Why are free VPNs dangerous?
Everyone has their own story about how they first met VPN. Many simply used it on an ongoing basis, while others did not even understand why it was needed at all. Nevertheless, a VPN allows you not only to hide on the network, but also to bypass many regional restrictions, and even save money. For example, many sites and services are simply not available in USA. You won’t be able to visit them without a VPN. Sometimes some services, for example, ticket sales, set different prices for residents of different countries. In this case, VPN allows you to pretend to be a resident of another country and get a lower price. And, of course, you should not forget about security, which is much higher when using a VPN, especially in networks provided in a public place. All this is a VPN, which is sometimes simply irreplaceable.
Content
- Which VPN to choose for a smartphone
- Cons of Free VPNs
- Dangerous smartphone VPNs
- How to choose a paid VPN
Which VPN to choose for a smartphone
First of all, you should understand that free cheese is only in a mousetrap and you can easily be deceived. Any major VPN service is a huge global network of servers and computing centers. All this costs a lot of money and, no matter how much we would like it, no one will pay this money for us, especially since one server costs about 200 – 500 dollars a month. As a result, the entire network runs into a cost of several hundred thousand dollars a month, and this does not include maintenance, developers, designers, application creators, and maintenance. The creators of the service will still earn and get their money, the question is, how?
In particular, they can steal your data that passes through them. It does not have to be the data of bank cards and payment applications. This is a scam and no one will deal with it. But analyzing your traffic and selling data to advertising services is easy. In addition, your contacts can be intercepted, which will also find how to use it.
Paid services in this regard are a completely different matter. They value their reputation, because by taking a fee from users, they will earn more than on the side. If the price is low, it’s easier to pay and get access to unlimited traffic at high speed.
Cons of Free VPNs
In addition to the security issues listed above that come with free VPN services, there are other reasons not to use them.
First of all, among such reasons it is worth mentioning the smaller number of servers compared to paid counterparts. This leads to slow and unstable operation, as well as the inability to select servers in some countries of the world that you may need. This is important, because we have become accustomed to stability lately and we have a reason .
In addition to advertisers, your data may also be shared with others. In some way they get on the exchange and the one who pays for them will get them. In many cases, you will not know about it, but you can understand that advertisers have received information about your queries if information starts to appear in the results based on your search queries.
In addition, free services very often bombard you with ads, without even giving you the opportunity to skip them. In combination with the low speed of work, this can lead to the fact that you will not wait for the desired page very soon.
And most of the free services work through China, which for many years has been recognized as the main “spitter” on the confidentiality of information. Not many people want to transfer their data there.
Something like this, your data is carried on the Web through a secure tunnel when using a VPN
Many free services do not disclose any information at all regarding their activities. Even the user agreement they have is more “for show”. Good services are sure to describe everything in detail and make sure to indicate that their policy is no logs, which ensures that no one saves your personal data.
Dangerous smartphone VPNs
Relatively recently, one of the largest free VPN providers, Hola, was exposed. It boasted over 50 million installs but sold its user activity to third parties. The sale used a third party service called Luminati. This proves once again that free VPNs are still dangerous in one way or another. You will not even be saved by the efforts of Android developers .
How to choose a paid VPN
From the above, we can conclude that the only disadvantage of a paid VPN is that you have to pay for it. Many will have to overcome themselves, but it’s worth it.
I used several similar services from different teams, but in the end I realized that for a small amount per month it is much easier to turn it on once and always be safe than to turn protection on and off every time.
Lately I’ve started using Surfshark ‘s VPN . This service not only fulfills its main function, but also offers many useful additional features. For example, automatic disconnection of the connection in case of disconnection from the VPN server and the ability to use not only physical, but also virtual points.
For added security, Surfshark can track malware, block ads, and is encrypted with 256-bit AES keys. For some streaming services, such as Netflix and Spotify, a stable connection is important, otherwise, if the VPN falls off, the broadcast will be interrupted. Surfshark has an auto-connect feature that will solve this problem without the user noticing.
The best part is that with a two-year subscription, this VPN only costs $1.99 per month. Even with the jumped rate, it’s cheaper than a Yandex Plus subscription, three liters of gasoline, three subway rides, shawarma, a couple of bottles of light or a cup of coffee in a good coffee shop.
Why am I doing all this? And to the fact that security and privacy, which we talk about so much, are not just at arm’s length from us, but even closer. For such money, it is definitely not a pity to try it. Moreover, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.
If you’re serious about online privacy, you’re probably wondering which service to trust with your traffic and your data.
