PCMag is looking for input from readers who actually use VPNs and online privacy tools day-to-day. Instead of just publishing another editorial ranking, the publication wants to know which services real users rely on, and it is offering a $250 Amazon gift card as an incentive to share those opinions.
The sweepstakes runs from July 9 through October 11, 2026. There are two ways to enter. The primary method is filling out the online survey on PCMag's site, where you can detail your experiences with various VPN providers and privacy software. If you prefer paper, you can mail a 3-by-5 card with your name, address, phone number, and email to the Ziff Davis offices in New York. Mail entries must be postmarked by October 12 and received by October 20.
The contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington DC who are at least 18 years old. Employees of Ziff Davis, their immediate family members, and anyone sharing a household with an employee are not eligible. Previous winners of Ziff Davis sweepstakes in the past nine months are also excluded, which prevents the same small group of contest enthusiasts from monopolizing the prizes.
You can only submit one entry per person. The $250 gift card is a modest prize, but the real value for PCMag is aggregating genuine user feedback on a category that is full of marketing spin and affiliate-driven recommendations. VPN reviews are notoriously skewed because many publications earn commissions on signups. A survey that asks actual users what they think, without a purchase attached, has the potential to cut through that noise.
If you have honest opinions about which VPNs actually perform well, which ones drop connections, and which privacy tools are worth installing, this is an easy way to make them count. The survey takes a few minutes, and even a single entry puts you in the running for the gift card.
Online privacy is a category where user experience varies wildly depending on location, bandwidth, and technical skill. A VPN that works flawlessly for someone in a major city with fiber internet might be a frustrating slog for someone in a rural area with limited connectivity. The same goes for password managers, encrypted messengers, and ad blockers. Broad review scores rarely capture that variation. By crowdsourcing direct feedback, PCMag can build a dataset that reflects how these tools actually perform across different real-world conditions rather than just in a controlled testing environment. That kind of information is genuinely useful for anyone trying to decide which service to trust with their data.