What’s wrong with a free VPN
And if we are talking about countries like China, then revelations are not needed there to understand that Chinese services will be transparent to the state. This is the main reason for going to the USA Litigation on TikTok. According to VPNPro research, as of 2023, a third of mobile-only VPN apps are either Chinese-owned or based in China. Top 10 Apps in the US belong to China and Hong Kongwhere such services are illegal. The question arises how these applications continue to work if they are not compromised, especially what according to the laws of Hong Kong service providers should keep logs of user activity.
At the same time, Western countries, contrary to the prevailing liberal image, have (and use) the ability to control the Internet, not only not inferior, but also noticeably superior to the capabilities of Russian or Chinese intelligence services in their jurisdictions.
What country is your VPN from?
As professionals in the VPN market, we first of all look at the business side: how the service earns and what principles it adheres to. Follow the money: the lack of adequate commercial or ideological motivation, the lack of transparency of the funds that the service provides itself with are the main “red flags” for us. And practice confirms our expectations: free VPNs for users come with increased risks of privacy and malicious activity. From our point of view, this is the main argument against most free VPNs.
However, in terms of personal experience, VPN users have other priorities. Less than 1% of users complain about privacy and security, according to an analysis of reviews of VPN apps with more than a million installs on Google Play. But every third user complains about bugs and increased battery consumption.
It turns out that privacy and security for the vast majority of users are not a decisive argument. For a non-IT person, privacy and security considerations are too abstract – most ordinary users will simply dismiss such arguments.
On the other hand, bugs, speed limits, traffic restrictions, long loading and frequent buffering are arguments that are understandable to any user, and if they don’t incline to a paid service, then at least they will convince them not to put some kind of nickname.
Well, for users who need not a free, but inexpensive and reliable VPN, there is Xeovo.
Text author: @EgorKotkin
Illustrations: Anton Dmitriev
