The AchieVer Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 A Look Into Why Free VPN’s Can Cause More Harm Than Good Intrusion, falsified encryption and lack of transparency are just some of the flaws a user potentially receives with a free VPN app. This can put Android and Apple users in a worst position than if they hadn’t installed it in the first place. What is VPN? VPNs can be likened to a secret tunnel. It encrypts data as it transmits between a users’ device and a network. In the process, the VPN pseudonymises the users actual IP address with another. Its purpose is to protect and keep private the user and their internet activity. It also prevents unauthorised attackers from altering or deleting data. Free VPNs are in fact carrying out the opposite. Here are just some of its flaws: 1.Privacy Intrusion A recent study into the security of free VPNs revealed that despite its purpose, the likeliness of intrusion was in fact high. Top 10 VPN looked into 30 apps and found over half were either Chinese owned or based in China. The problem with this is that the new Chinese Intelligence laws give the Chinese state more power to monitor VPN usage giving the State access to information when needed. This is due to VPN carriers requiring approval from the State. Even foreign companies have to use approved VPN carriers if intending to do business requiring this. Alongside intrusion from third parties, users also give away data by permitting the apps to access information about their location. Just over half of the apps come with a code which allows the VPN provider to retrieve users’ last known address. Free VPNs use of third-party trackers. Trackers gather information about users online behaviour for targeted advertising. 2. Lack of Transparency As well as third-party tracking, users in most cases, do not know that this is happening. Users, in general, do not receive enough information on how their data is used and whether any data is shared with third parties. 3. Security Security in free VPNs are questionable. Support email addresses provided personal email accounts such as Yahoo and Hotmail. Over half of the apps provide such email accounts. Past reports mention findings of Malware within free VPN apps. An example is where Trend Micro reported flaws with the app Hola VPN which had inadequate encryption which left users open to cyber threats, as well as leaking their IP addresses. Choosing the right VPN If the reason for using a VPN is to protect you whilst using a network from a remote device, it is worth researching into the best VPN app that will do exactly this. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitorio Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Top 4 ways “free” VPN providers can take advantage of you Injecting targeted ads and spam into your browser. Logging your browsing history and selling it to advertisers. Stealing your bandwidth and serving it to the highest bidder. Recording all your usernames, passwords, and bank details. The same goes for “free proxy” services. An independent study of over 25,000 free proxiesfound the vast majority of them to either block HTTPS, inject data, or modify content in some way. Even if a free provider isn’t malicious, free VPNs and proxies deliver a subpar experience in virtually every way. With free VPNs and proxies... Your connection is bogged down by a flood of users on a suboptimal network. If something goes wrong, there’s no one to help you. Poor security and no encryption means your traffic is exposed to third parties. There’s only a handful of locations to choose from. source: https://www.expressvpn.com/internet-security/paid-vpn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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