Fourteen Eyes Countries and why you should avoid them

VPN users often get confronted with the terms "fourteen eyes", "nine eyes" or "five eyes". Many do not know what this exactly means and just assume that it is something bad. In order to understand this term we will break things down for you.
Five Eyes (US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia)
The foundation of all these terms are the 5 eyes countries. Within the UKUSA-Agreement these five countries agreed to collect, analyze and share intelligence between each other.
The five eyes are:
The United States | ![]() |
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United Kingdom | ![]() |
Canada | ![]() |
Australia | ![]() |
New Zealand | ![]() |
Nine Eyes (Five Eyes + Denmark, France, Holland, Norway)
The "UKUSA-Community" then added other countries to join their network.
The "9 Eyes" are the original "5 Eyes" countries plus four additional "eyes"
France | ![]() |
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Denmark | ![]() |
Netherlands | ![]() |
Norway | ![]() |
The United States | ![]() |
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United Kingdom | ![]() |
Canada | ![]() |
Australia | ![]() |
New Zealand | ![]() |
Fourteen Eyes (Nine Eyes + Germany, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Spain)
Once again, the UKUSA Agreement network was extended to fourteen countries.
The Fourteen Eyes consists of the Nine Eyes along with 5 additions
Germany | ![]() |
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Belgium | ![]() |
Italy | ![]() |
Sweden | ![]() |
Spain | ![]() |
France | ![]() |
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Denmark | ![]() |
Netherlands | ![]() |
Norway | ![]() |
The United States | ![]() |
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United Kingdom | ![]() |
Canada | ![]() |
Australia | ![]() |
New Zealand | ![]() |
Additional Eyes (Fourteen Eyes + Israel, Japan, Singapore, South Korea)
Over the past few decades, the intelligence sharing program has made a few other alliances, but the details are not 100% bulletproof. In addition to the above 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes nations, here are other countries that may be part of this secretive alliance.
Germany | ![]() |
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Belgium | ![]() |
Italy | ![]() |
Sweden | ![]() |
Spain | ![]() |
France | ![]() |
---|---|
Denmark | ![]() |
Netherlands | ![]() |
Norway | ![]() |
The United States | ![]() |
---|---|
United Kingdom | ![]() |
Canada | ![]() |
Australia | ![]() |
New Zealand | ![]() |
Israel | ![]() |
---|---|
Japan | ![]() |
Singapore | ![]() |
South Korea | ![]() |
Conclusion
We recommend staying away from vpn providers based in one of the fourteen eyes countries. The reason is that the government of these countries may be granted complete access to the vpn providers company and could get used as a tool of mass surveillance. Meanwhile the provider is restricted to let anyone know of this happening.
An example of this is Lavabit – an open source encrypted webmail service. Lavabit shut down its service on August, 8, 2013 only leaving a message from the owner Ladar Levison. It was suggested that the suspension might be related to the US National Security Agency’s "domestic-surveillance practices" Levison explained he was under gag order and that he was legally unable to explain to the public why he ended the service.Instead, he asked for donations to "fight for the Constitution" in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He also said later that he could be arrested for closing the site instead of releasing the information.
Ultimately, Levison turned over the SSL keys and shut down the service at the same time.
By staying away from vpn providers of these countries you set your privacy even one step higher.
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Comments
$JuliXes1337$ January 5, 2018 at 3:17 pm
Didn’t hear of this yet! Thanks for sharing!