[Warning] Free VPNs are actually Spyware

[satscraper]

Heads Up!

Love VPN services?

You're probably right to be passionate about them, but not if they're free.

It turns out the popular FreeVPN Chrome extension has been spying on you for years.

TL;DR

Technicality of spying is here.

Be vigilant. Free VPN services may seem like the soft bed, but they’ll still make it hard to sleep at night.

[_act_]

Fee years ago we have discussed about this very well on this forum when o_e_l_e_o was still active on this forum. Free VPN are spying on people definitely.

If I still want to use free VPN, I user the free part of the paid VPNs but they are limited to few locations which is the reason I prefer paid VPN.

But in anything that has to to with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, I prefer to use Tor. I use Tor to check some of my wallets.

[Porfirii]

I suspect that some paid VPNs are also spying their users, especially those that advertise their services in mass media. For some reason I would rely more in a SME rather than in companies that have grown so much in a short time; not for any reason, but because that's what very big companies usually do (if your main goal is to earn as much money as possible, all the rest becomes secondary).

But I'm afraid that most users with few technical skills, like me, have to have faith in their reliability.

TOR is definitely the best alternative, but IMO it's so slow and uncomfortable to use, that few people would use it unless for very sensitive information worth the sacrifice.

[ultrloa]

Heads Up!

Love VPN services?

You're probably right to be passionate about them, but not if they're free.

It turns out the popular FreeVPN Chrome extension has been spying on you for years.

TL;DR

Technicality of spying is here.

Be vigilant. Free VPN services may seem like the soft bed, but they’ll still make it hard to sleep at night.

Yeah this kind of risk exist for using those freevpn since we don't know the source if they are clean or not. Since they could put something that can harm people that's why I'm not comfortable dealing with this free tools.

People could read lots of interesting things here about what they need to consider about using those things https://www.techjockey.com/blog/why-free-vpns-are-not-safe-to-use

That's why its good to invest on Paid VPN's from legit sources since they can assure that they are safe and away from any potential spywares or malwares.

[Natalim]

This is possible since “free” is not always really free, they have to be getting something in return.

But I’m curious though, if free VPNs are spying, how about the premium ones? I’m sure they’re also capable of spying.
Don’t we consider them risky as well?

[Knight Hider]

[0xSlayers]

Good catch. This is exactly why free VPNs are dangerous, there's is a saying if you're not paying for the product, you are the product.
VPN like these often log browsing data, sell it to advertisers, or worse.

Insted You can use paid VPN with transparent policies.

Also be careful with browser extensions, they often request way more permissions than they need.

[rdluffy]

When I was looking for VPNs, I had a hard time finding accurate information about most services

I've never used FreeVPN.One

When I looked for information, most of it was paid and biased reviews, or from people who didn't have enough knowledge to understand exactly how VPNs work
I believe that most of us want to know whether a VPN will sell our information or not, and whether our data is really secure and deleted to maintain our privacy
I also don't have enough knowledge to know this information, and I've even seen paid VPNs that have had problems, such as Pure VPN, which I thought would be good

Does anyone know where to find good reviews or developers who understand VPNs and can help choose good VPNs?

[tech30338]

Free's vpn will actually do things like this, unlike paid VPN but it does not mean they cannot do anything, if the company has reputation they might not do such thing, but free vpn's will likely to things like that since they need to get something on return,  just stay away on free stuff, specially if you don't know who is the developer of the software, mostly they might gather information about the user.

[SATWAT]

In this world where money is having more importance now things are getting worst for end user because if they are not well aware about few things surely this free stuff is doing tricks to them, and they are losing their privacy on the name of free stuff.
Always need to understand and have proper checkup for these because spyware is surely going to be not good in near future things could be worst as big players are used to be done this for few countries which are looking for having all stuff for their own interest.
Few days back I read on social media some other apps and wallets are also having suspicious activity and things which are not useful for members as they are on risk of losing their privacy and personal stuff now how this will be fixed and how can we assure all will be ok.

[Mia Chloe]

It turns out the popular FreeVPN Chrome extension has been spying on you for years.
Be vigilant. Free VPN services may seem like the soft bed, but they’ll still make it hard to sleep at night.

Technically speaking many VPN services are actually scams. The ones of her best to use and mostly those that are open source and the centralized something like Tor. Some paid VPNs infact don't even do what they are paid to do which is cloak your IP. I found a particular site online;

ipleak.net

According to the article I found It in , you can see what information your browser shares with site you visit and if you use a VPN you can tell if it's actually cloaking your IP or not.

[fullfitlarry]

If you registered using an email on a free VPN, then there you go, you are already being spied. And there is also the leaked on our ISP itself, they can see if we are using a VPN, so there's no so called anonymity with VPN.

And if I'm not mistaken, free VPN might also have this deceptive so called "no logs", but we are not sure of that (even Premium as well). And there are cookies and malwares and spywares bloated on this free VPN and that's where all the tracking can start.

[satscraper]

I would advise being more attentive when reading this article. The spying issue here goes beyond just scrambling your IP. FreeVPN secretly captured your screen throughout the session. The technique they used is quite sophisticated and difficult to detect using common tools that analyze traffic from your computer.

BTW, does anyone here use tools like Wireshark to analyze outbound packets? ^{Personally, I do}.

[Patikno]

Heads Up!

Love VPN services?

You're probably right to be passionate about them, but not if they're free.

It turns out the popular FreeVPN Chrome extension has been spying on you for years.

TL;DR

Technicality of spying is here.

Be vigilant. Free VPN services may seem like the soft bed, but they’ll still make it hard to sleep at night.

The phrase "There is no free lunch" is appropriate in this case, as we can see a variety of easily accessible free VPN services, although some have limited features, while those offering full access require a purchase. Furthermore, I also feel that there is no guarantee by using a premium service, maybe it will still result in spying too. Personally, I still use a VPN service, and I usually use it securely, without using my main or work computer. Perhaps anyone can use this method too if you want to feel safe, CMIIW.

By the way, our discussion reminds me of a tweet from public figure Edward Snowden (especially in cyber), who also urged caution with a vpn service.



Source : x.com - Edward Snowden

[nicolas222]

I believe that the danger of tracking is real, concrete but not only from free VPNs but also from some paid ones, I agree that Tor is the only safe alternative