi connection to access your bank account. 

Although an Offshore VPN Service will protect you from nefarious characters looking to gain access to your connection through a public Wi-Fi connection, it may not protect you against phishing scams etc. that are online, even when using a VPN. 

Remember a VPN only protects your internet usage after you have accessed it from those physically around you, but after you access your VPNs server, it’s open season.

Using an Offshore VPN Service, the real truth, conclusions.

The real truth is an Offshore VPN Service can protect you online to only a slight higher degree than other VPN services. 

The main differential as far as protecting you online is that a truly Offshore VPN Service provider does not theoretically have to release their logs, if they keep them, to other governments, sometimes including their own. 

Truly Offshore VPN Service providers are those that are not part of any of the international agreements, organizations and treaties that I’ve mentioned above. 

Nor are true Offshore VPN Service providers obligated by those same agreements and treaties to release your information.

In addition, whether you choose an Offshore VPN Service or any other VPN service, it’s important that you make sure that they do not keep any logs on their customers’ VPN usage.

Finally, if you are determined to get an Offshore VPN Service provider, I would steer clear of countries like Russia and other countries where the “5 eyes” have antagonistic relations with. 

This is because although your web browsing through a VPN cannot be traced, your connection to that VPN can be from your ISP, which in all likelihood, your country or government can have access to, can. 

This may be counter productive in the fact that if you are using for example, a Russian VPN, you may basically put yourself on the radar of many intelligence agencies. This kind of defeats the purpose of using an Offshore Russian VPN service, doesn’t it?

Also, just because Russia or countries like that, who offer Offshore VPN Services will not give access to your country or to most other countries and their authorities, especially Western ones, doesn’t mean that they can’t get access to your VPN logs from your Russian based VPN provider themselves. 

In fact, and in all likelihood, the Russian government does already have access, if you are using a Russian-based VPN service provider.

To get the benefits of a VPN, you should pick and use a respected, commercial (not free) Offshore or traditional VPN service.

If you care about your online privacy and understand despite the limitations of how a VPN works and can help protect you, as outlined in this post, whether that’s with a traditional VPN or Offshore VPN Service, then you should definitely get one.