Privacy Policy

Darkmatter VPN LTD ("DarkMatter", "we", "us") operates the DarkMatter VPN service and the website at darkmattervpn.com. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we handle it, and the rights you have. We've tried to write it in plain language, because a privacy policy you can't understand isn't much of a promise.

The data controller for the personal data described here is Darkmatter VPN LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 13230150) whose registered office is at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. If you have any questions about this policy or your personal data, contact us at support@darkmattervpn.com or write to us at our registered office.

How the service is put together

It matters for your privacy that you know how DarkMatter is built. Darkmatter VPN LTD provides your account, billing and support. The VPN network itself — the servers your traffic actually passes through — is operated by a third-party network partner whose service we resell under our own brand.

That split decides who holds what: we hold the information that identifies you as a customer, and our network partner handles the connections themselves. Both are described below.

Our privacy principle

A VPN is only as trustworthy as what it refuses to record. DarkMatter does not receive, store, or have access to the websites you visit, the DNS queries you make, or the contents of the traffic you send while connected. That traffic is carried on our network partner's infrastructure and never reaches our systems, so we cannot produce it, sell it, or lose it. What we do hold is the account and billing information set out below — and we would rather state that plainly than hide behind an absolute "zero-logs" slogan.

What we collect, and why

We keep our data collection to what is genuinely needed to provide and support your subscription.

Account information

When you create an account, we collect your email address and the credentials needed to authenticate you. If you enable two-factor authentication, we store the information required to verify it. We process this data to operate your account, under the lawful basis of performing our contract with you.

When you create an account on our website, we also record the IP address you used, to help us spot fraudulent sign-ups. It is kept with your account.

Billing information

To take payment we record which plan you hold, your billing history, and invoices. When you pay, we also collect your name, your billing address and, if you choose to give it, your phone number. We use these to take payment, to help prevent fraud (card issuers check the billing address against the card) and to keep accurate billing records, and we share them with our payment providers for the same purposes. Card details are entered directly into our payment providers' secure, hosted fields and are never stored on DarkMatter's own servers. We retain the billing records we are legally required to keep for tax and accounting purposes.

New-customer prices and your renewal agreement

Some plans have a lower price for your first term, for new customers only (see our Terms of Service). To check that a purchase qualifies, and to stop the same person taking a first-term price twice on different accounts, we keep one-way codes made from your email address and, when you pay a first-term price by card, from the card's fingerprint (a code our card payment provider gives us for the card, never the card number). A secret key is mixed in when each code is made, so the codes cannot be turned back into your email address or your card and are of no use outside our systems. We make the email code for every paid purchase on our website, so that a later purchase on another account can be recognised. We use these codes only for this check. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in applying the new-customer rule fairly. We keep them for as long as we offer first-term prices, because the rule covers anyone who has ever bought a plan.

When you buy a plan that renews automatically, or change your plan, we keep a record of what you agreed to: the exact wording you were shown, the price, the billing period, the renewal date and when you agreed, with your customer number and the codes described above. We keep it so that we can show what you agreed to and charge your renewals at that price, under our contract with you and our legal obligations. We also keep a record of each renewal reminder we send you (which reminder, for which plan and renewal date, and when it was sent, but not your email address), so that we can show you were told in good time. We keep these records for at least three years, and for as long as the plan runs.

Checkout steps

If you're signed in and start buying a plan on our website, we record which checkout steps you reach and when: creating your order, billing details, payment, reviewing your order, paying, and your VPN account being set up. With these we keep your customer number, the order's reference, the plan and billing period, whether you chose card or PayPal, your device type and your country. We don't keep your name, email address or billing address with them. We use these records to find where checkout goes wrong and to count how many people finish. We keep them for 90 days; after that we keep only daily totals, for 25 months. We also count payment attempts by result (for example, paid or declined) as daily totals with no customer details. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in making checkout work well.

