Where in the world are you finding a 14tb drive for that price that isn’t used. More like $370 minimum, more often ~$400 from what I’ve seen.

ProtonVPN is no log and so is Mullvad I think. Basically it’s mostly reputation, some also pay for outside audits of their systems so they can more effectively boast.

No log vpns probably do cooperate with authorities, but the fact that they are no log means they don’t provide anything. They get a warrant for logs and identification, they comply and send a letter “we have no logs, or way to trace the identity of a user”.

Generally speaking, if you’re paying for a VPN, then you should be paying for a provider that is no log. Free VPNs, you get what you pay for, which is nothing. So you don’t really get any security with that.