Your Free VPN May Be Working Against You
- Sima Biswas
- 2 minutes ago
- 6 min read
They promise privacy, anonymity, and security all for nothing. But when it comes to free VPNs, the price you're not paying in dollars, you're almost certainly paying in something far more valuable.
There's a certain attraction to a free VPN service. You've heard about hackers sitting in wait in public places for someone to connect to their unsecured Wi-Fi. Your Internet Service Provider quietly logs your web activity. You've heard horror stories about mass surveillance by your government. You want something to protect yourself, and there it is, in the store, all shining and polished and utterly free. What's not to love?
A great deal, actually. There's a lot of deceitfulness and manipulation associated with the world of VPNs, but perhaps nothing quite as bad as the business model surrounding those which claim to be absolutely free. Even though some of them can genuinely be said to be offered as promotional leads for paid services, most are simply worthless pieces of software designed to actively damage your safety online.
Not that there's anything particularly shocking here. Building and maintaining a reliable network of servers to provide such services costs money. So when you find a piece of software which will do all that and be absolutely free, there are two obvious questions you need to ask.
Why "Free" Is Never Actually Free
Consider all the requirements of a good quality virtual private network provider: a global infrastructure of servers, a skilled technical team managing them, security checks, encryptions, and a support center. High-quality products cost from $3 to $12 monthly because that is how much it actually takes to provide such services. How can free providers cover their expenses? You guessed it right – it comes at your cost.
Also Read: Carry Two Phones? This Hidden UPI Feature Lets You Make Payments From Both Devices Easily
Data monetization is the most widespread way to make profit off free services. The data obtained through tracking your surfing habits, application usage, location, or content of unencrypted traffic can be analyzed and resold in the form of detailed profiles to third-party companies. What is ironic about the matter is that while installing a privacy solution, you agreed to being spied on despite your initial intentions.
While others make money from advertisements, by putting banner ads and trackers right into your web traffic. In fact, some of them go much further than that. There was an example of a popular free proxy Hola. It was discovered that it sold the excess bandwidth of their millions of clients, creating a botnet – a network which could be rented to conduct a DDoS attack.
There is no way how the business model of free proxies would not conflict with your interests as a client. This is the way things work.
The Security Problem Is Bigger Than You Think
Bad data practices are terrible already. But what makes things even worse about free VPNs is their failure to protect your connection, which should have been the number one priority for a good VPN in the first place.
Zimperium, a mobile security firm, analyzed over 800 free VPN apps from Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Researchers discovered that more than 65 percent of all these applications displayed questionable behavior. It wasn’t about suspicious privacy statements; rather, there were technical problems like the use of vulnerable, old APIs that could be used to exploit users. Another example was an insecure method of launching activities that could potentially allow malicious parties to sidestep the Android/iOS protection system.
In another case, Top10VPN tested 100 free VPN apps and discovered serious flaws, including poor security measures, suspicious permission requests that didn’t make sense in this context (contacts, camera access, microphone access) and generally terrible encryption.
This issue is made even more problematic because of the illusion of safety that it provides. The individual using the free service feels safe, so they have no hesitation when it comes to connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots or signing into sensitive accounts on open networks since they believe that all of their activity will be safe due to the fact that it's being encrypted. This might not actually be true, however, since their data could be vulnerable to exploitation by their very own service provider.
The Data Breach Hall of Shame
The dangers associated with free VPNs have become all too real through a series of well-publicized instances in the past few years. These are not one-off scenarios. On the contrary, it is a clear indication of systematic carelessness, even fraud, involving millions of users across the globe.
Do you see the connection? Each time, the company involved was storing the data of its users, despite claiming it did not collect such data, and without any form of protection at all. "No logs" meant absolutely nothing in the context of those services. Not only were the companies misleading about how they handled data, but they failed to secure the data they collected.
What You're Actually Risking
Data breaches may be viewed as distant, abstract occurrences taking place away from one’s own life. However, just imagine what the average free VPN captures and what can be done to that information by an attacker after it is compromised.
Not All Free VPNs Are the Same
Now is the time when balance calls for the recognition of the fact that the situation is not completely bleak. Indeed, there exists a rather modest number of providers of free VPN services who provide their services legally – as a starter package offered by respected companies to encourage customers to buy other packages later on.
Proton VPN is the company setting the highest standards in this area. Headquartered in Switzerland, this company is governed by tight Swiss regulations in terms of personal privacy. Moreover, it has been proven that Proton does not log any information, after which its service has been tested by security experts. What’s even better, Proton’s free package doesn’t have any data limit, which is really rare among companies dealing with free services. Another good company is Windscribe with its 10GB limit per month.
However, one needs to remember that all such free services are limited to being introductory packages without the full functionality of a premium offer. The package offered by Proton isn’t as feature-rich as its paying counterparts. Windscribe’s 10GB will run out after a couple of days of streaming. They make good sense for testing purposes or temporary use but not as an everyday offering.
How to Spot a Dodgy Free VPN
If you're evaluating a free VPN, a few quick checks can tell you a lot about whether you're dealing with a legitimate service or something more predatory.
What to Check | Green Flag | Red Flag |
Privacy policy | ✓ Specific, audited no-log claims | ✗ Vague language, no audit |
App permissions | ✓ Only network access | ✗ Camera, contacts, mic |
Revenue model | ✓ Clear paid upgrade path | ✗ Unclear how they make money |
Independent audits | ✓ Published audit results | ✗ No third-party verification |
Jurisdiction | ✓ Privacy-friendly country | ✗ Five/Nine/Fourteen Eyes |
Data cap | ~ Limited but honest | ✗ Unlimited with no explanation |
This particular point needs some more attention. In case a free-of-charge virtual private network claims to provide unlimited bandwidth at zero subscription charges without any paid version, be aware that something fishy is going on. Free bandwidth requires huge spending. And where does this money come from? Most often, from your pocket.
The monthly cost of a premium-quality service is somewhere between $3 and $10, and for that price tag, you will get something that free market cannot provide to you – a service provider which benefits from having satisfied customers. You are a product when you pay for their service. When you do not pay for their services, you become their inventory.
Paid-for and reputable services, like Mullvad, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Proton's paid plan among others, ensure that they have a third-party security audit on regular basis, that they have secure servers, and they also set up legal frameworks that would prevent them from sharing any information on their users when put under legal pressure. Many of them were subjected to such pressure, and managed to prove beyond any doubt that they have no information to share.
Free things on the internet tend to have the effect of looking great until they cease to be so. Such is the case with free VPNs, which use the exact concerns about being watched and tracked, among other reasons to download the product. In essence, what free services do is capitalize on your fear of your ISP, by doing what yours wouldn't.
This, however, doesn't imply that you shouldn't use a VPN at all. All it suggests is being careful when downloading and using such a service. As mentioned earlier, in the event that finances are a problem, the free version of ProtonVPN will suit your needs perfectly and won't cost you anything; while for general use, a reasonable fee for the services provided is worth it.
It's not a matter of whether you can afford a VPN or not, but of whether you can afford not having one.