The behavior of the company AdGuard

PERSONAL OBSERVATION OF ADGUARD VPN AND PROTONVPN - BOTH PARTIAL

In the same post, I will include both products and be bluntly direct. I completely ignore the reviews of typical websites, there is too much copy and paste, therefore, I focus on myself and not on third parties.
Before the end, I will integrate an important message.

ADGUARD VPN SESSION:

  • The improvement in server response and ping is notable. Such as: Chile and Argentina.
  • Good ping performance in multiplayer online game.
  • The quic protocol requires performance optimization.
  • There are no changes to the terms and policies yet. I am not responsible if something happens to the company later, I have already informed them about the matter and they assume all the consequences according to the circumstances.

:warning: Probable vulnerability: In the privacy policy using the application on Android, it uses tokens to connect to AdGuard servers and the application reveals the tokens in the session called: diagnostic data. Here, two questions arise for me: is it possible to connect to the AdGuard servers with the modified protocol published by the same company using the tokens? What happens if someone malicious manages to infiltrate the system no matter where, how, etc., captures the tokens and makes malicious use on behalf of the account owner?

The two previous questions arise: is it possible to do it? How does the AdGuard company explain measures against external abuse if they arise? Will they be the real tokens that are shown in the diagnostic data to connect to the servers?

PROTONVPN SESSION:

  • Too many virtual servers, such as: Brazil. They use the provider M247 Europe SRL and are located in the United States, instead of being nearby to have lower latency in the area. A big disadvantage.
  • NetShield is very good, however, it needs to block more domains, such as: Sentry, Reddit, Tiktok, etc. It would be ideal if it had an IP blocker integrated within the server, not at the DNS level, because domains do not block IPs and this will help block IPs that operating systems connect to servers to send data without the person’s authorization, for example. Both IP and domain, is an even greater unified strength for this module.
  • The Secure Core servers are quite useful, however, the description in the application where you touch “INFORMATION”, two words appear: Maximum security. The basic question that arises about “maximum security” is: why doesn’t the article on your website mention the same thing as maximum security? A rather serious contradiction. The article on the website states, contradicting itself: “While there is no such thing as 100% security, Secure Core is just one of the many ways Proton VPN delivers better security and privacy by protecting against complex attacks other VPNs cannot defend against.”
  • When changing countries, there is a small gap where the service stops protecting in real time due to the change in the Android system. Immediate solution is required.
  • The terms of service in point 5 (SLA) is the only thing I liked, it is worth noting.

Important: I have not applied exhaustive observation, the above mentioned may or may not change, companies are responsible for protecting the people who use their services and people are responsible for what they do on the internet using their services.

Conclusion: Here ends my observation about AdGuard, every decision that people make based on my experience has to take into account the following: do not trust any company, including other industries such as pharmaceuticals, food, etc… because I use typical patterns that I already know about them at a technological level and I use reasoning to detect the most complex emergencies possible to have a balance without affecting myself and have peace of mind when doing these things.
My work is done, time runs its course and will reveal the most important thing if it happens.

Some people may wonder: will I continue using AdGuard VPN? It depends. I like the ad blocker app and other features because I have more control thanks to its features that no VPN app offers. If Mullvad company offered servers with HTTPS protocol that supports the AdGuard application, I would use it together, without using AdGuard VPN.

End of my observation.

FINAL DECISION: DELETE PERSONAL ADGUARD ACCOUNT AND PROTONVPN DELETED - (BOTH PERMANENT)

For obvious reasons, the current evidence reveals more than one might expect, and you don’t need to be an expert to see it.

I will hold two sessions to make it clear to everyone reading this so they can make an informed decision about whether or not to use these products:

ADGUARD SESSION

I acknowledge that AdGuard has a very decent ad blocker, tracker blocker, and other integrated features (I’m not talking about DNS, VPN, etc.), and it’s something I like because it helps me a lot, and so far, I don’t know of any other product as powerful as this one.

1. Technical support is too generic. I recently sent an email to support, received an automated reply with a ticket number, and no one responded. I sent another email regarding the same ticket—nothing, total silence.

2. Improvements are noticeable on the Chile server, but no one knows what will happen tomorrow. I’m not getting my hopes up. (I use the VPN.)

3. As far as I can tell (as of today while writing this message), there have been no changes to the privacy policy.

4. No one has answered my question yet about whether the DDoS protection is real or not.

5. On the StackSocial platform, there’s an offer for 5 years of their own VPN for $34.97. How do they sustain this in the long term? What’s behind the scenes that we can’t see? Among other questions. Suspicious.

My trust level is dynamic, and I have now decided to set it to permanently zero. Monitoring of AdGuard is a low priority or nonexistent.

PROTONVPN SESSION

The only feature I appreciate and find worthwhile in this product is NetShield, although it could use some improvements.

