Of course, besides the people who fall for the basic “VPN are some magic security device” most people (in particular those that know what they’re getting) always looks for the same thing “which one can I actually trust”.

Even if it’s not government owned you have no idea whose keeping logs, sharing data etc.

So you can really only base your trust on whether the company has come up to any issues with the government and have refused, or has run for a number of years and provide a positive track record. With the changing of laws and how companies work, you also need to regularly check that your they stay respecting privacy and security.

For what it’s worth, a VPN company worth is if it private, security and stands up to scrutiny. The moment trust is lost, the company is meaningless. So that’s something for those that are long lasting.