Affiliate Disclosure

PrivacyTestLab is committed to full transparency about how we earn revenue. This page explains our affiliate relationships, how compensation may influence the content you read, and how we ensure our reviews and recommendations remain honest and independent.

Quick summary

Some links on PrivacyTestLab are affiliate links. If you click one and purchase a product or service, we may earn a commission — at no extra cost to you. This helps fund the free tools and articles we provide.

Plain English: We earn a small commission when you buy a VPN through certain links on this site. Our test results, scores, and editorial opinions are never influenced by these arrangements.

All affiliate relationships are disclosed clearly on the relevant pages. Sponsored links are marked with rel="sponsored" in the HTML and are visually identified where applicable.

What is an affiliate link?

An affiliate link is a specially tracked URL that lets a company know a visitor came from our website. When you click an affiliate link and complete a qualifying purchase, PrivacyTestLab receives a commission from the company — not from you.

The price you pay is identical whether you use our affiliate link or visit the company's website directly. In some cases, our affiliate arrangements may unlock exclusive discounts or deals that are only available through partner links.

Our affiliate partners

PrivacyTestLab maintains affiliate relationships with a small number of VPN service providers. When a visitor clicks one of these links and completes a qualifying purchase, PrivacyTestLab may earn a commission at no additional cost to the visitor. Affiliate links on this site carry the rel="sponsored" attribute in compliance with search engine webmaster guidelines.

Not every link to a third-party service on this site is an affiliate link. Where a product is mentioned without an active affiliate arrangement, it is included solely on editorial merit.

Plain English: You can check whether any outbound link is an affiliate link by inspecting its rel attribute — if it contains sponsored, it is an active affiliate link.

Editorial independence

Affiliate relationships and advertising revenue do not influence PrivacyTestLab's editorial decisions, privacy test results, product rankings, or written recommendations in any way.

Our privacy tool results — including IP leak tests, DNS leak tests, WebRTC analysis, and browser fingerprint scoring — are generated automatically by technical tests running in your browser. They are not influenced by business relationships with any company.

Our written articles and VPN comparisons reflect the genuine findings of our testing process. If a VPN we have an affiliate relationship with performs poorly in testing, that result will be reported honestly.

Our commitment: We will only recommend a product as an affiliate partner if we would recommend it independently on its own technical merits.

How we choose partners

PrivacyTestLab applies the following criteria before entering an affiliate relationship with any product or service:

• The product must be genuinely useful to our audience.
• The provider must have a verifiable no-logs or privacy-respecting policy.
• The product must have a reasonable reputation for security and reliability.
• We must be able to honestly recommend it based on publicly available evidence.
• The affiliate program must not require us to publish misleading or deceptive content.

We do not accept payment to create positive reviews, inflate star ratings, or suppress negative findings. Affiliate commissions are earned only on legitimate purchases made through disclosed links.

Compensation details

Affiliate commissions vary by partner and are determined by the terms of each individual affiliate program. Commission rates and structures are set entirely by the partner company and may change over time without notice on this page.

PrivacyTestLab does not receive fixed fees, guaranteed minimums, or retainer payments from any VPN company in exchange for recommendations or placement on this website.

The content hierarchy of our VPN recommendations — including which VPN appears first in a comparison — reflects our assessment of product quality and value, not the commission rate offered.

We do not receive payment to write positive reviews. If a product does not meet our standards, we will not recommend it regardless of affiliate opportunity.

FTC compliance

In accordance with the United States Federal Trade Commission's guidelines on endorsements and testimonials (16 CFR Part 255), PrivacyTestLab discloses material connections between this website and any product or service promoted herein.

We disclose affiliate relationships at the point of use — on the pages where affiliate links appear — in addition to this central disclosure page. This is consistent with FTC guidance that disclosures must be clear, conspicuous, and proximate to the relevant link or recommendation.

This disclosure applies to visitors from all countries. Visitors located in the European Union should also refer to our Privacy Policy for information about data processing under the GDPR.

This page constitutes the material connection disclosure required by the U.S. FTC Endorsement Guides. It is linked from every page footer on PrivacyTestLab for easy access.

Contact us

If you have questions about our affiliate relationships, advertising practices, or the content of this disclosure, please contact us through our contact page.

We aim to respond to all enquiries within 3 business days.