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VPNs have become increasingly popular as a response to these and other problems. Encryption techniques they employ prevent nosy individuals from seeing what you're doing online and keeping your internet activities private. But, can you trust a free VPN? Read our in-depth guide and learn everything about this topic, we are quite sure that once you’re done with reading you will know what to do next.
Ben Grindlow is the founder of ProXPN, a company that provides reviews about VPN products and services. Ben's interest in cybersecurity and privacy led him to start ProXPN, which has become one of the most well-respected VPN providers in the world. Ben is passionate about his work, and he is constantly exploring new ways to improve ProXPN's in-depth guides.
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One of the most important things you must be conscious of while connected to the Internet is safety. In your endeavor to remain anonymous online, be careful about free VPNs.
VPN stands for Virtual private networks. You can get over 300 free VPNs for download on Google Play Store, Apple Store, or Windows Store.
People worldwide are willing to purchase Paid VPNs service and Free VPNs to carry out their various online activities and enjoy its benefits.
For example, VPNs protect your privacy, ensure online security, and bypass geographical restraints.
The downside to this is that many of these VPNs cannot be trusted, especially the free VPNs that are more common and popular.
CSIRO, Data61, UNSW, ICSI, and Berkeley University in the United States conducted research into the security of 283 VPN apps.
Based on the results obtained from this research, people should try and avoid free VPNs to ensure online safety and online privacy. Five different harmful reasons why you should not download free VPNs were listed.
The primary job of a VPN is to ensure online privacy while carrying out any online activity. Once you have activated the VPN, you are supposed to rest assured that you are browsing online anonymously.
But this is not always the case with free VPN apps on most devices. They track information about you, like the websites you visit and your real IP address.
This makes it possible for them to create an audience profile about you so that they can send you targeted advertisements.
This is not what you want for a VPN, whether an Android user or an Apple user.
Consider two free VPN apps, among others which are Flash Free VPN and Betternet. They have more than 6 million installs put together. This may seem nice, but if you are truly concerned about your privacy, stay away from them because it was discovered that they have the highest number of built-in embedded tracking libraries.
Research has shown that many free VPNs come with adware, viruses(malware), or spyware. In extreme cases, another person can take over your device with full control. The apps studied during the research were given an antivirus rating or Av ranking.
These are the five nastiest apps when it comes to spyware, adware, or malware:
It's best not to download them.
Most free VPN services come with an inbuilt speed limit. This limits the actual speed of your device when connected to the Internet. This means your internet connection becomes very slow.
Furthermore, some free VPN apps make the bandwidth of your internet connection available to third parties. Using a free VPN app can also cause your device battery to run down faster than it is supposed to.
While using most free VPN apps, you are prevented from using unlimited data.
You are given a usage limit. For example, you may be allowed to use about 20GB of data every month and 1GB per week via the VPN service provider.
These are some VPN service services.
At first, it may not seem like a problem, but when your weekly limit has been reached, and you still have a lot to do online, it becomes a major issue and hinders your online activities.
To make a few bucks, VPN service providers allow targeted advertisement. Because they are more concerned about making money, they may not be so concerned about how harmful the content of some adverts may be to VPN users.
This may result in you being negatively affected by some of these targeted adverts and all the latest news.
Based on the information about the dangers of free VPNs, you most definitely have the answer to the question ‘ are free VPNs Safe'?
Making the right decision when choosing a reliable VPN service provider that guarantees anonymity is very vital.
If you are still interested in being part of the free users of VPN services, here are some of the best free VPNs you can look into and take advantage of its free trial and other benefits.
The truth is that free VPNs are not as secure. Because large networks and safe users necessitate substantial hardware and expertise, VPN providers must pay expensive operating costs. As a VPN user, you can either pay for a premium VPN service with your money or use up your data to access free services.
Free VPNs profit by recording and selling your data, inserting advertising in your browser window, and/or redirecting you to e-commerce and third-party sites. Many of the most popular free VPNs on Google and Apple platforms are infected with malware.
When you use a free VPN, you're putting yourself at risk of exposing your data or IP address through a tunnel full of holes. Hackers can follow your activities and pry into them, while nosy gazes may monitor you. Free VPN services are hazardous. They pose significant security and privacy risk to users.
Yes, it's completely safe to use a VPN on your phone. That is, as long as you pick a reliable application. A good VPN app will let you alter the server through which you connect to the internet, effectively hiding your location.
Hacking is one of the main reasons why you would want to use a VPN. As a result, it's concerning that certain VPNs include malware – one of the most serious online security threats. Bugs and battery life were among the most common issues reported by users, with 30% reporting problems.