If you don't finish checkout

If you're signed in and leave checkout without paying once you've reached the billing details step, we may show you a note on our pricing and checkout pages for up to 7 days after your last step, so you can carry on where you left off with the plan you chose. You can close it with "Not now", and we won't show it for that order again. We may also ask you once, and only if you want to answer, what stopped you (for example the price or a payment problem), and a "Not ready? Tell us why" link on the checkout pages asks the same. We keep your answer, and whether you saw, used or closed the note, with that checkout's record for 90 days, then only as daily totals for 25 months, to find out what puts people off. We never change the price because you left. We don't use a cookie or your browser's storage for any of this. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in helping you finish an order you started and in improving checkout. To object, contact us at support@darkmattervpn.com.

Emails about offers and unfinished orders

If you tick "Send me product updates, offers and reminders about unfinished orders" when you create your account, or in your account's notification settings, we may email you news about our service and offers, and one reminder about an hour after you leave checkout without paying once you've reached the billing details step (never more than one reminder for an unfinished order, and not if you told us what stopped you or closed the note). We only send the reminder if you ticked the box with this wording: an agreement to our earlier "product updates" box doesn't cover it. We keep a record of the wording you agreed to and when, so that we can show you agreed. For each reminder we keep which checkout it was about, when it was sent and a one-way code made from the address we sent it to, for 90 days. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can untick the box in your account at any time. When you unsubscribe, we keep a one-way code made from your email address so that we don't send that address these emails again, unless you agree to them again. Our lawful basis is your consent.

If someone referred you

If you arrive through a referral link from someone in our affiliate programme, we ask whether you want to allow referral tracking so the person who referred you gets credit. Only if you choose "Allow" do we set the dm_aff cookie, which holds their referral code (a number) for 90 days. We don't set it just because you followed a link. You can also type a referral code when you create your account; if we find it, we set the same cookie. If you buy while the cookie is set, we record the referral with your order so the person who referred you earns commission. They see how many people signed up through them and the commission they earned; we don't give them your name or email address. Our lawful basis is your consent. You can remove the cookie at any time in Privacy choices; a referral already recorded with an order stays with that order.

Error reports and technical logs

Our website's servers keep short technical records of the requests they handle (the page or action, whether it worked and how long it took) and of any errors, so we can keep the service secure and working and fix problems. When something goes wrong, we may show you a reference starting "dm_" that you can quote to us so we can find the record. These records are not a log of your browsing activity or VPN traffic. Our servers keep only a limited amount of them, and newer records replace older ones.

We also keep a separate record of errors on our servers for 30 days, so we can find one when you quote its reference: the reference, the page or action, what failed, and the website version. We remove email addresses, long numbers and security tokens from it first. It doesn't include what you typed or your IP address.

If a page breaks in your browser, it sends us a short error report so we can fix it: what went wrong and where in our website's code, which page it was on (with any account numbers or references in the address left out and without anything after a "?"), the website version, and your browser type, its version and your device type (for example "Firefox 131, mobile"). We remove email addresses, long numbers and security tokens before storing it. Your browser sends these reports only while website statistics are on, so turning statistics off stops them too. We keep individual error reports for 30 days. After that we keep only a description of each problem and how often it happened, for 13 months.

If your browser blocks something on one of our pages because of our website's security rules, it may tell us so by itself. We keep only which rule it was, the name of the website that was blocked, which page it happened on (without account numbers or anything after a "?") and your browser type: each report for 7 days, and daily totals for 13 months.

To protect sign-in and our forms from abuse, we count requests from each connection for up to an hour at a time. We count them against a scrambled form of the IP address that changes every day, not the address itself. We also count wrong passwords, and password reset and verification emails, for each email address for up to an hour at a time, so nobody can keep guessing a password or fill someone's inbox. We count these against scrambled forms of the email address and IP address that change every day, not the addresses themselves.

Wrong passwords are counted for up to 15 minutes after the last one, and the emails for up to an hour. While you're signed in, we also count wrong passwords typed to confirm it's you or to change your password, for that session only, for up to 15 minutes; after too many, we sign that session out. We count wrong two-step sign-in codes for up to 15 minutes, against our own number for your sign-in details rather than your email address; after too many, we pause two-step sign-in for 15 minutes. These counts hold only how many there were and when they end, never what was typed.

