Privacy & no-KYC
Is full-disk encryption useful on a VPS?
Against physical seizure of a powered-off disk, decisively yes: the volume is ciphertext without your passphrase. Against an attacker with access to the running hypervisor, no — the key is in memory the host can read. Any provider claiming otherwise is overselling, and the distinction is the whole point.
The right implementation keeps the passphrase off the machine. Our Bastion line ships LUKS2 with an initramfs SSH daemon: on every boot you connect and supply the passphrase, and we never hold it. That means a reboot needs you, which is the correct trade for this threat model.
What it genuinely protects against: decommissioned disks, hardware seizure, a datacentre incident, and a support engineer with physical access. What it does not protect against: a compromised hypervisor, or a compromise of the running instance itself.
See also: Hypervisor · LUKS
7 answers in Privacy & no-KYC
- What is no-KYC hosting? No-KYC hosting is server hosting that does not require identity verification. No passport, no photo ID, no billing address and no payment card. An ema…
- Is no-KYC hosting legal? Yes. There is no general legal requirement to identify server customers in the jurisdictions where OnionVPS operates. Anti-money-laundering identifica…
- How do I buy a VPS anonymously? Use a provider that requires no identity verification, sign up from a network that is not your home connection, use an email alias created for the pur…
- What data does a hosting provider collect about me? Most providers collect a name, billing address, payment card, phone number, government ID, signup IP address, and complete access and connection logs.…
- Do VPS providers keep logs of what I do? Most do. Netflow records, connection logs and panel access logs are standard, retained for 30 to 365 days, and in the EU and UK certain retention is l…
- Can a VPS be traced back to me? It depends entirely on the links you create, not on the hosting itself. A no-KYC server paid for in Monero and administered over Tor has no provider-s…