Understanding VPN Virtual Locations and Their Impact on Privacy
When you sign up for a Virtual Private Network (VPN), you're buying into a promise: security in an insecure digital world, a shield of privacy against prying eyes, and a key that unlocks a borderless internet. VPN services claim to route your digital life through servers in locations you choose, protecting your data and identity along the way. But what if that trust is misplaced? What if the server you believe is in the Bahamas is actually in Miami? Or the one you selected in Somalia is physically located in a data center in France?
This article explores a startling revelation that challenges the foundation of the VPN industry. A groundbreaking report has found that a vast majority of popular VPN providers, up to 85% of them, are not entirely truthful about their server locations. They leverage a practice known as "virtual locations" to create the illusion of a massive global network, when in reality, your data may be traveling through countries you never selected, subject to laws you never agreed to.
You'll learn about the bombshell report from IP intelligence leader IPinfo that exposed these discrepancies, understand how a VPN is supposed to work versus how many actually operate using virtual locations, and discover the sophisticated methodology used to pinpoint the true physical location of any server on the internet. By the end, you'll be a much more informed consumer, capable of seeing past the marketing claims and understanding what's truly happening to your data.
The shocking truth: A bombshell report on VPN location accuracy
IPinfo, a leading company specializing in IP address data and intelligence, conducted a comprehensive, large-scale analysis that serves as the catalyst for this discussion. Their business revolves around accurately mapping the internet, making them uniquely qualified to investigate VPN provider claims. Their report examined 20 of the most popular VPN services on the market and asked a simple yet critical question.
The core question: Is your VPN traffic really where you think it is?
The fundamental premise of a VPN's location-shifting feature is straightforward. If you select a server in Germany from the app, your internet traffic should be securely tunneled to a physical server in Germany. From there, it should exit onto the public internet, bearing a German IP address. This is what allows you to access geo-restricted content, enhance your privacy, and appear as if you're browsing from that country.
IPinfo's investigation set out to verify this exact claim. They systematically tested the server networks of 20 major VPN providers to determine if the advertised location of a server matched its actual physical location. The results were staggering.
The alarming findings
The report revealed a widespread and systemic discrepancy between where VPNs claim their servers are and where they're physically located:
- 17 out of 20 providers (85%) were found to have traffic exiting from a different country than the one selected by the user for at least some of their locations
- For many top-tier providers, over half of their advertised country locations were virtual. The study found that 51% of ProtonVPN's claimed countries and 57% of ExpressVPN's claimed countries did not match their measured physical location
- Across the entire study, only 3 out of the 20 providers tested had a server network where all advertised locations could be verified as being physically present in those countries
This data paints a clear picture: the long list of over 100 countries displayed on many VPN websites is often an illusion, a marketing tactic made possible by the clever, and often undisclosed, use of virtual server locations.
Understanding VPN traffic routing: The ideal vs. the reality
To grasp the significance of these findings, you need to understand the fundamental difference between what users expect from a VPN connection and what is often delivered.
The promise: How a VPN connection should work
Consider an ideal scenario. You're in the United States and want to watch a show on Netflix that's exclusively available in Norway. You subscribe to a VPN service that advertises servers in Norway. Here's what you expect to happen:
You open your VPN application and select "Norway" from the list of available countries. Your VPN client creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device (like your laptop) and a physical server located within a data center in Norway. All your internet traffic is routed through this tunnel.
Your traffic exits from the Norwegian server onto the public internet. To any website you visit, including Netflix, your traffic appears to originate from Norway, carrying a Norwegian IP address. Netflix's servers see the Norwegian IP address and grant you access to their Norwegian library of content.
This is the promise of a VPN: a direct, secure, and geographically accurate connection that provides both privacy and access.
The deception: How many VPNs actually route your traffic
The IPinfo report reveals what's often happening in reality. Using the same scenario, the process can be deceptively different.
You open your VPN application and select "Norway." Your VPN client creates an encrypted tunnel, but instead of connecting to a server in Norway, it connects to a physical server located in a completely different country, for instance, the United Kingdom.
The server in the UK is configured to use an IP address that has been registered and declared as being from Norway. Your traffic exits from this UK server but carries the "Norwegian" IP address. Netflix sees the IP address, checks it against a geolocation database, and the database incorrectly reports the IP as being from Norway. You're granted access to the Norwegian content library.
While the end result for accessing content might be the same, the journey your data took is fundamentally different and far less transparent. Your data was physically routed through the UK, subject to UK data laws and infrastructure, all while you were led to believe it was secure in Norway. This is the essence of a virtual location.
Unmasking the truth: How to geographically pinpoint a VPN server
You might wonder how it's possible to so definitively prove that a server is not where it claims to be. The answer lies in the physics of data transmission and a sophisticated global measurement network. It's not a guess but a science.
Introducing ProbeNet: IPinfo's global measurement network
IPinfo operates a proprietary global network called ProbeNet, which consists of over 1,200 measurement points (servers) in strategic locations around the world. The sole purpose of these "probes" is to constantly send and receive network traffic to IPs across the internet and collect performance data. This vast, distributed network allows them to get a multi-faceted, real-world view of how data travels, rather than relying on outdated or manipulated databases.
The science of geolocation: Using network data to find the truth
The key metric used to determine a server's physical location is the Round Trip Time (RTT).
