Don't trust VPN apps on Google Play, this is why

According to the search results on the Google Play Store, there are more than 250 applications for VPN, but not all are suitable for downloading and using. There are even VPN applications that you should stay away from to ensure security.

VPN Selector has conducted a study of the first 50 search results for "VPN" on Google Play and found that many VPN applications have no links to privacy policies, have vague referrals or visits. unreliable user ratings.

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Information about company

This is the first criterion evaluated by the company's headquarter address that will tell us that the app could be considered unreasonable jurisdictions. You may not know about some intelligence alliances between countries like the Five-Eyes Alliance, Nine-Eyes and 14-Eyes (UKUSA Agreement). This coalition was created to share large amounts of intelligence data with each other.

Intelligence Alliance Five Eyes member countries Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States Nine Eyes Five Eyes and Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway 14 Eyes Nine Eyes and Belgium, Germany, Italy, West Spain, Sweden

Some countries such as Singapore, Israel, Japan and Germany are also said to be working with Five Eyes.

Any country that is part of this alliance will not be the ideal place for VPN companies to locate. Therefore, if a VPN application is located in one of the countries of this alliance, it cannot be an ideal choice unless you like being monitored. In the case that the company itself is reputable and you don't do anything illegal then everything may be okay.

Of the 50 applications that VPN Selector investigated, 8 were unable to locate, 16 belonged to one of the above alliances, and 5 collaborated with them.

What's alarming is that some of the VPN apps for Android have nothing but Gmail addresses, general security policies, links to privacy policies that lead to Google Doc with Chinese characters or not. accessible.

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For example, the Wang VPN app has a very high rating of 4.9, but developer information and privacy policy are not there.

The Unlimited Free VPN Monster and Snap VPN apps have different companies linked to but these are in fact one.

The terms of the privacy policy are also quite vague

Terms in the privacy policy of apps often use terms that are vague, obscure, or problematic with terms. For example, an application called VPN Russia has the following security terms:

'VPN Russia by tap2free collects various types of personal data including: cookies, data on device usage, device identification information for advertising and geographic location. "

What is the data about device usage referred to here? Which device user information is shared with any third party is not mentioned.

The vague terms do not appear on the bottom of the application, but from 48 out of 50 apps with user ratings of 4.0 or higher, even 22 of them rated 4.5 and above.

All these applications have very high downloads, are over 100,000, even some applications have reached over 1,000,000 downloads. No one can know exactly how many downloads and reviews are fake.

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The good news is that the big names in the "VPN village" all have a strict privacy policy, such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN, TunnelBear, HotspotShield .

However, users should also pay attention to avoid installing rogue applications and copying large VPNs.

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In short, users need to be careful about applications that are supposed to protect their privacy. Before purchasing or installing an app, take the time to review the application description, privacy policy, speed test, etc.

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