1. Too many virtual servers located in the United States, high latency, and according to Proton’s argument: “better infrastructure.” This ties in perfectly with the company’s Meet product.

2. Proton’s Meet product uses infrastructure in the United States; this further reduced my trust in this company, as they don’t have their own infrastructure for users. The new AI model called Claude Mythos Preview can be used by authorized individuals to search for “vulnerabilities” in encryption systems—if any exist—to silently spy on people (if it happens and no one finds out). The United States’ track record and behavior are public knowledge; this isn’t something I’m making up. And this could work against Meet, for example.

3. They’re very slow to improve current features. They release so many products, some of which offer little utility, instead of focusing on improving the main ones like their VPN. Major drawback.

Permanently deleted. My trust in Proton and its entire ecosystem is zero. Disappointing.

I will never return.


Both companies, one decision: permanently deleted, zero trust, and end of story. This record will remain as a document for those who are interested and seeking information.

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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: Proton Meet Isn’t What They Told You It Was

I asked ProtonVPN support a few questions, and they responded. I’m leaving these messages here for anyone interested in Proton AG.

It’s a shame Proton didn’t start from scratch to create a protocol, since trust comes from the ground up, not by default. Well, if they chose that path, as support told me, it’s the decision of those within the company.

My first message

Hello. I have a few questions since I’m currently using ProtonVPN, and I’d appreciate it if you could answer them honestly:

1. Why are the virtual servers in Latin America located in the United States rather than within Latin America itself? It would be more beneficial and result in lower latency.
2. Do all servers have real, artificial, or merely apparent DDoS protection?
3. Have you considered using a different provider instead of m247 and DataPacket to avoid detection of repeated usage?
4. Do you have plans to develop a completely unique and powerful proprietary protocol that isn’t WireGuard, etc.?
5. What is the main reason behind having so many servers? Why, and what are the benefits for all users?

I look forward to your response.
Best regards.

Support’s response

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out.

  • Virtual servers are sometimes hosted outside the country they represent because of infrastructure, reliability, and security constraints. In some regions, including parts of Latin America, it can be difficult to guarantee the same level of physical security, network quality, or uptime as in more established data center locations. By hosting the infrastructure in more stable environments while still assigning local IP addresses, the service can provide better overall performance and availability. That said, this can sometimes result in higher latency compared to physically local servers. You can find more information about our Smart Routing feature at this link https://protonvpn.com/support/how-smart-routing-works

  • All servers have baseline protection against common network-level attacks, including DDoS mitigation provided at the infrastructure level. This isn’t something that’s marketed as a specialized or “bulletproof” feature on every single server, but rather a standard layer of protection built into the network and hosting providers to maintain service stability.

  • Infrastructure providers are selected based on a mix of performance, reliability, jurisdiction, and security standards. Detection by third-party services is an ongoing challenge across the entire VPN industry, regardless of provider. Changing providers alone doesn’t solve that problem long-term, so the focus is usually on maintaining a diverse and resilient network rather than relying on any single approach. We use a combination. Some of our servers and networks are fully owned and controlled by us while others utilize third parties as we don’t have facilities in every country. When we rent servers and network, we only utilize trusted data centers that meet all of our security criteria and are able to provide us with full access to the server itself, and we only use bare metal servers. All of our servers also utilize full-disk encryption so that no third-party can extract data off of them even if they have physical access to the hardware.

  • Most modern VPN protocols like WireGuard are open-source and widely trusted because they’ve been extensively audited and tested. Building a completely proprietary protocol isn’t necessarily an advantage from a security standpoint, since transparency and peer review are key factors in trust. Improvements are typically made on top of existing protocols (for example, custom implementations or enhancements) rather than replacing them entirely.

  • Having a large number of servers helps distribute user load, which improves speed and stability, especially during peak times. It also gives users more options in terms of locations, which can help with latency, access to region-specific services, and redundancy if certain servers become congested or unavailable. Overall, it contributes to a more consistent experience for a wide range of users.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

My second message in response

Hi Lorenzo.

1. I understand the situation and the points you’ve raised based on your interest. However, whether or not the Proton team is aware of the nature of the United States, including the system known as the “NSA,” were they aware that they contradict their own claims? This isn’t about being paranoid regarding privacy and security, but rather about the reality itself, because not all countries are subservient to the US, or as some say, its backyard. Did they consider any specific, more concrete alternative countries for those of us who depend on latency, even with different carriers?

2. Regarding DDoS protection, do you have a specific article on your website, and if possible, one that is transparent and verifiable for people like me who are looking to increase their confidence based on their situation, but not a fixed amount? In any case, it would be helpful if you could write a specific and easy-to-understand article, especially for non-technical users, that is, one that integrates methods that are easy to understand.