RTT is the time, measured in milliseconds (ms), that it takes for a data packet to travel from a source (like an IPinfo probe) to a destination (the VPN server's exit IP) and for an acknowledgment to travel back. This metric matters because the speed of light is the ultimate speed limit for data transmission. While data travels incredibly fast through fiber optic cables, it still takes a measurable amount of time to cover physical distance. A longer distance will always result in a longer RTT. By measuring the RTT from multiple known locations, you can triangulate the physical position of a server with remarkable accuracy.
If a probe in Chicago pings a server and gets an RTT of 5 ms, while a probe in London pings the same server and gets an RTT of 80 ms, it's physically impossible for that server to be in London. The laws of physics dictate it must be extremely close to Chicago.
Verifying a server's location
IPinfo's testing methodology is automated and highly rigorous. Here's how the process works to verify the location of a VPN server:
The system first collects the configuration files for a specific VPN server location (like "The Bahamas" for NordVPN) using common protocols like OpenVPN. It then automatically connects to the VPN server and records the public IP address that the traffic exits from.
Multiple probes from IPinfo's ProbeNet network, located in cities all over the world, are instructed to ping this exit IP address. Each probe measures and records the RTT to the VPN's exit IP. The system analyzes the collected RTT data, and the probe that registers a sub-millisecond RTT is deemed to be in the same city or metropolitan area as the physical server. Probes further away will show progressively higher RTTs, confirming the location.
This measured physical location is then compared to the location that the VPN provider advertised. If the advertised location was "The Bahamas" but the lowest RTT came from a probe in Miami, the location is flagged as virtual.
The anatomy of a virtual location
Understanding how virtual locations are detected leads naturally to exploring how they're created in the first place and why VPN providers use them.
What is a "virtual server location"?
A virtual location is a deliberate configuration where the physical location of a server is different from the geographical location associated with its IP address in public registries. It's a disconnect between physical hardware and its digital representation.
How are virtual locations created?
The process is a form of digital sleight of hand that exploits how the internet's address books work.
A VPN provider leases a physical server in a country with stable, high-quality, and cost-effective infrastructure, such as France. They also acquire a block of IP addresses. The provider then updates public IP geolocation databases and registries (like geofeeds) and declares that their block of IP addresses belongs to a different country, one that might be more difficult or expensive to operate in, like Somalia.
Most IP data companies and online services (like streaming platforms) don't run their own physical measurement networks. They simply scrape and share data from these public registries. This means the incorrect "Somalia" location data is copied and propagated across the internet.
When a user connects to this server, their VPN app tells them they're in Somalia. When they visit a website, that website checks the IP, sees "Somalia" in its database, and serves content accordingly. The illusion is maintained, even though the hardware is thousands of kilometers away in France.
Why do VPN providers use them?
The motivations are primarily financial and logistical. Setting up and maintaining physical servers is expensive and complex, especially in certain regions. Providers use virtual locations to reduce costs, as it's far cheaper to host hundreds of "virtual" countries on servers in a few key hubs (like the US, UK, Netherlands) than to establish a physical presence in every single country they advertise.
Some countries have poor internet infrastructure. By hosting the physical server in a location with high-speed connections, the provider can offer a better (though geographically inaccurate) user experience. Placing expensive physical hardware in politically unstable or legally challenging countries is also a significant business risk. A virtual server provides a presence without the physical liability.
The real-world consequences: What this means for you
While virtual locations might seem like a clever cost-saving measure, they have significant consequences for VPN users who are concerned about more than just unblocking Netflix.
The privacy paradox: Are you subject to a different country's laws?
This is the most critical implication. When you choose a server in Switzerland, you're likely doing so because of its strong privacy laws. If that server is virtually located and your data is actually being routed through a physical server in France, your data is now subject to French and EU data retention laws and surveillance programs. You've unknowingly placed your data under a legal jurisdiction you were actively trying to avoid. The privacy and trust you paid for have been compromised.
The performance problem: The impact on latency and speed
Physics cannot be cheated. Routing your data on an unnecessary international detour adds significant latency. The IPinfo report noted that 12% of the virtual locations they found were more than 8,000 kilometers away from their claimed location. This added distance directly translates to higher ping times, which can make online gaming unplayable, video conferencing laggy, and even general web browsing feel sluggish.
The security question: Is your connection still safe?
This is a more nuanced point. The use of a virtual location doesn't inherently mean that the VPN's encryption is broken. If the provider has correctly implemented strong tunneling protocols (like OpenVPN or WireGuard), the data traveling between your device and the physical server is still secure and encrypted.
The risk isn't that a third party will intercept your data mid-tunnel. The risk lies at the endpoint, the physical server itself. That server, and the company that operates it, are subject to the laws of the country where it resides. If that country's government serves a warrant, the VPN provider may be legally compelled to log user data on that server, regardless of what their "no-logs" marketing policy claims.
Final thoughts
The widespread use of undisclosed virtual locations is a significant issue in the VPN industry. It undermines the trust that's essential to the provider-customer relationship and raises serious questions about privacy, jurisdiction, and performance. While the core encryption of a VPN may remain secure, the failure to be transparent about the true physical location of their infrastructure is a betrayal of the user's informed consent.
As consumers, you're now armed with the knowledge of how to see through the marketing fluff of "100+ countries." The path forward is to demand greater transparency. VPN providers should clearly and honestly label which of their server locations are virtual and, crucially, disclose the country where the physical server is located.
This would allow you to make truly informed decisions based on your individual threat model, whether you're prioritizing privacy jurisdiction, low latency for gaming, or simply unblocking a streaming service. The power to effect this change lies with you, the user, by choosing to support services that value honesty and transparency as much as they value security.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.