Free VPNs are as far from perfect as VPNs can get, and while they do allow you some benefits, they will more than likely endanger you in other ways.
Here is why you must stay clear of them.
1. They log and sell your data
As mentioned, free VPNs may provide relatively decent security (depending on the service) and help you hide from outside threats. But, what about the service itself? Since free VPNs do not receive money from their users, they have to find alternative methods of funding themselves. They often end up logging your data, such as location, browsing history, and alike — and selling it to advertisers. They won’t openly announce it, but you might find that they keep the right to do so in their privacy policy.
2. They will ruin the experience with ads
Alternatively, they might bombard you with ads, as they can also profit from showing them directly to their users. Advertising is a big part of the online world of today, and advertisers are always looking for new methods to expose products and services to large numbers of customers. Showing them to users of VPNs won’t have the same impact as showing them on Facebook, but it will also cost them a lot less.
Meanwhile, the VPN itself is looking to earn money, and if that means showing a bunch of ads to their users, who are using the service for free — so be it.
3. They don’t have their own servers
Then, there is the fact that their servers are not their own. Everything costs money, and buying and maintaining servers is not especially cheap. Instead, free VPNs often use third-party-owned servers. Basically, this means that another company owns the servers, and it rents them out to other companies, such as free VPNs.
However, there is no guarantee that they will respect the privacy of the VPN users, and you can never know who else is recording the data that is being stored on the server. It is bad enough that the VPN is storing it, and doing whatever it wants with it. You don’t need to risk your data falling into the hands of a third-party company that you know nothing about, or even the government itself.
4. They could give your data to the government
Online surveillance is something that many governments around the world are very fond of. That way, they keep track of their citizens, monitor potential threats, and seek out gangs, criminals, terrorists, and alike.
However, there are many who just want as much data as they can get their hands on, such as the 5/9/14 Eyes surveillance alliance. There are 14 countries that are a part of the 14 Eyes alliance, and they all collect and share data of internet users. VPNs in their jurisdictions often receive requests for data, be they premium or free ones. The difference is that most premium VPNs do not record any data, so they have nothing to give. This is not the case with free VPNs.
5. Speed issues
VPNs reduce your internet speed. That is true for premium and free services alike. However, premium VPNs often have a much smaller impact, and if you have greater speeds, you might not even notice the difference. With free services, your speeds will be impacted heavily. In a lot of cases, streaming or downloading content will end up being a painful and frustrating process.
Not to mention the fact that their networks are not exactly stable, so slower speeds could be the least of your issues. Downtimes are more than a possibility, especially due to overcrowded servers.
6. Bad security
We mentioned that some services offer decent security, but that is by no means true for all of them. Some use weak protocols and bad encryption, which was cracked multiple times in the past. This means that, if your data ends up being stolen — even if it is encrypted, you might still end up being exposed. Hackers are known for trying to steal and sell such data, or misuse it themselves, whether for doing bigger hacks or for stealing your money and personal data.
7. 38% Free VPN Comes with Pre-installed Malware
Who does not love the free word, it does not matter which country you make a visit if you ask people that they like free products the answer must be the same. Actually, it is a common thinking of all the people worldwide. But compromising privacy and security to save a few bucks is not a thing you should do.
If you google “the top 30-40 free VPN” then you will find at least 38% of them come with the pre-installed malware. Yes, you read it right, a malware that is capable to destroy the whole network of an organization and spread sensitive information.
You may be thinking that how the company is using malware on its products. Well, most free VPN comes with advertising banners or we can say Malwartising. A normal user can not easily identify about it and that’s how the company took advantage of it. They release the free VPN trails for the users that already inbuilt malware kit and when the users using the software all the data goes to the company.
8. Land you into Trouble:
Normally a VPN uses our internet connection to access all the things over the internet. But that does not exactly happen when it comes to the free VPN and some more factors matter when we discuss the workflow of a VPN.
A free VPN uses your internet connection to access the internet on other user devices. Maybe some of you thinking that what is so dangerous about this matter, it just using the internet protocol. Well, it’s not so simple as it looks like and there is a really complicated concern that you must know. Let’s understand this in a simple language with an example.
Let assume that you are using XYZ free VPN foto stream online videos. But at the same time, the VPN is offering your internet connection to that user who is currently performing some illegal activity on the internet. If the guy who is using your internet protocol steals something from the government sites and when the officers will look for the IP and the source then you are the one who gets caught. Because the attacker used your IP to breach government security and you are responsible for that. Thousands of free VPN users face the same thing and they don’t have an idea who performed such things with their internet protocol address.
9. Free VPN And No VPN is Equal
Perhaps, If you have read the article till now, you may realize that free VPN does more harm than benefit. It’s better not to use VPN than using a free VPN. Free VPN is almost equal to no VPN. But at the end of the day, it is your choice to make. I believe we spend $50 easily on so many non-essential items than why not on VPN. A lot of VPNs are priced fairly, in fact, you can get more discounts using our some vpn deals.
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