Avira Phantom VPN: Major Privacy Concerns and Why You Should Skip It

As shown above, despite claims to the contrary, Avira Phantom VPN logs your IP address, which limits its privacy rating to 0.1/10. It also logs device information and individual bandwidth usage.

A VPN should never log your IP address because it removes your anonymity and defeats the purpose of using a VPN.

Despite what some VPNs say, this level of data collection isn’t necessary to run a VPN service. For example, Private Internet Access scores 9.7/10 in our privacy assessment because it logs almost nothing and has proven this in court.

We suggest you don’t use Avira Phantom VPN if you want to protect your privacy.

Where Is Avira Phantom VPN Based?

Avira is a security software company founded in 2006, with roots going back to H+BEDV Datentechnik GmbH in 1986. The company is chiefly known for its antivirus software.

Avira’s headquarters are in Tettnang, Germany. It also has offices in China, the Netherlands, Romania, and the US.

Germany is not an ideal location for a VPN provider because:

• It falls under EU data retention laws
• It is part of the 14 Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance

Combined with Avira’s intrusive logging policy and its stated willingness to comply with authorities’ data requests, this is a concern.

Avira Belongs to a Larger Corporate Structure

In December 2020, US-based NortonLifeLock Inc. bought Avira. This did not change Avira’s data-logging policy. In fact, NortonLifeLock’s VPN, Norton Secure VPN, also logs IP addresses.

NortonLifeLock is part of the Fortune 500 company Gen Digital. Gen Digital also owns AVG (AVG Secure VPN), Avast (Avast SecureLine VPN), and Privax Ltd. (HMA). All of these VPNs score average in our assessments, mainly because they log unnecessary data.

As you can see, neither version of Avira Phantom VPN can access major streaming sites.

This is a very poor result. The best VPNs for streaming unblock all of the above and more.

Safe Encryption & Security Protocols

Avira Phantom VPN’s logging policy isn’t good, but its encryption is solid. Both versions use the AES-256 cipher, which is industry standard.

We used a packet-sniffing tool to confirm that Avira Phantom encrypts all traffic. All incoming and outgoing data was encrypted and indecipherable.

OpenVPN is the default protocol across all apps, which is a good choice. The Android app also offers WireGuard, which is even faster and more modern.

We’d like to see a kill switch added to all platforms. Currently, it’s available only to paid users on Windows, which is a major security gap for Apple and Android users.

First-Party DNS Servers & No Leaks

Avira Phantom VPN uses its own DNS servers, meaning Avira processes your DNS requests rather than third-party hosts. This is a strong privacy and security practice.

Our in-house leak tests found no IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks when connected to Avira’s servers:

Avira Phantom VPN has servers in 35 countries, which is mid-sized at best. For context, Surfshark offers about 100 countries.

The network heavily favors Europe and the US: over 70% of locations are in Europe. We’d like to see more global coverage.

City-level selection is only available in Australia (Perth & Sydney), the UK (London & Manchester), and the US (12 cities).

Disappointingly, Avira Phantom would not disclose how many individual servers it operates.

We’d also like to see options for different server types, such as static IP addresses and residential IP addresses.

Free Version Restricted to Single Server on Desktop

On desktop, Avira Phantom Free limits you to the nearest server only. For example, if you’re in the US, you can only connect to a US server.

On mobile, the free version includes the same countries as the paid version. For a free VPN, that’s generous—more than many top free VPNs. We hope Avira standardizes this across platforms.

We tested both versions by connecting to a nearby server and downloading a 1 GB test file on qBittorrent. We repeated the test three times and averaged the results.

We were impressed by Avira Phantom VPN’s average torrent bitrate. At 9.8 MiB/s, it’s among the fastest out of 61 VPNs we tested.

Despite the speed, we advise against torrenting on macOS or Android with Avira due to the lack of a kill switch on those platforms. A kill switch is critical to prevent accidental IP exposure during file sharing.

Avira Phantom VPN’s intrusive logging and willingness to share data is another risk. P2P users could face issues if they inadvertently download copyrighted material.

Avira Phantom Free also achieves a fast bitrate, but it shares the same anonymity issues. The kill switch isn’t available on the free version, and the 500 MB monthly data cap may not even cover a single download, depending on file size.

For a safer free VPN for torrenting, we recommend Windscribe Free.

This level of compatibility is the bare minimum we expect from a paid VPN.

Unfortunately, Avira Phantom isn’t available on other platforms. There’s no Fire TV Stick or Android TV app, and it can’t be used on Linux.

You also can’t install the VPN on a router, so you can’t protect Apple TV or game consoles. There’s no Smart DNS to spoof your region either.

The good news is that Avira Phantom has no device limit. You can install and use either version on as many devices as you like.

Browser Extensions

There is no Firefox add-on yet.

The Chrome extension is quick to install and can change your IP address instantly. Like the free app, it limits you to the nearest server only.

It’s not just a proxy, unlike many VPN extensions. It’s a true VPN that encrypts your data with AES-256.

No Advanced Features or Customization

Avira Phantom’s lack of customization is a problem. You can’t control much of the security suite, including protocol selection.

We’d like to see manual protocol selection across all apps. Currently, only Android and iOS allow it.

VPNs like Hide.me and Astrill VPN offer far more flexibility for advanced users.

Avira’s only extra feature is a malicious site blocker, which might help some users. We didn’t find it useful, as it’s redundant if you stick to reputable sites.

Advanced VPNs offer features like Double VPN, IP rotation, open-source apps, and GPS spoofing. An effective VPN ad blocker would also be welcome.