A recent analysis was conducted to assess the accuracy of data regarding the location of exit nodes as declared by various VPN providers. Out of the 20 VPN providers tested, only 3 consistently provided correct information about the countries of their exit nodes. Six providers were found to offer incorrect or unverifiable country data in more than 50% of cases, while three providers fell in the range of 30% to 49%. Some providers even falsely claimed to have equipment in over 100 countries, when in reality, they were directing traffic from a few data centers in the US and Europe.
More than 150 thousand output IP addresses were analyzed, covering 137 countries as specified by the VPN providers. The validation process involved analyzing routing, RTT (round-trip time), and delays in packet delivery. It was discovered that approximately 8,000 IP addresses did not match their declared countries, with discrepancies so significant that they could span several thousand kilometers. Additionally, 38 declared countries were found to be virtual, with no actual traffic records.
One of the contributing factors to these inaccuracies is the unreliable data in Whois and registrar databases. Information in these databases is based on the owner of the IP addresses and the data they provide, which may be outdated, incorrect, or intentionally misleading. Furthermore, the accuracy of GeoIP services like MaxMind, IP2Location, and Digital Element, which claim country information accuracy rates of 99.5-99.9% without verifying actual locations, is also called into question. Find out more here.