Are VPNs safe? Are you still using a free VPN? This article is going to tell you 10 possible risks of using free VPNs.
Why did you decide not to use a free VPN after using several VPNs? Take a look at the possible dangers of free VPNs!
I’m sure you’ve all downloaded a free VPN if you’ve traveled to mainland China, but is the free VPN you’re using really a good connection? The purpose of a VPN is to protect the security of the Internet, but many free VPNs are more dangerous to your network security!
I’m not saying that all free VPNs are dangerous, but rather that free VPNs are more risky than paid VPNs.
10 Risks of Free VPNs
Compromising your security
Free VPNs can contain malicious viruses that can be triggered by downloading or clicking on a button within the VPN. The risk is lower if you download from Google Play or the APP Store. However, many people download the installation files directly from the Internet, and the possibility of a virus hidden in such a VPN is very high!
Track your online activity
Many free VPNs will tell you: “To improve the user experience, we allow the program to view your browsing history”. Even if the user chooses to allow or deny it, it may be tracked online. In particular, pay attention to the VPN’s privacy policy to see if there are any potentially harmful terms.
Stealing your confidential information
Some free VPNs ask for a lot of personal information when you sign up, such as your email address, cell phone, ID card, third-party social media permissions, and so on. Please pay attention to whether the permission requested by the VPN is reasonable, basically I accept up to the mailbox, and no more. Also, when registering for an account password, don’t use a commonly used account password, and use a less frequently used email address.
Remember that when you use a free VPN, you can just assume that all this information is publicly available on the Internet, because no one will guarantee your security. Don’t use a free VPN to enter your credit card number, it’s a very dangerous thing to do.
Many malicious ads pop up
The reason why free VPNs are free is that most of them use advertising to support their revenue, otherwise it would be a big expense to maintain the VPN server. The general advertising is fine, but some free VPNs will plant ads from malicious phishing sites in order to make more money. If a user is accidentally cheated by a website, the fraudulent website will distribute the commission to the free VPN, and the income from this is quite large! So be extra careful not to click on advertisements when using a free VPN, and if you open a web page, please close it immediately.
Sometimes the ads are not hidden in the VPN program, but will pop up when you are on the Internet, so delete the VPN quickly!
Limit the amount of data you can use
Some free VPNs limit the amount of data you can use for your connection, such as TunnelBear, which limits the amount of data you can use to 500 MB for free. If you pay for an upgrade, you can remove the traffic limit. These VPNs are not dangerous, but are actually paid for under the guise of being free. Just be careful not to accidentally hit the payment button when you run out of data, and you’ll be fine.
Significantly reduce the connection speed
This is similar to the above, it may be used for a day, and then suddenly significantly reduce your connection speed, saying that you have to pay to upgrade to restore the connection speed. Basically, it is also free to attract you to use, leading to the use of paid. But beware of the possibility that after the upgrade, the speed is still not faster, and customer service will tell you that there are just too many people using it, to find excuses to get you. Instead of such uncertainty, it’s better to use a paid VPN with 30-day unconditional refund from the beginning, which is more secure.
Personal data being sold
This is often linked to the above tracking of your online activity. Data about users’ online activity is collected through privacy policies or permissions and then sold to advertisers. Therefore, it is important to pay special attention to what information is collected by the free VPN, but browsing history may not be easy to find out that it is being tracked.
Deactivated accounts
Some VPNs are considered malicious source networks because they have too few IPs or are used for malicious attacks. When you use this IP to log into some high security sites, your account may be deactivated for fear that you have been hacked. Therefore, the diversity of the server IP and the good credit of the vendor is a big factor to judge the good or bad of VPN!
IP without actual hopping
The most basic function of a VPN is to do IP hopping, but some free VPNs do not have hopping at all. This kind of VPN is the name of free, do some malicious behavior most of the time. So after you connect, make sure to check your IP to make sure your IP is really jumping to that server country.
Considered an insecure source
Some VPNs provide IPs that are already considered unsafe by major networks. So when you use this IP to access the Internet, you will find that you can’t connect to any websites. There is no need to use this type of VPN!
How to choose a good VPN?
- A good VPN is considered to have the following characteristics.
- A large foreign company with high reputation (not from China)
- Very large number of users
- There are many review articles
- Good after-sales service, including trial period, customer service response speed
- There are enough servers to connect to
Conclusion
This article explains 10 possible hazards of free VPNs, so I hope you will pay attention when using free VPNs! If you are looking for a reliable VPN, please refer to the home page.