To help our support team keep your account secure, we keep a short summary of how each set of sign-in details uses our website: when it last signed in, how many two-step sign-in codes were entered wrongly in the last 24 hours, how many read-only backup sign-ins it made in the last 30 days (see below), whether two-step sign-in is on, how many website sessions are open, and whether your last password change reached our apps. Our support team can see this summary on your account in our billing system. It never includes your IP address, your browser or device, or your password. We delete it 30 days after your last activity on our website.

We also keep a record of the main actions on your account, so we can look into problems and keep your account secure: for example sign-ins, security sign-outs (such as after too many wrong passwords, or when your password was changed another way), password changes, and plan changes, cancellations and payments. Each entry says what happened and when, and is linked to your account by our own reference numbers. It never includes your password, your card details or your IP address. We keep each entry for 24 months, or 3 years for a cancellation under your legal right to cancel and for what you agreed when restarting a plan.

The systems that deliver our website, including Cloudflare, which protects it, also record each request they handle, including your IP address and browser type, to keep the site secure and working. These records, and the IP addresses in them, are kept for up to 14 days.

We rely on our legitimate interest in operating a secure, reliable service, balanced against your privacy.

Support requests

If you contact support, we keep your correspondence and the details you choose to share so we can help you and improve our service.

If our billing system is temporarily unavailable

Your plan, invoices and support tickets are held in our billing system. So that you can still see your account while that system is offline or paused for planned work, we keep a saved copy of part of your account and a way for you to sign in without it. We accept this backup sign-in only while our billing system is unavailable, and we show the saved copy only then or to someone who signed in that way.

The saved copy. When you, or someone you have given access to your account, view your account overview, plan, invoices or support tickets on our website, we save a copy of what those pages showed: your plans (name, status, billing period, price, next due date and the date any cancellation takes effect); up to 10 of your most recent invoices (number, dates, total and status) and how much you owed; and up to 10 of your most recently updated support tickets (subject, department, status, priority and when each was last updated). It never includes your payment details, your VPN username or password, your billing address, the items on your invoices, or the messages and attachments in your tickets.

The saved copy is kept on our own servers, not in your browser. It is encrypted with a key that only our servers hold, and each part carries the time it was saved. Anyone signed in to your account sees only the parts their access allows: someone who cannot see your invoices will not see them in the saved copy either. While our billing system is unavailable, your account pages show the saved copy with the time it was saved, and nothing can be changed or paid from it. Each part is updated when it is viewed again. It is deleted if it has not been updated for 90 days, and as soon as we learn that your account has been closed or deleted.

Signing in while our billing system is unavailable. Normally your password is checked by our billing system. When you sign in on our website, we also keep a protected one-way check of your password. It is made with a deliberately slow one-way function and a secret key that only our servers hold, so your password cannot be read back from it. We keep it encrypted, together with your name, the accounts your sign-in details can use and what they may see in each, and when you last signed in. We find it using a scrambled form of your email address, not the address itself. If you change or reset your password on our website, we replace it with a check of your new password.

We use this check only when our billing system cannot check your password itself, never when it can. It works only if you have signed in on our website in the last 90 days and we have a saved copy of your account. You sign in with your usual password, and your two-factor authentication code if you use one, to a read-only view: you can see the saved copy of your account and download our apps, but you cannot change anything, pay, or open or reply to support tickets. This read-only sign-in ends after 2 hours at most. To stop anyone guessing passwords, we count these sign-in attempts for each email address and each connection for 15 minutes, using scrambled forms of the email address and IP address rather than the addresses themselves.

We delete the check 90 days after your last sign-in on our website, and as soon as we learn that your password has been changed another way (for example, by our support team), that your account has been closed or deleted, or that our support team has signed you out of our website everywhere. We also check regularly that your sign-in details still exist and can still use each account they could use when you last signed in; if they have been removed, or can now see less, we delete the check and sign you out of our website everywhere. If we cannot be sure that we have heard about every such change, we delete every saved copy and every check, and start again.