3. Understood. I have some questions: What happens when a trusted provider, based on your terms, betrays you in a specific location, such as the United States or Portugal? Do you break trust universally or only partially in specific locations? For example, if Datacamp goes against Proton’s trust in the United States or the United Kingdom, with or without notification, how would you react in both scenarios? Would you completely abandon the provider in all countries, or only partially? Would you even publicly notify people about the case?

4. While Wireguard certainly has its strengths, haven’t you considered building a unique tool that is not dependent on third parties but is much more reliable, stable, robust, doesn’t require frequent updates, is transparent, and has other advantages? Of course, this requires commitment, time, and more resources, but you could try it. This would avoid the copy-and-paste approach that others in the industry often adopt. The word “unique” reveals more than what it actually is.

5. The official ProtonVPN website mentions a high number of servers and bandwidth, which raises a few questions for me: Is each Bera Metal server unique and does it have 1GB of bandwidth, some with 10GB, or is it destructible between servers to prevent saturation? Are there virtual systems that allow each person to have a server on the same Bera Metal hardware, or is that not possible, or does it depend on the situation? I’ve noticed that some servers have similar bandwidth usage levels to others.

I look forward to your response.
Regards.

Support’s second response

Hello,

Thank you for the follow-up.

Sorry for taking up longer to respond. I wanted to fully address everything that you said in your previous response.

You raise a valid point about the tension between having servers in certain countries and Proton’s privacy commitments. Our team is absolutely aware of this, which is precisely why Secure Core exists. Secure Core routes your traffic through privacy-friendly jurisdictions (Switzerland, Iceland, and Sweden) before it reaches servers in countries with weaker privacy protections, like the US or UK. This way, even if an exit server in the US were somehow compromised, the attacker would only see encrypted traffic coming from a Secure Core server in Switzerland, not your real IP or activity.

Secure Core adds extra hops by design, which can impact speed. That’s a genuine tradeoff between maximum privacy and performance. For users who need lower latency and are comfortable with the risk profile of a particular country, connecting directly to a server in that country (without Secure Core) is always an option. Proton also offers VPN Accelerator, which can boost speeds by up to 400% even on distant connections, and servers with up to 10 Gbps bandwidth. I don’t have specific information about plans for alternative server locations specifically designed for latency-sensitive users in non-US-aligned regions, but I’d recommend checking the Proton VPN server page for the latest available locations.

Proton VPN includes built-in DDoS protection that is automatically applied to all connections. The network is equipped with anti-DDoS hardware and traffic-scrubbing services that detect and filter volumetric attacks before they reach your tunnel, all without logging or inspecting your encrypted traffic.

While we don’t have such an article for Proton VPN, we do have a blog post on DDoS protection related to Proton Mail at this link Guide to DDoS protection | Proton . This article walks through the key considerations (understanding legitimate traffic, infrastructure isolation, collateral damage, and not compromising privacy), explains the technical approach (BGP redirection, GRE tunnels, scrubbing centers), and even shares real attack data. It’s written in a way that should be accessible even for non-technical readers.

If a provider were found to be actively compromising user privacy in one location, Proton would likely remove servers from that specific facility at minimum. As for public notification, we have historically been transparent about security matters (their transparency reports and public disclosures of legal requests demonstrate this), so I would expect them to inform users if a serious trust violation occurred.

The idea that true independence means building from scratch rather than relying on third-party foundations. Interestingly, Proton has already taken a step in this direction with its proprietary Stealth protocol, which builds on WireGuard’s core but adds traffic-obfuscation layers to make VPN packets look like ordinary HTTPS traffic, helping users bypass deep-packet-inspection blocks in censored regions.

However, building an entirely new VPN protocol from the ground up is a massive undertaking that comes with its own risks. WireGuard has been rigorously audited, formally verified, and battle-tested by the broader security community over years. A custom protocol, no matter how well-intentioned, would start without that same level of external scrutiny. There’s a real security advantage in using something that thousands of independent researchers have already tried to break. The history of cryptography is full of custom solutions that turned out to have subtle flaws that only emerged years later.

What we have done instead is take the best of both worlds: use WireGuard as the proven cryptographic foundation, and then innovate on top of it with things like Stealth, Smart Protocol, and VPN Accelerator.

Regarding whether servers are truly “bare metal” or virtualized, Proton has invested heavily in owning and controlling its own server hardware and network infrastructure, particularly for its Secure Core servers and its primary infrastructure in Switzerland and Germany. These data centers use fully encrypted hard disks with multiple password layers, and physical access requires biometric authentication. However, for the broader network of servers across 120+ countries, Proton does work with vetted datacenter providers, and in those cases, the servers are dedicated machines provisioned for Proton’s exclusive use, not shared virtual instances where random customers could coexist on the same hardware.

The similar bandwidth usage patterns you’ve noticed across some servers likely reflects Proton’s load-balancing approach, which distributes users across available servers to prevent any single server from becoming saturated. This is by design and actually works in your favor, as it means no server becomes a bottleneck.

