Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are commercial services which play a key role in Internet freedom.
They are used by individuals globally to attain privacy as well as to evade Internet censorship. While these services make certain privacy claims, customers do not have methods of verification of these guarantees, lack insight about their operational details and how they handle customer traffic. As a senior fellow, Taha worked to better understand the commercial Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) ecosystem, focusing specifically on how they handle user traffic and to what extent these services actually stand up to their public privacy claims. Taha produced a paper (presentation slides), open source code and created a website based on empirical evidence, which can be accessed by global users to understand the specifics of VPN services and aid them in making a more informed choice when selecting amongst available VPN services.
