u/NordVPN_ProductTM

Hi everyone, Dominykas from the NordVPN product team here.

You may have noticed that Nord is evolving from a VPN provider into a cybersecurity suite, offering protection across multiple aspects. As the digital threat landscape continues to change, so do we. In this effort, we recently launched Transaction Monitoring, and I wanted to jump in here to explain what it does, how it works, and where its limits are.

The idea is simple: to help people spot fraudulent transactions sooner. Transaction Monitoring is designed to watch linked financial accounts and alert you when something looks unusual.
The system reviews your transaction history (roughly the past year) and runs statistical analysis to build a baseline spending profile: typical amounts, frequencies, and merchant types. New transactions are checked against that baseline, and anything falling outside it triggers an alert.

Here’s how it works:

1. You connect supported bank or credit card accounts through MX, our third-party bank-connection provider.
2. The system reviews roughly the past year of transaction history.
3. It builds a baseline from your usual spending patterns, including amounts, frequency, and merchant types.
4. New transactions are checked against that baseline.
5. If something looks unusual, you get an alert and can decide what to do next.

You can set it up in NordAccount under the Monitor dashboard. From there, go to Asset management and Transaction monitoring, connect through MX, choose your financial institution, log in to its online banking and select which accounts you want to monitor. Once the accounts appear in your monitored assets list, monitoring is enabled. You can turn it off or back on with a toggle.

A few important details:

• The connection is read-only. It can retrieve/receive transaction details and send alerts, but it cannot move, withdraw, or transfer money.
• NordVPN does not store your bank account details. Account linking happens through MX’s secure integration with your bank’s own portal.
• The feature currently works only with supported financial institutions in the United States. If your bank is not supported by MX, you will not be able to link your accounts yet.
• The feature is currently available on Android, iOS, and Windows, with macOS coming soon.
• This is part of the premium NordVPN service package and complements Dark Web Monitor Pro™, but it is a separate feature.

While the feature is still in beta, every report and piece of feedback is valuable. You can submit it anonymously through the feedback form in the feature interface. After trying it, I’d be interested to hear how it goes. The most useful feedback would include:

• Whether the alerts felt useful, too noisy, or too slow
• Any false positives or transactions that were flagged unexpectedly
• Bug reports and edge cases

I’ll keep an eye on the thread and answer what I can.

Hi everyone,  I’m Roman, the product owner for scam, phishing, and malware protection, and I wanted to share a recent update.

We’ve added an optional cookie banner hider to NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus in the Windows and macOS apps.

When enabled, the feature detects supported cookie consent banners and handles them automatically, reducing interruptions while you browse. It also prevents banners from reappearing when you switch to private or incognito mode or clear your cookies.

Technically, the feature uses third-party open-source filter lists to identify supported banners. Depending on the website and the available options, it may emulate an “Accept,” “Reject,” or another supported selection without requiring manual input.

The cookie banner hider is part of our next-gen antivirus suite, alongside the ad and tracker blockers.

If you’re on a premium NordVPN plans, you can enable it by going to:

Scam, phishing, and malware protection → Advanced settings → Cookie banner hider

A few important limitations to be aware of:

• The feature activates only when a supported cookie consent banner is displayed.
• It may not work on every website because consent banners are implemented differently.
• It suppresses and handles consent prompts; it does not guarantee blocking of all cookies.
• On some websites, suppressing the banner may affect site functionality or your ability to make a specific consent choice.

The feature is disabled by default and can be turned on/off at any time.

More information about how it works is available here: https://nordvpn.com/blog/cookie-banner-hider/  

For those who have already enabled it, I’d be interested to hear about your experience.

Hi everyone, Rytis from the Quality of Service team here.

We often hear concerns about NordVPN’s impact on mobile battery life. Since Android and iOS can show NordVPN near the top of the battery usage list, we asked West Coast Labs to independently test the actual impact on phones battery life.

In May 2026, they tested NordVPN across six Android and iOS devices, using direct hardware measurements rather than relying only on the operating system’s battery usage attribution, and here are the main findings.

The battery screen can be misleading

During one test, the phone attributed approximately 49% of the session’s battery usage to NordVPN.

However, direct hardware measurements showed that NordVPN’s actual overhead during one hour of streaming was only around 1.6–2.1% on both Android and iOS.

The reason for this difference is because all internet traffic passes through the VPN and mobile operating systems may attribute the battery use from streaming, browsing, and other activity to NordVPN. This can make the app appear to consume more power than it actually does.

Network switching added a small, temporary cost

The researchers also simulated a two-hour stress-test with repeated switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data.

Reconnecting a VPN tunnel requires some additional processing, but the measured impact was limited. NordVPN used around 5% more battery than the same test without a VPN, which represented less than 1% of the device’s total battery capacity.

NordVPN also maintained a reconnection success rate above 99% during network transitions on both Android and iOS.

NordLynx was more efficient than OpenVPN

The tests compared NordLynx, our default protocol, with OpenVPN.

NordLynx used:

• 31% less battery per unit of data on Android
• 24% less battery per unit of data on iOS

NordLynx is built around WireGuard® and is designed to move data using fewer device resources than older VPN protocols.

The impact over a full day was minimal

West Coast Labs also ran a scripted 24-hour test covering sleep, commuting, work, and home usage.

Keeping NordVPN connected continuously increased total daily battery use by:

• 1.4% on Android
• 1.8% on iOS

That does not mean every device, network, or usage pattern will produce exactly the same result. Battery performance can also be affected by signal strength, temperature, screen brightness, background apps, and device condition.

However, testing found no significant battery impact from keeping NordVPN enabled all day.

You can read the full summary here.

We’re sharing these results for transparency, especially since mobile battery reports can be misleading. I’ll be monitoring the thread, so feel free to leave any questions about the testing, NordLynx, or battery usage.

Hi everyone, I’m Andrius - Senior Product Owner for Call and Message Protection at NordVPN.

I noticed this feature sparked some discussions here previously. That kind of feedback is very useful, especially for surfacing concerns about unintended disruptions. Discussing it openly allows us to make  better decisions for product improvement.

Call and Message Protection is now available for Android users. The Message Protection helps Android users spot spam, scams, and phishing attempts in texts by detecting common cybercriminal patterns. 

More information about the feature and why we build it, can be found here: https://nordvpn.com/blog/nordvpn-message-protection/ 

Users with eligible NordVPN premium subscription plans can try it starting today. The setup steps may differ slightly depending on your device, so we’ve included detailed instructions in our Help Center article here: https://support.nordvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/37488442107025-NordVPN-Call-protection-feature-for-iOS-and-Android

I’d appreciate feedback from anyone who tests it, especially on the following:

1. Is the setup flow clear on your device?
2. What Android device are you using, and which Android OS version is installed?
3. Does the feature behave as expected?
4. Did you notice any false positives, missed detections, or edge cases?
5. Is anything unclear, intrusive, or in need of improvement?

I'll be around in the comments if anyone has questions. Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to test it and share feedback.