Hotspot Shield is operated by Pango Group (Intersections LLC / Pango GmbH, d/b/a Pango Group), which merged with Total Security in Dec 2024 and rebranded as Point Wild (per press coverage; Point Wild press page returned 403 to me) and based in not verified. The register records 1 independent audit (1 with a linked report), 1 incident and no verified prices.
Published Facts checked By VPNInfobase editorial
Compiled from the vendor's own pages, auditors' reports and named news outlets, checked .
Verified facts
Checked 28 Sept 2026ActiveFrom the vendor's own pages, auditors' reports and named news outlets. Not our measurements.
Owner
Pango Group (Intersections LLC / Pango GmbH, d/b/a Pango Group), which merged with Total Security in Dec 2024 and rebranded as Point Wild (per press coverage; Point Wild press page returned 403 to me) sourceUltimate owner: not established from a primary source
Jurisdiction
Not verified from a primary source
Logging policy
VPN products do not log information associating account credentials or identity with VPN session activity, and keep no records of websites or apps accessed. (URL is the 29 Sep 2022 version of the policy; current version at legal.hotspotshield.com returned 403.) sourceThis is the vendor's claim, paraphrased. An audit below is what tests it.
Independent audits
Aon25 Aug 2023Technical assessment of Hotspot Shield VPN (free and paid tiers, client and server side) validating the privacy policy's data collection/logging claims; included review of a 2022 law-enforcement transparency report, logging data from a test VPN node, staff interviews and client testing. Summary report only. report
Incidents
7 Aug 2017Center for Democracy and Technology filed an FTC complaint alleging Hotspot Shield Free VPN (then AnchorFree) engaged in undisclosed data sharing with ad networks and traffic redirection; complaint, not a finding of wrongdoing. source
Transparency report
Not verified from a primary source
Open-source apps
Not verified from a primary source
RAM-only servers
Not verified from a primary source
Refund window
45 days from enrollment when purchased directly from vendor (homepage statement); the 2019 ToS version (terms20191510) only mentions pro-rated refunds and refers to Section 9, so current terms not verified source
Price per month
Hotspot Shield price per month by billed term, in the vendor's own currency
Billed term
Per month
Charged up front
Note
1 month
not verified
not verified
Pricing is JS-rendered / order.hotspotshield.com; not retrievable. offered=false here means unverified, not confirmed absent. source
Per-month figures are the vendor's displayed monthly equivalent for the whole billed term, so terms of different length are not like for like. No currency conversion.
Not verified
hqJurisdiction: not verified from a primary page (policy names Intersections LLC / Pango GmbH; search snippets say US)
ultimateOwner: not verified; Point Wild press release pages returned 403 (Aura split 2024-09 and Point Wild merger 2024-12 only from search snippets)
Current privacy policy/ToS (legal.hotspotshield.com) returned 403; used 2022 policy and 2019 ToS versions, may be superseded
plans: pricing pages 404/JS-rendered; all prices null (offered flags unverified)
refundWindow: 45 days from homepage only; not confirmed in current terms
transparencyReport: 2019 report reportedly published, later ones not found; URL not obtained. 2022 law-enforcement report mentioned by Aon.
Audits: only Aon 2023 (summary). Earlier audits not searched. Aon report authorship read from PDF text.
ramOnly, openSource: not stated in pages read
incidents: only 2017 CDT complaint; 2017 vulnerability disclosure not sourced
To check current terms, go to Hotspot Shield's own site.
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