PSA: That free VPN app I used for 2 years was selling my browsing data the whole time

A security engineer at a meetup last month showed me the fine print in the terms of service and I finally saw how they made money off my traffic.

3 comments

3 Comments

robert6599d ago

Oh man, that free VPN probably did a better job tracking you than the ads you were trying to avoid. Guess the old saying holds true - when the product is free, you are the product being sold to the highest bidder. At least you got two years of "secure" browsing out of it before finding out you were basically paying with your entire digital footprint.

the_brian9d ago

Does anyone actually read the fine print on these free VPNs before clicking agree? I spent an afternoon digging through one once and found a clause that said they could sell your data to "marketing partners" with basically no limits. Kinda makes you wonder if a $5 a month paid service is actually the real deal compared to trusting your whole online life to something that costs zero.

kimfisher9d ago

Marketing partners with basically no limits" is terrifying, my buddy actually got spam calls from some sketchy loan place after signing up for a free VPN and he's convinced that's how they got his number. A paid service might actually be cheaper in the long run than handing over your privacy like that.