It was this feeling of insecurity that drove and is still driving many people into using services like VPNs that hide their internet activity from all prying eyes and keep them hidden from anyone wanting to monitor their activity and invade their privacy. However, there is a similar danger lurking in the use of VPNs as well.
What are Logs?
Before we address the question of why keeping no logs is important, we first look at what is an internet log. An internet log is basically a record about the websites a person visits and the time he visits them. Spoken in the simplest terms, it is the detailed report of which websites you visit and when you visit them. The explanation can be broadened further as there are ISPs that even read the emails and communications you send on the internet to another system.
Now, as is quite obvious, this is a serious issue as everything that you do on the internet is recorded and stored. The thing that makes it even more threatening is that ISPs can be required to provide detailed logs of a user by a court order. You internet service providers, as well as the government, are constantly keeping an eye on all you do on the internet in order to phish out any suspicious behaviour. Logs give a description of your internet activity.
Why is keeping no logs important for VPN users?
When using a VPN, all your ISP can see is that you are connected to the VPN server. Whatever you do beyond that is hidden from them, or the government, or anyone who wants to look into your activity by discovering your IP address. However, although you are invisible to the world, your activities can be seen as clearly as daylight by the VPN you are connected to.
Now, the main reason that people opt for a VPN is to prevent the keeping of their internet logs. So it is absolutely vital for them to opt for a VPN that does not maintain any sort of logs. The VPN might see your activity all right, but as long as it does not maintain internet logs, no one can find out what you were doing on the internet.
What you can do?
Going for a premium VPN service is the obvious solution, but choosing a VPN that does not keep any logs is the ideal scenario you are looking for. What you can do to ensure that is to go through the privacy policy of the VPN thoroughly to know about their logs policy. Some VPNs keep logs for a few days while others do not keep logs at all. If you cannot find something conclusive in the privacy policy, ask their customer support the same thing before you buy that VPN.
Conclusion
Privacy is the need of the hour as identity thefts and activity monitoring are becoming a serious issue every day. Although using a VPN can help you, if the VPN itself keeps detailed logs about your internet activity or your personal information, then it completely defeats the purpose. Since ISPs are private contractors, they are not liable to disclose their logs policy. However, since VPNs are for the sole purpose of providing privacy, you should make sure you choose one that keeps on logs at all, so that you are perfectly safe from prying eyes and anonymous on the internet.