


We were repeatedly told that server information was “information that cannot be disclosed to customers.” McAfee refused to inform us about how many individual VPN servers and IP addresses there are and whether these servers are physical or virtual. Australia, India, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore count one server each.Ĭoverage is truly abysmal in other areas, with Brazil being the only South American option and no servers in Africa. Though small in size, McAfee Safe Connect has servers in the most popular countries.Ĭoverage is particularly concentrated in Western Europe and North America, with the US, Canada, the UK, France, Spain, and Germany all included.Īsia and Oceania are poorly represented, with just 5 server locations between them.
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If you want to see what free VPN providers we do recommend, which combine good logging policies with adequate data allowances, why not check our rundown of the best free VPNs for 2021. This bandwidth limit is fine if you just want a quick feel of whether or not Safe Connect is the right VPN for you, but it won’t get you much further than that. However, the free tier does only allow a restrictive 250MB of data to be consumed each month. McAfee also state that the support options of live chat and telephone are exclusive to paid subscribers, but we also found this to be false. We were able to connect to all 23 of Safe Connect’s servers, ranging from France to Singapore. The McAfee support pages claim that the free plan only allows a VPN connection to your nearest server, but this is not true. You’re not obliged to enter any email address or payment information to get access to the free tier - ensuring that you don’t get surprised by any unwanted outgoings on your next bank statement. If you just want to test out McAfee Safe Connect, there is a decent free plan available. This law grants the US government the ability to seize a VPN user’s information if that information has been retained. More worrying, though, is the Stored Communications Act (SCA). On top of this, McAfee is subject to the intrusive legal policies of the US, such as the infamous PRISM surveillance program, which allows the US government to surveil online communications from US-based technology companies. The US is part of the Five-Eyes intelligence alliance, meaning it shares surveillance data with the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The US is a downright awful location to base a VPN service. As such, McAfee’s jurisdiction really could not be much worse. Like its parent company, McAfee Safe Connect is based in the US, within Silicon Valley. McAfee LLC also owns TunnelBear VPN (see our review), which it acquired in 2018. McAfee Safe Connect is owned by McAfee LLC, the cyber security juggernaut. There are an abundance of VPN services who protect their users and run their business without engaging in such intrusive data collection. McAfee claims that this information is required “to help protect” users and “to run business”. Peculiarly, McAfee Safe Connect shares its privacy policy with the broader McAfee cybersecurity product and the policy does not mention the Safe Connect VPN anywhere.Īfter we contacted McAfee, a representative did indeed confirm that Safe Connect is governed by the same rules and standards as all other McAfee products. McAfee also provides this information to other companies owned by McAfee, third-party advertisers, and “service providers who perform services for us.” Even then, the data is still kept for 30 days. McAfee retains this information indefinitely, only removing it in the event of an account deletion. Excerpt from McAfee Safe Connect Privacy Policy.
