Windscribe's no-logs policy examined in court as Greek authorities attempt to prosecute

On April 11 2025, Windscribe VPN founder Yegor Sak appeared in court in Greece as he was charged in connection with an alleged offence carried out by a Windscribe user.

An IP address was used to breach a Greek server and gain access to a website, using it to send spam emails.

It was traced back to a Windscribe-owned server in Finland and authorities charged Sak with the crime of "illegal access to information system."

The case was dismissed, with Windscribe and Sak cleared of any wrongdoing.

Windscribe's no-logs policy meant it could not identify the user and had no data to hand over. The best VPNs all have proven no-logs policies and they are vital for maintaining user privacy.

Both Tom's Guide and Windscribe oppose the use of VPNs for illegal activity.

However, in order to identify a very small number of "bad apples," logs and identifiable user information would need to be recorded. This would undermine the right to online privacy and, along with increasing attacks on VPNs, would be a fundamentally flawed approach.

Why was Sak targeted?

Sak's prosecution was unusual. In a blog post, Sak said: "When a Windscribe user does something allegedly illegal, we usually get a subpoena, which includes an IP address and a timestamp associated with the alleged crime."

"We get 5-10 of these per month. Since we're a non-logging VPN service, we state this face and 99.9% of the time that makes the matter go away since we're not obligated to store logs."

Sak explained that in this instance, Greek authorities, with the help of INTERPOL, obtained the corporate billing information from the Finnish server – which had his name attached to it.

Windscribe expected to be contacted, or at worst have its server seized, but this didn't happen. Authorities took Sak's name and in June 2023 began legal proceedings against him personally – despite not committing the crime himself.

You can't hand over what you don't have

This case was a nearly two-year-long process, and it would have been resolved faster and more cheaply if Windscribe had handed over user logs. But Windscribe couldn't hand over what it didn't have, and Sak went to court.

Sak commented how the law is "pretty cut and dry" and "if you have the data, you must provide it." He said he'd like to help target criminals who commit acts that are "universally frowned upon" but that would require keeping extensive logs.

This case highlights the ongoing challenges VPN and privacy-focused providers face when dealing with the authorities.

Proposed changes to Swiss encryption laws show the increased desire for authorities to collect identifiable information about users. No-logging must be allowed to continue in order to protect online privacy.