reese_lee9•1mo agoProlific Poster

Warning: That 'free' VPN I used for 3 years just sold my browsing history to an ad network

I was using a free VPN service called SecureFlow since 2020, thinking it was protecting my privacy. Then last month I noticed targeted ads showing up for things I only searched for on my phone while the VPN was active, like a specific brand of thermostat I was pricing out. I dug into their updated privacy policy and saw they changed the wording about "anonymized data" back in March 2022 to allow sharing with "partner marketing networks." Has anyone else caught their free VPN pulling something similar, or are there actually legit free options out there?

4 comments

4 Comments

shane_park921mo ago

Read a report from some security researchers that tested like 20 free VPNs and found most of them were selling data or injecting ads into traffic. It's wild how many people think they're getting privacy when really the service is just making money off their info another way. Honestly I'd rather just use a cheap paid service like Mullvad or Proton than trust anything that's free with my browsing data.

aaron7401mo ago

@shane_park92 hit the nail on the head with that "they're just making money off your info another way" part. I downloaded one of those free VPNs years ago just to try it and my phone started getting spam notifications from random shopping apps I never installed. Turns out they were selling access to my connection to ad networks. I'd rather spend five bucks a month on someone like Proton and know my traffic isn't getting resold than piggyback on some free service that's basically a data farm. It's like that old saying about free cheese only being in a mousetrap.

laura_chen411mo ago

Oh wait, I think Proton VPN actually has a free tier too, it's just limited to like three countries and slower speeds. But yeah I totally agree the whole "free VPN" thing is sketchy, those paid ones at least have a business model that isn't just selling you out. I mean Mullvad is only like five bucks a month and they don't even ask for an email, that's way safer than some random free service that's probably logging everything.

drew_jones313d ago

Did a buddy of mine try one of those free VPNs and his Netflix started showing ads in Spanish?