- Surfshark has stopped collecting your malware-related data
- Any malware statistics collected will be completely anonymous.
- The change follows an investigation by TechRadar.
Surfshark just got even more private. Starting today, the company has stopped collecting malware-related data from users of its antivirus software.
This change in data retention is a response to a TechRadar investigation that questioned the need for a detailed “paper trail” of antivirus linked to users.
A Surfshark spokesperson confirmed to TechRadar that any malware statistics collected will now be completely anonymous. This marks a major privacy win for users of one of the best VPNs on the market.
Article continues below.
How TechRadar Prompted Surfshark to Rethink Its Antivirus Approach
We recently ran a “Right of Access” test, asking 10 of the most popular VPNs what data they had on us.
While most vendors fell short of our expectations, Surfshark stood out and delivered a complete PDF report in just a few hours.
However, the increased transparency revealed a surprising irony. The report was extremely granular, detailing payment histories, account IDs, and a specific malware record blocked by Surfshark’s antivirus tool.
The antivirus logs were particularly striking. The data included names of specific malware detected on a user’s machine, the device ID, and the country-level location of the user at the time of detection.
While this retention complied with Surfshark’s existing privacy policy, we questioned whether a centralized database was truly compatible with a privacy-first model.
When we raised these concerns with Surfshark, the team initially defended the practice as a useful feature for families monitoring multiple devices.
However, within 48 hours, the company changed its position. Surfshark has now committed to removing all personal identifiers from antivirus logs.
Why is it important
Data minimization is a cornerstone of modern privacy regulation and should be the north star for companies based on digital anonymity.
As large-scale data breaches become increasingly common, the best defense is to simply not retain identifiable data in the first place.
By eliminating these logs, Surfshark has raised the bar for the industry, demonstrating that privacy practices should be evolving strategies. We are pleased that our research work can facilitate a tangible improvement to user security.
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