The VPN company still operates a separate team within McAfee, meaning the same employees continue to work on the VPN post-acquisition.Īs the privacy policy states, by using TunnelBear you are authorizing the company to: It was subsequently acquired by antivirus software company McAfee in early 2018. TunnelBear was established in 2011 in Canada by Daniel Kaldor and Ryan Dochuk. There have been no known incidents of server breaches or logging scandals associated with TunnelBear.

Worringly, TunnelBear admits to confirming a user’s email address to authorities, although no usage information has ever been handed over. The company also issues an annual transparency report detailing any government requests for user data. There are no logs that reveal which websites you’ve visited. The only personally identifiable information TunnelBear logs is your email address, to prove you have an account. In other words, the service is close to being completely no-logs.

created an account, made a payment, online ad referrals).Ĭrucially, TunnelBear doesn’t keep browsing history records, DNS requests, originating IP address, or connection timestamps.

Whether or not you have used the VPN in a given month.

But it’s a simple service for masking your IP address and securing your internet connection on public WiFi. In short, TunnelBear isn’t the best nor the cheapest VPN.

Moreover, the mobile apps lack certain essential features. There is no Fire TV Stick app, and you can’t even install the VPN on a router. TunnelBear also has compatibility issues. And there are only 41 VPN server locations to choose from. Sadly, it’s not a great solution to streaming blocks it doesn’t work with Netflix or BBC iPlayer. TunnelBear’s apps also include key security features like a VPN kill switch and obfuscation tools.įour independent security audits provide additional reassurance around the VPN service’s security.

This is enough for new users to trial the software, but it’s far too restrictive for regular web browsing.īoth versions of the VPN service use OpenVPN and IKEv2, two of the most secure VPN protocols. The free version of TunnelBear comes with a monthly data cap of 500MB. Both versions use secure AES-256 encryption, allow unrestricted torrenting, have a privacy-friendly logging policy, and well-designed applications for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. There is both a free and paid service available. In this TunnelBear review, you’ll see that it does some things well and others not. TunnelBear is a popular VPN service owned by McAfee.

How to use tunnelbear extension