Windscribe CEO Says ‘No User Data’ at Risk After Dutch Authorities Reportedly Seize Server

Dutch authorities have just seized one of Windscribe’s VPN servers, according to an article published Friday on X by the VPN company.

The message contained no indication of what prompted Dutch authorities to seize the server, only that the seizure was made without a warrant and that authorities said they would return the server to Windscribe once they had “fully analyzed” it. But despite the seriousness of the incident on its face, Windscribe reassured the public that authorities will not find anything useful on the server that could endanger the privacy of its users.

Since all of Windscribe’s servers are RAM-only, “the only thing the authorities will find is a stock Ubuntu installation,” the company said on X.

Windscribe CEO Yegor Sak told CNET via email that authorities seized the server without explanation beyond wanting it as part of an active investigation. He said it was possible they wanted to do a RAM dump, which would capture the server’s memory.

“However, even if successful, no user data would be at risk, because there is no user data or record of active connections in the server’s memory once a network cable is pulled (which there was),” Sak said.

RAM-only servers operate on volatile memory, which means that data is not saved to a hard drive and is completely erased when a server is powered off or restarted. As a result, the Dutch authorities should learn nothing from their analysis of the confiscated server. This is why we are always looking for VPN that have RAM-only server infrastructure or otherwise use full disk encryption on their servers to ensure that user privacy is properly protected in the event of a server seizure.

Additionally, Windscribe’s privacy policy states that the company does not keep logs of its users’ source IP address, VPN session history, or anything related to the sites users visit while connected to the company’s servers. Without these logs, there would be no useful data on the server that authorities could collect anyway.

However, claims without logs are impossible to verify with 100% certainty, which is why we also emphasize the importance of regular third-party audits when evaluating VPNs and their privacy protections. Although third-party audits are not always foolproof and don’t paint a complete pictureThese are important trust signals that can add credence to a VPN’s claims, especially when done regularly.

Windscribe has been audited on a fairly regular basis since 2021, with its last audit released in summer 2024, which focused on the company’s FreshScribe VPN infrastructure.

Regular audits can make a strong case for a VPN’s privacy, but real-world legal cases arguably make an even stronger case, because their timing isn’t something VPN companies can’t prepare for. Windscribe encountered such a case in 2023, when Greek authorities charged Sak with “illegal access to the information system” after a user misused a Windscribe server to hack a Greek website and send spam. However, the case was ultimately dismissed following a lengthy legal battle after Windscribe proved that it had nothing useful to hand over to the Greek authorities at the time.

“It would have been much quicker (and cheaper) to simply hand over the logs in order to identify the real culprit of the alleged crime,” Sak wrote in a blog post. “However, you cannot give up what you don’t have.”

“We receive a handful of requests from law enforcement every month. And every time we tell them we don’t have logs,” Windscribe wrote on

Windscribe keeps a real-time account of the legal requests it receives in its transparency reports. The report states that “no requests were fulfilled due to lack of relevant data.”