Our lawful basis for both is our legitimate interest in letting you see your account while our billing system is unavailable.

Website statistics

We count how our website is used so we can improve it: for example, how many people visited the pricing page today, and how many people started and finished checkout. We do this ourselves, on our own servers. We don't use cookies for this or any third-party analytics service.

When a page opens, or you do something we count (such as choosing a plan or starting checkout), your browser sends us: which page it was, with any account numbers or references in the address left out and without anything after a "?" or "#"; the name of the website that sent you here, if another website did (not the full address); any campaign tags in the link you arrived by; and, for some actions, the plan and billing period you chose. Our server adds your country (as reported by Cloudflare from your connection) and your browser and device type (for example "Firefox, mobile"), then discards the rest of your browser details.

To count daily visitors without recognising anyone, your IP address and browser details are briefly combined with a random key that changes every day. The result is turned into a one-way code and added to that day's tally. Our statistics don't store your IP address or browser details, and the code is never linked to your account. We delete each day's key, and that day's codes, from our live systems within 48 hours; a recovery copy kept by those systems can hold them until it is next overwritten. We keep only totals (such as "212 visits to the pricing page on 3 October") for 25 months, and we don't share them with anyone else.

We also measure how quickly the page you arrive on loads and responds, using three standard speed measurements your browser takes. Your browser sends them with the page's address shortened in the same way; our server adds your device type. We keep only daily totals of these, for 13 months.

Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in understanding how the site is used so we can fix and improve it.

Your right to turn off website statistics

You can switch website statistics off at any time, free of charge. Use Privacy choices at the bottom of our web pages, Turn off statistics in our cookie notice, or the setting on the Privacy & data page of your account. We also treat a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal from your browser as a request to switch them off. Switching them off doesn't change how the site works.

Your choice is saved in your browser, not in a cookie, so you'll need to make it again in another browser, on another device, or after clearing your browsing data. With statistics off, your browser also stops sending speed measurements and error reports, and stops telling us which checkout steps you reach; our servers still note the steps they handle themselves, such as creating your order and taking payment. To object to that, or to anything else we do because of our legitimate interests, contact us at support@darkmattervpn.com.

Cookies and similar technologies

We don't use advertising or third-party analytics cookies. These are the cookies and browser storage our website uses:

Name	What it does	How long it lasts
`dm_session`	Keeps you signed in. Set when you sign in.	Until you sign out, and 24 hours at most. You're also signed out after 30 minutes without activity.
`dm_csrf`	Security: stops another website sending forms or account changes in your name. Set the first time you sign in, buy, send us a form, allow or remove referral tracking, or change something in your account.	Until you close your browser
`dm_plan`	Remembers the plan you picked if you need to create an account or sign in before checkout.	7 days
`dm_aff`	Referral: set only if you arrive through a referral link and choose "Allow" when we ask, or type a referral code when you create your account, so whoever referred you gets credit if you buy. You can remove it in Privacy choices.	90 days, or until you remove it
`dm_stats_off` (stored in your browser, not a cookie)	Remembers that you turned website statistics off.	Until you turn statistics back on or clear your browsing data
`dm_cookie_consent` (stored in your browser, not a cookie)	Remembers that you've seen our cookie notice.	Until you clear your browsing data
`dm_notice_dismissed` (stored in your browser, not a cookie)	Remembers a site notice you closed, so we don't show it again.	Until you clear your browsing data
Payment key (stored in your browser for the current tab, not a cookie)	Makes sure an invoice payment isn't taken twice if the page reloads.	Until you close the tab
Stripe	Stripe, our card payment provider, sets its own cookies on the pages where you pay or add a card, to help prevent fraud.	As set by Stripe
Cloudflare Turnstile	Checks that you're a person, not an automated program, on our sign-in, registration, password reset and contact forms. It may store information in your browser to do this.	As set by Cloudflare

Our staff also use preview cookies when checking the site during planned work. These are never set for customers.

