Will try... Long topic ... First: It depends on what you are trying to hide. Personally, I don't trust my government, so I use a VPN. While I don't do illegal things, my views are fairly non-traditional and I don't want to be targeted for that. That being said, I don't care if a foreign non-friendly government knows my details ... they have no power to persecute me for my views and beliefs. So, I'll use a foreign owned VPN and foreign owned servers. Secondly: Believe it or not, state agents do not have (legal) power outside their respective country. For example, in the US, the FBI/DEA/AFT will need to build a case to bring it to trial. If they have an illegal search they will not be able to bring that evidence into a US court. So, If you do something the US government doesn't like on a Chinese server ... the US government has no authority to demand access to the server. The Chinese company (and Chinese government) will be happy to tell the US agency to go pound sand. So ... the only way they could get the logs is bribery or espionage ... making any evidence found inadmissible in court. I won't dox myself or my contacts, but I know of a drug investigation that went tits up because the emails / data required were on a foreign server. The agents gave up and went on to easier fish. They will keep that suspect on their short list, but they won't risk their career over an illegal search. At the end of the day, they are just government employees who like their pensions. This isn't a blanket statement for all government agencies. For example, for the US, the IRS has power to reach and look at foreign bank deposits, thanks to SWIFT, etc. so foreign banks (that accept US accounts) are subject to US money laundering laws. And, obviously ... NSA / CIA / Mossad / MI6 / etc doesn't play by these rules. Because they are not making criminal cases that need to be tried in court. They don't care one bit about how they get the data. But, if you are playing in these circles ... well, best of luck ... still use a VPN but don't expect to have a long comfortable life. Finally: Not all VPNs are equal. The only -safe- VPN is one that you built yourself on a server sitting outside your home country. Next best are VPNs that are not subject to your local laws and regulations. To assume all VPNs are the same is a juvenile view.