You may have heard about “Five Eyes” or “Nine Eyes” countries if you’ve read anything about online privacy. We will tell every detail you must know about these countries and international intelligence-sharing agreements (Five Eyes, Fourteen Eyes, and Nine Eyes Alliances). These alliances could endanger your online privacy, but don't worry, we will tell you how to successfully protect your sensitive data and keep your online anonymity. First, you will find out which countries are a part of these alliances, how they might impact on VPN users, and much more fascinating information. 

1. Five Eyes Countries

Countries that are a part of the Five Eyes Alliance are:

    • New Zealand
    • Australia
    • UK
    • Canada
    • US

This alliance was founded sometime in the 1940s.

2. Nine Eyes Countries

Countries that are in the Nine Eyes Alliance are all countries from the Five Eyes Alliance plus these ones:

    • France
    • Holland
    • Norway
    • Denmark

3. Fourteen Eyes Countries

Countries that are among the Fourteen Eyes Alliance are all the Nine Eyes Countries and these countries as well:

    • Italy
    • Sweden
    • Spain
    • Belgium
    • Germany

4. Unofficial Five Eyes

Besides the official Five Eyes countries, there are also countries that unofficially help the cause of the Five Eyes Alliance. They cooperate with this alliance, hand out crucial information, and in most cases, they don’t get any information in return. This happens because the status of those countries is not equal to the countries that are a part of the Five Eyes Alliance. These countries are:

    • Israel
    • South Korea
    • Japan

5. The History of These intelligence-sharing Alliances

The Five Alliance was an alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States established in the 1940s. The main objective of this alliance was to decrypt the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Russians.

A decade later, three additional countries became a part of this intelligence-sharing agreement. Those countries are Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Now, five countries make the Five Eyes Alliance. This agreement got stronger and stronger as the years went by, and now they also do surveillance on the Internet. At first, this alliance was a complete secret, and the public just found out about it seventeen years ago, back in 2003.

Besides this agreement, there are the Fourteen Eyes as well as the Nine Eyes Alliance. These two alliances might not have that strong of an impact on the surveillance of Internet users like the Five Eyes alliance, but they are still very powerful.

6. The Impact of 5,9, 14 Alliances on Users of VPN services

The impact of these alliances is pretty bad on VPN users and Internet users too. You can be certain that if even one of these fourteen countries gets ahold of your personal info and data, they will gladly share it with the remaining 13 nations.

If you want to protect your online privacy, you must get familiar with online privacy laws. First, you must find out if using a VPN service is legal in the country you live in. In the majority of countries across the globe, it is legal, but still, it is better if you’re completely sure.

Also, in order to protect your privacy on the Internet, it would be best if you avoid VPN services that are located in one of these 14 Eyes countries. Because, if the VPN you’re currently using is based in one of these countries, your VPN provider might have to hand out your personal information because the authorities force it to. Also, there’s even a chance that you don’t even find out that the authorities are endangering your online privacy.

Because this can happen, it is very important that you choose a VPN provider that has a strict no-logs policy. If you’re using a VPN that has this feature, even if the government orders that a VPN provider provides information about its users, the VPN will be unable to do so because it stored no connection logs or Internet traffic of its users.

7. Best VPNs that Operate Outside the Five Eyes Alliance Jurisdiction

Below, we listed a couple of VPNs that operate outside the jurisdiction of these alliances.

a.) NordVPN

This VPN provider is one of the best services when it comes to protecting the privacy of its users. It's based in Panama, a country that doesn't have invasive privacy laws. This means that this VPN works outside the jurisdiction of these three alliances. It is available on many operating systems like Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and so on. If you want to get access to geo-restricted content, this VPN will make it happen, and you can enjoy the content of streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix. You will be safe with this VPN as it has a wide range of encryption like L2TP/IPSec and OpenVPN.

b.) VyprVPN

VyprVPN is one of the most reliable VPNs you can possibly use. This VPN provider is located in Switzerland, which fortunately isn't a part of the 14 Eyes alliance. VyprVPN has a no-logs policy, which means that they won't store your connection logs, IP address, or your Internet traffic. You will be well-protected with the encryption protocols that this VPN provider offers to its users. You will have the chance to choose one of these fantastic protocols, and they are OpenVPN, Chameleon, PPTP, etc. You can use VyprVPN on any device of your choice (laptop, smartphone, PC, or tablet).

c.) ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is one of the best VPNs for online privacy protection. This VPN service is located in the British Virgin Islands, a country that has no invasive privacy laws.  ExpressVPN is known for many great features, but the best ones that it offers is high connection speeds as well as the ability to unblock geo-restricted content. You will be safe thanks to the cutting-edge encryption protocols and an extra layer of protection- 256-bit AES encryption. If you want to try this VPN, you can always select the 30-day money-back guarantee option. This VPN provider is available on many apps like Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and it works great with routers.

Conclusion

International surveillance programs like the 5, 9, and 14 Eyes Alliance are endangering the online privacy of Internet users every day. People have to be aware that their governments could get ahold of their personal info very quickly. So, if internet users want to protect their online privacy, they must avoid VPNs that are under the jurisdiction of these 14 countries, and choose a reliable VPN that is based outside of these countries. Choose one of the VPNs we reviewed, and your online privacy will not be endangered.