A virtual private network — better known as a VPN — is a key way to help protect your privacy when online, especially when you’re logging on from a public space such as a hotel lobby, coffee shop, library, or airport.
When you sign up with a VPN provider, you first log onto that service before you connect to the internet. When you do this, government agencies, businesses, hackers or others don’t see your IP address when you’re searching the web. VPN providers also encrypt your data, scrambling it so that snoops can’t see what sites you visit, files you download, games you play, or videos you stream.
Online privacy, though, isn’t absolute, even with a VPN. That’s because your VPN provider will know your IP address and what sites you visit. The key, then, is to work with a VPN that you trust. You want a VPN that doesn’t track your data when you’re online. If your provider doesn’t log your keystrokes, it also won’t provide your information to other agencies or businesses.
Finding a good virtual private network is getting tricky. The market continues to boom as people work from home and subscribe to streaming services more than ever due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. New players are routinely jumping into the marketplace and promising better features, with faster speeds at a lower cost. While free VPNs are a popular option for discount shoppers, new security problems illustrate why it’s worth it to pay for this set of technologies that encrypt your data as you browse online. You might be tempted to sign up for one of these free services. After all, who doesn’t like to save money?
But are free VPNs safe to use? Maybe not.
7 Hidden Dangers of Free VPNs
1. Compromising Your Security
One of the primary purposes of a VPN is to protect you from hackers. But, according to the 2016 CSIRO study, of the 10 VPNs most likely to be infected with malware, six were free ones.
The scary stat is bugs and battery life, 30% of users complained about them. Bugs can cause an avalanche effect that includes potential security breaches on your device that can leave you susceptible to viruses and malware. A glitch doesn’t seem like much but it’s not something you want from an app you are trusting to safeguard personal information.
Free VPNs rely on advertising for revenue. This is also why a VPN that limits your data is less likely to be dangerous than one that offers a free product. On the other hand, many premium VPN provide built-in adblockers, malware protection and unlimited bandwidth.
2. VPNs can use embedded tracking for various purposes
This is maybe the worst offense a VPN can make – and disturbingly, it’s the most common.
A major reason you use a VPN is to protect your privacy while browsing the internet. Thus, it’s startlingly ironic that the same study found only 28 percent of free VPN providers didn’t use embedded third-party trackers for analytics, tracking, or advertising purposes.
These trackers are used to gather data on your online activity, so advertisers are better able to target you with ads. As the graph shows the number of premium VPNs using these tracking libraries is extremely low, but they do exist because not all premium providers are created equal.
Instead of providing you privacy, the VPNs are doing the exact opposite, by collecting your information and selling it to the highest bidder.
3. VPNs can often fail at unblocking content
Many consumers turn to VPNs as way to access online content that they may be unable to access in certain regions of the world. A prime example? Netflix content.
Netflix – along with all major streaming sites – use the toughest ‘geoblocks’ in the world. Even premium VPNs struggle to break through them. Only a few succeed. Yes, technically, it’s possible to occasionally succeed using Tunnelbear, but it’s far from guaranteed to work. More often than not, you’re going to get hit with an error message. Plus, Tunnelbear’s free package is limited to 500 MB a month, which isn’t enough data to get through even one movie.
ProtonVPN can unblock Netflix using particular servers, but because they deliberately slow down your internet speed, you’ll probably go crazy from the buffering before you make it through a single episode of Orange is the New Black.
4. VPNs might slow down your connection
You might find that your online connection is sluggish when you log onto the internet through a free VPN service.
Many free services also offer premium VPN protection which charge either a monthly or annual subscription fee. These providers might slow down your online speeds on purpose as a way to encourage users to sign up for their paid versions. Free VPNs also slow down your internet speeds by displaying ads and by selling your bandwidth.
5. VPNs may allow delivery of online ads
Free VPN providers need to make money, and many do this by hitting users with a steady stream of pop-up ads. This is not only annoying but can also slow down your connection speed.
Not only are ads annoying, they can also slow down your internet speeds or contain malware. Finally, advertisers like to show specific ads to customers. The appearance of ads on a VPN raises user privacy concerns. In other words, if your VPN is showing ads, they’re probably also sharing your online activity with third parties.
6. VPNs might hijack your browser
Some free VPNs can highjack your browser and redirect you to other sites without your permission. According to the CSIRO study, HotSpot Shield did this to its users, for example, redirecting them to alibaba.com and ebay.com.
7. VPNs may allow governments to collect user data
A 2019 study from VPNpro found that the top 97 VPNs are operated by a total of 23 parent companies, with many of these companies in countries with weak privacy laws.
What’s alarming about these finding is that China has strict VPN bans. These companies, then, might be approved by the government in which the parent company is based to collect the data of its users.
The key takeaway? It’s probably a good idea to invest in a paid VPN service. These services may do more to help protect your data, avoid slowing down your internet connection speed, and unblock restricted content.
Some free VPNs keep logs, but paid VPNs may as well. Regardless of which type you choose; any VPN is safe only if you read the small print in the terms and privacy policies. Always check to see what type of data a VPN keeps, otherwise your data might be shared with the government or third-parties.
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