Our apps

Our apps for Android, iPhone and iPad, Mac, Windows and Fire TViPhone and iPad, Mac, Windows and other devices use the same DarkMatter account as our website. This section explains what the apps collect on top of the account and billing information described above.

What the apps collect

Your email address and account details, to sign you in and manage your plan.
Purchases you make in the app. If you buy a plan through Google Play, the App Store or the Amazon Appstorethe App Store or another app store, we receive the store's record of the purchase (the plan, the price, when you bought it and the store's reference for it) so we can set up and renew your plan. The store takes the payment: we never see your payment details.
A device ID and the device model, sent when you sign in, buy a plan or turn on notifications, so we can manage your plan and your devices. The device ID is an identifier your phone or tablet gives our app. It is different for each app and it is not an advertising ID.
A notification token, an address that lets us send messages about your account to that device. The app registers it when you sign in. We also use it to tell the app quietly that your account has changed or that it should sign out, so it is registered even if you don't allow notifications. Your device only shows notifications if you allow them.
What you write to support or send as feedback in the app, with the app's version, your device type and model and your operating system's version, so we can help you.
Signing in on a TV. If you sign in on a TV with a code from our website, the code is used only to complete that sign-in.

The apps don't collect your location, contacts, photos or files, and they don't use advertising IDs or advertising trackers.

The VPN connection

To connect you, the apps use our network partner's VPN software. It contacts the partner's servers to fetch the list of servers and their settings, to sign in to the VPN account created for you, and to check which servers you can reach. Like any internet connection, these contacts carry your IP address and basic details of the app and device. The traffic you send while connected goes through the partner's servers, and neither our apps nor we keep a record of the websites you visit or what you send (see "Our privacy principle" above).

Analytics and crash reports

Our Android app, from version 2.1.0, sends no analytics or crash reports. We have switched off Google Firebase Analytics, Firebase Crashlytics and the VPN software's own usage reporting, and tested that nothing is sent.

Until each of them is updated, our other apps, and Android versions before 2.1.0, may still send:

Until each app is updated, our apps may still send:

usage statistics and crash reports through Google Firebase (Analytics and Crashlytics) in our Android, iPhone and iPad and Fire TV appsiPhone and iPad app and our other phone, tablet and TV apps: the screens you use, your device type and operating system, an ID for that copy of the app, and details of any crash. We don't link this data to your account;
connection events from our network partner's VPN software, such as connecting, disconnecting or failing to connect, sent to the partner's analytics service;
crash reports from our Windows and Mac apps through a crash-reporting service, which may include your computer's IP address and user name.

Our lawful basis for these is our legitimate interest in keeping the apps working. We are switching them off in each app's next update. To stop them sooner, update the app when an update is offered, or contact us at support@darkmattervpn.com to object.

Your choices in the apps

You can turn notifications off in your device's settings. Signing out of an app removes that device's notification token from our systems. Uninstalling an app stops it sending anything.

We keep the device IDs, device models and notification tokens the apps send while you have an account, and we delete them when you delete your account. A device's notification token is also removed when you sign out of the app on that device.

Our lawful basis for the app data in this section, apart from analytics and crash reports, is performing our contract with you.

What we do not do

We do not receive or keep logs of your browsing activity or VPN traffic — it travels on our network partner's infrastructure and never reaches our systems.
We do not sell or rent your personal data to anyone.
We do not store your payment card numbers.
We do not use third-party analytics or advertising trackers on our website.
We do not require personal information beyond what is needed to run your account.

We share personal data only with the service providers that make DarkMatter work, and only to the extent they need it to perform their function on our behalf:

Our VPN network partner — the third party that operates the VPN infrastructure. To give you a working connection we provide the details needed to provision a VPN account for you, and we retain an identifier linking your DarkMatter account to the VPN account created for you on their network. This partner operates outside the UK.
Payment processors — to take and reconcile payment.
Our email delivery provider — to send account, billing and support email.
Cloudflare — to deliver and protect our website. It handles your connection to the site, including your IP address, and tells us which country a visit comes from.
App stores — Google Play, Apple's App Store and the Amazon AppstoreApple's App Store and the other app stores that sell our apps, to take payment for plans bought in our apps.
Google Firebase — to deliver notifications to our apps and, in the app versions described under "Our apps", to collect usage statistics and crash reports.
Our billing platform and hosting providers — to operate the service.

