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Free VPNs are too good to be true. You can download various free VPN apps from Google Play or the Apple App Store, but you should not. These applications do not deserve your trust.
How a VPN works
A virtual private network, or VPN, encrypts all the traffic sent over your Internet connection and sends it to a remote VPN server. Everything goes through the VPN server.
For example, say that you are in the United States and that you are connecting to a VPN server located in the United Kingdom. Then you go to websites such as Google and Facebook. Your web browsing traffic is sent over the Internet over an encrypted connection to the VPN server. Your local network operator or Internet service provider does not see that you are connecting to Google or Facebook. They just see an encrypted connection going to an IP address in the UK. Google and Facebook simply see you as someone in the UK.
People use VPN servers for various reasons. They allow you to keep your browsing activity from your ISP, for example. If your local government censors the Internet, a VPN will allow you to bypass censorship and navigate as if you were in the country where the VPN server is located. VPNs would also allow you to use public Wi-Fi hotspots without threatening to poke around.
Many people use VPNs to hide BitTorrent traffic for legal reasons, giving the impression that their torrential activities are taking place in another country. A VPN may also allow you to access geographically restricted services. For example, if you were in the United States and you are connected to a VPN server in the UK, you can access the BBC. If you were in the United Kingdom and connected to a VPN server in the United States, you could access the Netflix library in the United States.
RELATED: What is a VPN and why would I need it?
You trust your VPN operator
When you use a VPN, you place a lot of trust in the VPN operator. Of course, a VPN prevents your Internet Service Provider or your Wi-Fi hotspot operator from spying on your browsing. But this does not prevent the VPN server operator from spying.
When your traffic leaves the VPN, the VPN server operator can see the websites that you access. If you access unencrypted HTTP Web sites, the VPN operator can see the full content of the pages. The operator could keep logs on these data or sell them for advertising purposes.
Let's say this: when you use a VPN, you prevent the hotel or airport hotspot and your Internet service provider from spying on your traffic. But you let the VPN provider spy on your traffic instead. Why would you want to trust a free VPN provider you have never heard of?
A recent survey by Metric Labs, spotted by The Register, drew attention to this problem. It revealed that the majority of free VPN applications had links to China and that 86% of them had unsatisfactory privacy policies. Some explicitly stated that they were transferring user data to China. Most of them had customer support emails indicating generic personal email accounts for services such as Gmail or Hotmail. It does not look like services worthy of your trust.
If you use a VPN for privacy reasons or to avoid censorship on the Internet, you probably will not want to use a China-based VPN.
China aside, you would not want to use a laddered VPN hosted in a country with a less repressive government. The VPN company can simply capture and sell your data. They can also keep many newspapers. If you use a VPN for something like BitTorrent, you probably will not want to choose a VPN that records all your traffic.
What you should use instead
Stay away from free VPNs. It costs money for a company to host a VPN server and pay for traffic. Why would this company offer you a free service without getting anything from it?
As a free VPN for occasional use, we recommend Tunnelbear. This service only gives you 500 MB of data per month, which is not much. This is good news, and the company's business model sells you unlimited VPN data. It's like a free sample every month, but it can be done if you rarely need a VPN service.
If you are seriously considering using a VPN for reasons of confidentiality, torrenting, censorship circumvention or circumvention of geographical restrictions online, we recommend that you research and pay for trustworthy service. We have a guide to choose a VPN service. You do not have to use our best choices but to research. Your VPN provider is between you and all your online traffic, and they can see it. You should find a company with a solid privacy policy and reputation. You will have to pay for it.
For confidentiality and serious anonymity, you should take a look at Tor. Tor is free, but it's not nearly as fast as a VPN. This is not something you would like to use for all your Internet traffic.
If you are an experienced user, you should seriously consider setting up your own VPN. Pay for hosting on a server or cloud service somewhere, install a VPN server and connect to it. You are now your own VPN operator, although the hosting service can spy on you. There is no way to escape it.
You always trust someone, so choose your VPN service (or your host) carefully.
RELATED: How to choose the best VPN service for your needs
Image Credit: bangoland / Shutterstock.com, Wit Olszewski / Shutterstock.com.
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