Avast SecureLine VPN Review

Here’s a list showing the popular streaming services that Avast SecureLine VPN unblocks:

Avast Secure Line has a number of servers optimized for video streaming, although they don’t specify which streaming sites they’re designed to unblock.

In any case, we tested all these servers with major streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and more.

We found Avast SecureLine works with Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and All 4.

The UK streaming server easily bypasses Channel 4 geo-blocks and accesses BBC iPlayer. It didn’t work with UK Netflix, though.

Amazon Prime Video worked on the US Miami server, but not the Gotham City, New York, or Seattle ones.

In addition, the Germany streaming server worked with German Netflix.

Avast VPN doesn’t unblock US Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max

Sadly, none of Avast’s four US streaming servers could stream US Netflix.

None of the streaming-optimized servers worked with Disney+, either. Both HBO Max and Hulu detected our Avast VPN connections and blocked them, too.

Based on our latest findings, there are far more effective streaming VPNs than Avast VPN, especially Netflix VPNs.

We tested Avast SecureLine on servers in six continents to evaluate its speed performance. Here’s a table showing the full speed results:

A short-distance speed loss of 97Mbps is an excellent outcome. For local speed test results, it’s one of the best we’ve seen.

However, it’s not all positive: Avast’s long-distance speeds are quite slow when compared to the fastest VPNs.

To see what we mean, use the bar chart below to compare Avast’s local and long-distance speed results against a few top-performing VPNs, like ExpressVPN and StrongVPN:

As you can see, Avast’s local speeds are very fast. But it’s long-distance connections are well behind. The best VPN for international connections is Hotspot Shield, which is only 1% slower than your normal internet speed wherever you connect to.

Here’s a table summarizing the information that Avast SecureLine logs:

Avast’s VPN privacy policy is clearly written and transparent, but the service logs more data than we’re comfortable with.

Avast’s servers store your connection data for 35 days, and any client data (account information) for up to two years. There’s no real justification for this practice.

At least Avast SecureLine doesn’t store your original IP address, DNS queries, or browsing history. This is the most sensitive information that no VPN should keep.

Moreover, Avast has a privacy policy for its VPN specifically (and another for its browser extension), and not a vaguely worded policy for all Avast products, like other antivirus companies have.

The problem is the content of the privacy policy. Sadly, Avast makes it abundantly clear it will hand over your data to government agencies. This is a serious cause for concern.

Avast VPN Operates Under EU Jurisdiction

Avast RSO is a Czech cybersecurity company founded in 1988. It’s best known for its antivirus software, but now sells a range of cybersecurity products. It also owns the HideMyAss! (HMA) and AVG VPN services.

Avast is still headquartered in Prague, Czechia, and is therefore subject to invasive EU data retention laws and intelligence agreements with privacy-unfriendly nations like the United States.

In its own transparency report, Avast admitted to providing data to law enforcement in response to legal requests.

In 2017, Avast handed over information concerning 41 of its users – 31% of all legal requests that year.

Its co-operation with law enforcement has since dropped to 0% for 2021 (that could be due to an exodus of trusting users, however).

But it shows that Avast has data to hand over in the first place, and that its legal jurisdiction is inappropriate for a VPN.

Warrant Canary

Avast introduced a tri-monthly warrant canary to warn users of gag orders. Right now it shows that Avast has not received any gag orders and that it has not been compromised.

However, we’ve noticed that Avast isn’t always on time updating its warrant canary, which makes it look like it has received a gag order. Avast should keep on top of this.

Avast Has a Privacy-Unfriendly History

Not only does Avast VPN log too much connection data, and is based in a privacy-unfriendly nation, but the company has also been caught harvesting user browsing data.

In December 2019, Mozilla removed Avast’s antivirus browser extensions for breaking its privacy rules.

The antivirus extension had been in fact harvesting and sending data back to Avast. This data included websites visited, search terms, videos watched, links clicked, and unique device IDs.

In January 2020, it was reported that personal data harvested by free Avast add-ons was being monetized and sold to tech companies like Google.

While Avast has abandoned this practice, which doesn’t apply to the VPN, service, no privacy company should engage in such activity in the first place.

Here’s a quick summary of showing how Avast VPN performed in our torrenting tests:

Torrenting Attribute	Result
Average Download Bitrate	9.29MiB/s
No. of P2P Servers	700
Logging Policy	Some User Logs
Kill Switch	Yes
Port Forwarding	No

Avast lists eight servers that are optimized for P2P activity. These are:

• Czech Republic
• France
• Frankfurt, Germany
• London, UK
• Miami, US
• Netherlands
• New York, US
• Seattle, US

Testing torrent speeds on these P2P servers, we recorded an average download bitrate of 9.3 MiB/s. This is up there with the best torrent VPNs.

The VPN possesses a kill switch, too, ensuring there aren’t accidental data leaks or exposures while you torrent files.

But Avast’s timestamp logs, data harvesting scandal, and cooperation with government agencies are all red flags. Basically, Avast SecureLine is not safe for torrenting.

The VPN offers no extra features for torrenters either, like a SOCKS5 proxy, or port forwarding.

Avast uses an experimental protocol

Avast has an in-house proprietary protocol called Avast Mimic, which it describes as “experimental.” This doesn’t inspire much confidence; when it comes to VPNs, you want data protection to be reliable, not experimental.