I hope this addresses your questions meaningfully. If any of these topics deserve deeper exploration, or if you’d like me to look into something more specific, please don’t hesitate to follow up.

Kind regards,

Lorenzo
Customer Support
Proton VPN

It appears that Proton is aware of these situations; I will send them another email notifying them of this.
End.

Why reinvent the wheel when it’s already been done? I think you just want this for the sake of it. Support has already responded with valid points.

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It’s not about reinventing; it’s about creating something different. Trust starts from scratch, not by default.

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My final message to ProtonVPN support, their response, and my thanks for their time.

This will remain as a record here in this same post without needing to open a new one.

Proton AG relies on the words “maximum privacy” using Secure Core, but they forget that every action a person takes leaves their true fingerprint. What does this mean? Whatever you do, you can’t hide. It doesn’t make you anonymous, much less anonymous, or even remotely anonymous at all. Therefore, the “maximum privacy” argument is just free advertising.

I’m going to translate the difficult “technical” stuff into simpler terms so it’s easier to understand: Your fingerprint is on your fingers, on both your hands. It’s unique and unrepeatable, so no matter how much you try to erase it, it won’t disappear. Do you understand the difference?

This is exactly what happens online when you use it. Wherever you see the word “anonymous,” it has a fairly simple meaning: who are you? But it will never hide your true actions and who you really are, no matter where you live.

Don’t be fooled or get your hopes up with those words.

My response:

Thanks for your reply, Lorenzo. I wanted to let you know that I shared our conversation with the Privacy Guides community, and it’s good for you to know:

The behavior of the company AdGuard - #26 by DanielM

I have one more question regarding the phrase “maximum privacy” when using Secure Core: Why does the official article state that 100% security isn’t possible? Here’s what the article says → Thanks for your reply, Lorenzo. I wanted to let you know that I shared our conversation with the Privacy Guides community, and it’s good for you to know:

I have one more question regarding the phrase “maximum privacy” when using Secure Core: Why does the official article state that 100% security isn’t possible? Here’s what the article says →

Read it here: https://protonvpn.com/support/secure-core-vpn

If there is no 100% security, then “maximum privacy” is an illusion and doesn’t make sense. Because privacy and security go hand in hand; if the system is weak, it’s easy to see what lies “behind” what’s called “privacy.”

Best regards.

Read it here:

If there is no 100% security, then “maximum privacy” is an illusion and doesn’t make sense. Because privacy and security go hand in hand; if the system is weak, it’s easy to see what lies “behind” what’s called “privacy.”

Best regards.

Support response:

Hello,

Thank you for the follow-up.

Allow me to add bit more context to these statements. “No 100% security” is a universal principle in cybersecurity, not a Proton-specific weakness. Every security expert, every framework, every standard acknowledges this. It’s simply honest. But the gap between 99.999% and 100% doesn’t erase the value of what’s being protected.

Privacy and security are related but not identical. Secure Core’s privacy guarantee doesn’t depend on the exit server being perfectly secure. It depends on architecture: even if an exit server in a high-risk jurisdiction is fully compromised, the attacker can only trace traffic back to a hardened Secure Core server in Switzerland, Iceland, or Sweden, not to your real IP.

The privacy is built into the structure, not into a promise of invincibility. To de-anonymize you, an attacker would need to simultaneously compromise servers across multiple physically secured facilities in multiple privacy-friendly jurisdictions. That’s an extraordinarily high bar.

So “maximum privacy” here means the strongest privacy protection available within Proton’s architecture, which is genuinely a significant step beyond what a standard VPN connection offers. It’s not an illusion, it’s a layered, structurally enforced reality that raises the cost of attacking you to an extreme level. The fact that absolute perfection doesn’t exist in security doesn’t mean what Secure Core delivers isn’t remarkably close.

I hope this clarifies it.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Kind regards,

Lorenzo
Customer Support
Proton VPN

My last message:

Hello again, thanks for the reply. For now, no more questions.

Take care, man.

My final decision: I lost an AdGuard account with licenses (it doesn’t matter) and ProtonVPN didn’t inspire confidence. I’m abandoning it completely due to a lack of consistency in their systems.

I don’t base my decisions on the number of users, advertising, or other factors a company possesses.

Let me be clear, AdGuard: You have potential with your ad blocker tool, but you’ve disappointed me. I’m not trying to change or force you to change. I didn’t come to Privacy Guides to raise my voice and pressure you, but rather to make you aware that you’ve lost a user who liked one of your products, and the reasons are clear.

I’m definitively closing this matter. This will serve as a record for future decisions, encouraging everyone to take the time to research before making a choice.

The End.

I recommend reading the following article to understand why Secure Core doesn’t provide maximum privacy at the network level:

It contains a wealth of information to explore.