Do Free VPNs Harvest Your Data?

Free VPNs often make money by selling your data to advertisers. This is how they can support their operations and serve your targeted ads. Some users have even accused them of injecting advertisements into websites. If you are looking for a free VPN, consider looking at the following facts about these companies.

Free VPNs collect personal information

Free VPNs are great, but there are several things you should keep in mind before signing up for one. First, be sure to look for a VPN that is based in a country with strong privacy laws.

This means a country such as Switzerland or Germany, which have strong privacy regulations. You should also avoid any VPN that is based in a country with the so-called "five eyes" surveillance program.

Advertising: Unfortunately, many free VPNs collect personal information about their users. Many of them will have advertisements plastered all over their sites. While some are harmless, others are dangerous.

Some may sneak ad-serving tracker into your browser by using the media-reading feature. While they are not illegal, they can be risky to your security and privacy.

They sell it to advertisers

You should be aware of how free VPNs track your online activity. These services collect this information through the use of browser cookies and web beacons. These are small graphic files that are loaded every time you visit a website.

These are used to track certain activities and generate revenue. Free VPNs make money by allowing advertisers to insert these trackers into their websites.

This practice is dangerous for your privacy. It is not only unethical for the free VPN service to collect data about you, but it can also compromise your security. Some free VPNs sell your data to advertisers, including your location and IP address.

This data can be used by unscrupulous individuals to steal your identity or other sensitive personal information. But this won’t happen if you buy a good quality vpn, that is secure.

A lot of premium and safe vpns are paid, you can buy them using your credit card or, for example, using your bnb wallet. 

They track your browsing history

Despite promises to protect your privacy, free VPNs often harvest your browsing history and sell it to third-party ad-serving companies. This aggressive advertising strategy can quickly cross into the troubling territory.

For example, some VPNs sneak ad-serving trackers into your browser's media-reading features, keeping them on your digital trail.

While free VPNs are a viable option, you should know that they might harvest your browsing history and share it with advertisers and third parties. This can include information such as your IP address and the types of websites you visit.

This is never acceptable and should be avoided at all costs. However, other ways exist to protect your privacy and stay anonymous online.

The first way to keep your online activities private is to avoid free VPNs. These VPNs may have malware and expose your private data to cyber criminals.

In addition to exposing your online activity to prying eyes, many free VPNs may contain malware and put your privacy at risk.

They can infect you with malware

While free VPNs may be tempting to use, you should know the dangers of malware infections. Approximately 80% of free VPNs contain malware. These malicious programs are highly dangerous and can steal sensitive information. It can take as little as one infected computer to cause a massive loss for a business.

Malware is computer software that replicates itself and alters the operation of your computer. Although antivirus programs are designed to detect threats before they infect a computer, they can't prevent malware from taking control once it has been downloaded.

VPNs offer security by masking your IP address, so they can't be easily spied on by hackers.

Many users choose free VPNs to save money. Premium VPN services can cost $6 or more per month. However, most free VPNs come with their own limitations and risks.

They may infect your device with malware and sell your private data to advertisers and data brokers. So, how do you make sure your data is safe and secure?

They are self-serving

Despite their free price, many free VPN services harvest your data. These data can be used by advertising companies. These companies do this to monetize their services.

While this method does not violate your privacy, it is not advisable for those who are concerned about privacy. Betternet, for example, is known to harvest considerable amounts of data from its users.

Many free VPN services also sell your data. One example is Hola, which was caught selling its users' bandwidth in 2015.

The CEO of Hola later acknowledged that they were having problems with a spammer but defended the practice as typical in peer-to-peer networks.