How Free VPNs Sell Your Data

Many companies do not promote their products in the most honest way, and this is especially the practice of VPN service developers. According to thebestvpn, of the 115 most popular services, 26 keep track of user data, although advertisements claim otherwise. Moreover, many companies simply sell this information to third parties.

VPNs are typically used to hide internet traffic or access country-blocked content. Many people think that this way their data will be safe. Unfortunately, this is a misconception. Your information is most often in the hands of a VPN provider.

What services are the most dangerous

The privacy policies of most services openly state that a developer can sell user data. These VPN services include Hotspot Shield, Hola, and Betternet.

Hotspot shield

The service has over 500 million downloads, and most people use it for free. Selling user data and intercepting traffic is common for Hotspot Shield.

The American Center for Democracy and Technology in 2017 filed a petition with the US Federal Trade Commission, which says that the Android application Hotspot Shield sends information such as wireless network names, MAC addresses and IMEI numbers to third-party ad networks. The service is also accused of stealing and redirecting user traffic to partners.

Hola

In 2015, researchers found a number of problems with Hola's security system. Among them is a bug that allowed attackers to remotely launch applications on users' computers.

To make matters worse, the service has been caught selling free user traffic to those who pay for the platform. In short, in an attempt to maintain anonymity, you can allow an attacker to access prohibited sites from your IP address.

The company has fixed some of the problems, but not all.

Betternet

One of the most popular free VPN services for mobile devices with 38 million users. The Australian Government Research and Applied Research Association learned that Betternet's Android app uses as many as 14 libraries to track user activity, a record for free VPN platforms.

In other words, when you try to hide your activity from your ISP using Betternet, your information falls into the hands of a huge number of third-party companies.

Why Free VPNs Sell Your Data

Your traffic is being redirected through servers and you have to pay for these servers. Some VPN providers can spend tens of thousands of dollars on this, some even millions.

It is difficult to live on one advertisement. Especially now. If a company has access to the data of many people, then it can make ads more targeted and therefore more expensive. Or just sell information about you.

What are the alternatives to a free VPN

Open source services

Such services are not financially motivated in any way, and their code is open to the public. Noteworthy options are OpenVPN, Freelan, and SoftEther.

OpenVPN →

Freelan →

SoftEther →

VPN from University of Tsukuba

VPN Gate is a fully functional version created by graduate students from one of the most advanced research universities in Japan. The service does not transfer your data to third parties, but still has restrictions. For example, it keeps records of your information to avoid abuse.

VPN Gate →

Own VPN

You may have to suffer a little and you will not achieve complete anonymity, but you will be sure that only you have access to your data. Lifehacker has already talked about how to set up your VPN.