When we asked Avast how Mimic works, we were told:

Mimic employs military grade security and can connect to the internet up to 4x faster…it mimics/duplicates the connection to all websites you are visiting during your browsing session, providing fake information about who you are and where you’re coming from, making it impossible for anyone to identify you, track you or monitor you.

The protocol certainly delivers fast speeds, but we’d like a clear and transparent explanation of how the protocol protects your data.

OpenVPN is available as an alternative protocol on Windows and Android, but not on macOS, or iOS. We’d like to see it included across all apps, and WireGuard too.

You cannot change protocol on mobile devices (the default is OpenVPN). While the only alternative to Avast Mimic on Mac is the IPSec protocol. IPSec is not an unsafe protocol, but it’s not as powerful as OpenVPN or WireGuard, which are the leading industry-standard.

Safe practices, but too basic

Avast SecureLine uses the best encryption cipher, AES-256, and it has a kill switch across all of its applications (this is off by default, so don’t forget to turn it on). This shows that it has a solid grasp of VPN security.

However, the VPN would benefit from advanced and customizable protection measures like a malware and ad blocker, DNS leak protection, double VPN (multi-hop), and Onion over VPN.

Avast is basic compared to many leading VPNs, which are moving to RAM-only servers, open source apps, and invisibility on LAN.

One neat feature is that Avast VPN allows you to use a free password leak detector, to check whether passwords associated with your email have been exposed by data leaks or hacks. All you have to do is insert an email.

Smart Mode is a useful split tunneling tool

Avast SecureLine has a feature called Smart Mode, which is essentially an automatic split tunneling feature that selects which websites and apps are encrypted through the VPN tunnel and which are not.

Avast says that its Smart Mode can “tell when you’re connecting to a sensitive site,” closing the VPN session after you leave. This is usually for banking websites and torrent sites. It also knows whether you’re using public WiFi.

You can also customize this feature, choosing which websites you want to encrypt or not. In this way it’s like a regular manual split tunneling tool.

Credit to Avast that this is available on Mac; it’s rare to find a functioning split tunneling feature on Apple devices. Even top VPNs like ExpressVPN and NordVPN don’t have one.

Security tests: Is Avast safe?

We used our leak test tool to test whether Avast SecureLine won’t accidentally expose your data. We recorded no leaks of any kind — Avast SecureLine is free of IPv4/IPv6, DNS, WebRTC, and geolocation leaks.

We also ran the Avast SecureLine software through a virus and malware scanner to ensure it’s safe to put onto your device.

The results showed that Avast is clean of any malicious content and is safe to install.

We inspected the Android app for unwarranted permissions or trackers, too. We discovered that it has quite a number of trackers and permissions.

This includes access to your exact location and the ability to find accounts on your device. Both of these are considered ‘dangerous’ according to Google’s protection levels. Trackers include Facebook Analytics and Google Firebase Analytics.

Considering this is supposed to be privacy technology, we think there should be very few trackers or permissions. For context, Astrill VPN and Hide.me have zero – which is the gold standard.

We’d like to see Avast respect the privacy of its users more by cutting down the number of Android permissions and trackers.

Does Avast work in China? Yes it does.

Considering Avast SecureLine has no anti-censorship tools to speak of, we were surprised to learn that it gets around the Great Firewall of China.

This isn’t speculation: we tested it from our own servers in Shanghai. Using Avast’s auto-connect option we established a secure connection to South Korea, fooling the Firewall.

How long this success will last in the absence of obfuscation is not clear. Also, if Avast becomes better-known as an anti-censorship VPN, it can alert the authorities and initiate a harsher crackdown.

The Avast website and all of its products are blocked in China. Because of that, you’ll have to download the VPN before going into the country, or while using another VPN that works within the country.

Avast will also work against censorship in countries like Russia and Turkey, which have less robust crackdown methods than China.

For China specifically, we still wouldn’t recommend Avast SecureLine over an anti-censorship VPN like Astrill. But, if you’re already an Avast user, it’s useful to know it works within China.

Avast has upped its game when it comes to support. One time it encouraged you to call it or forced you to patiently wait for an email response. Now it has invested in a neat 24/7 live chat feature alongside traditional FAQs and email enquiries.

The FAQs in the app and on the website are all a little too basic to be truly helpful. We wanted to know how Avast Mimic protocol works, for example, but could find no information on it. This doesn’t bode well for transparency. We did get a response from the live chat agent, though.

If you choose customer support you’ll be sent to the website where you have to specify what product you need help with (Avast is a company with many). Once you do you can compose a message and send it as an email or enter a live chat.

Customer support is good and effective. There is a live chat feature available 24/7, and it allows you to download transcripts for future reference.

Support was polite, if a little robotic. They were slow in responding, which implied they didn’t have the knowledge to hand. But the knowledge they did eventually send was helpful and informative.

You cannot access live chat instantly like you can with some VPNs, though. You have to click a few options and fill out a form beforehand.

What was impressive is that we received a follow up email the next day from support expanding on the agents answers, without us ever having to ask:

“I’ve reviewed your live chat correspondence and I see that a question was unanswered regarding our servers.”

It proceeded to offer a more comprehensive answer. This shows initiative from Avast, and a desire to please its customers.