These providers are bound by contract to protect your data and to use it only for the services they provide to us.

We may also disclose data where we are legally required to do so. Because the VPN network is operated by our partner and that traffic never reaches us, the only data we are able to produce is the account and billing information described in this policy.

International transfers

Some of our providers may process data outside your country. Where personal data is transferred internationally, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, to protect it.

How long we keep data

We keep account data for as long as you have an account, and for a limited period afterwards. Billing records are retained for the period required by law. Support correspondence is kept only as long as it is useful for support and service improvement. When data is no longer needed, we delete or anonymise it.

In particular:

Website statistics: daily totals for 25 months. The daily key and the day's visitor codes are deleted from our live systems within 48 hours.
Records of requests to our website (including your IP address), kept by the systems that deliver it and by Cloudflare: up to 14 days.
Checkout steps: 90 days, then daily totals only, for 25 months.
If you don't finish checkout (your answer to "What stopped you?", the note on our pages and the reminder we sent): 90 days, then daily totals only, for 25 months.
Your agreement to product updates, offers and reminders: while it stands, and for 24 months after you withdraw it.
The one-way codes of addresses that unsubscribed: kept, so that we don't email that address these emails again.
Page speed: daily totals for 13 months.
Error reports: individual reports and server error records for 30 days; a description of each problem and how often it happened for 13 months.
Security-rule reports from your browser: 7 days, then daily totals for 13 months.
Saved copy of your account (for when our billing system is unavailable): each part is deleted if it has not been updated for 90 days, and as soon as we learn that your account has been closed or deleted.
Backup sign-in check of your password: replaced when you change your password on our website; deleted 90 days after your last sign-in on our website, and as soon as we learn that your password has been changed another way, your sign-in details have been removed or can now see less, or your account has been closed or deleted.
Sign-in summary for our support team: 30 days after your last activity on our website.
New-customer check codes (from your email address and card): for as long as we offer first-term prices.
Records of what you agreed to when you bought or changed a plan, and of the renewal reminders we sent you: at least three years, and for as long as the plan runs.
Our website servers' technical records: a limited amount, with newer records replacing older ones.
Security counts (wrong passwords and two-step codes, password reset and verification emails, requests from each connection): from 15 minutes to an hour.
Record of the main actions on your account: 24 months from each entry (3 years for a cancellation under your legal right to cancel, and for what you agreed when restarting a plan).
Device IDs and device models from our apps: while you have an account; deleted when you delete your account.
Notification tokens: until you sign out of the app on that device, or delete your account.
Usage statistics and crash reports from the older app versions: for the period set in our Google Firebase project, no longer than 14 months (Firebase Crashlytics keeps crash reports for 90 days), and as set by the services our network partner uses.

Your rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to request its deletion, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to receive a copy in a portable format. You can exercise these rights by contacting support@darkmattervpn.com.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your personal data, please tell us first at support@darkmattervpn.com. We'll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and respond without undue delay. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. If you live in the EU, you can also complain to the data protection authority in your country.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in our Android app (Profile > Delete account) or in our app (Menu > Profile > Delete account) or by following the steps at darkmattervpn.com/delete-account, which also lists what we delete, what we must keep and for how long. We delete your account within 30 days. Deleting your account doesn't cancel a subscription you bought through Google Play, the App Store or the Amazon Appstorethe App Store or another app store: cancel it with the store first.

Children

DarkMatter is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under the age of 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will remove it.

Security

We protect your data with encryption in transit, access controls, and other technical and organisational measures. No system is perfectly secure, but we take the safeguarding of your data seriously and design our systems to minimise what we hold.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes we will update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you.

Contact us

Darkmatter VPN LTD (company number 13230150), 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom — support@darkmattervpn.com