Canada-based Windscribe, a VPN provider, just said that one of its European servers has been allegedly seized by Dutch authorities without a warrant. According to the company’s post on X, law enforcement said that they will return it to the service provider after they “fully analyze it.” It’s unclear why law enforcement impounded just a single rack from Windscribe’s cabinet, but the VPN provider said that it only uses RAM disk servers, meaning anyone who would look through the installed SSDs would only find a stock Ubuntu install on it, so the servers shouldn't hold any trackable data.
“THIS IS NOT A DRILL: The Dutch authorities, without a warrant, just seized one of our VPN servers saying they’ll give it back after they ‘fully analyze it’,” the company said in its social media post. “Windscribe uses RAM disk servers so that only thing the authorities will find is a stock Ubuntu install.”
THIS IS NOT A DRILL: The Dutch authorities, without a warrant, just seized one of our VPN servers saying they'll give it back after they "fully analyze it". Windscribe uses RAM disk servers so the only thing the authorities will find is a stock Ubuntu install. The bigger worry… pic.twitter.com/lv9kIg4dnG February 5, 2026
The company maintains on its website that it doesn’t keep personal data about the activity of its users. Aside from that, it also says, “Our Transparency Report tracks real-time data requests from copyright and law enforcement agencies. To date, we have complied with zero requests, due to lack of relevant data.”
It’s unclear what the Dutch authorities seek from Windscribe’s server, but the company said in a subsequent X post that it gets “a handful of law enforcement requests every month” and that it always responds with “we have no logs.” However, the company claims that the authorities didn’t ask this time, saying that “they just snatched the server from the rack to look for the logs themselves.”
We get a handful of law enforcement requests every month. And each time we tell them we have no logs. This time they didn't ask, they just snatched the server from the rack to look for the logs themselves. Unfortunately for them, there's still no logs lolhttps://t.co/bZZsRiYpZb February 5, 2026
RAM cannot retain data after it loses power, which is why security-conscious companies use it over traditional SSDs and hard drives. But other X users were quick to point out that “it is standard practice to keep a seized server powered on or otherwise technically accessible until investigators can perform a live memory (RAM) capture in a forensic lab.”
We do not know what the Dutch authorities want to get from Windscribe’s servers, but this event will test the extent of the protections that it offers to its users. But no matter how great a VPN service is, it still cannot offer complete anonymity unless the user takes specific actions on their end to completely protect their identity. We reached out to Windscribe for comment and will update if they respond.
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