With certain political developments around the world that are curbing free speech, the demand for VPN applications has spiked over the past year.
Moreover, when the Trump administration announced that they would ban the video-sharing application TikTok in August, the demand for free consumer VPNs grew by 48 percent.
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According to a recent report by NordVPN, the interest in consumer VPN apps spiked by 3 percent in July as compared to the average 1 percent growth rate in the previous months.
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However, as much as VPN applications claim to protect privacy, they actually do not. Research by ProPrivacy revealed that around 40 percent of VPN applications on Google Play Store have failed to adequately protect users’ privacy. The test sample was the top 250 free VPN apps available on the online Store.
The research revealed that four in every ten VPNs leaked data. This depicts a monumental failure for almost half of all free VPNs that could potentially be putting the privacy of their users at risk.
Furthermore, another research conducted by CSIRO discovered that more than 75 percent of free VPNs have at least one third-party tracker rooted in their software. These trackers are designed to collect information about customers’ online presence and forward the data to advertising agencies to optimize their advertisements. This is alarming, considering that the use of VPNs is on the rise, especially as a large number of people use free VPNs.
NordVPN states:
The number of VPN users is increasing as governments across the world are treating their citizens’ privacy with contempt. Some examples include the UK passing the law dubbed ‘The Snoopers Charter, the US administration allowing ISPs to track customers and sell data to third parties in 2017, and the Chinese criminalizing criticism of the government. The latest action resulted in the number of NordVPN inquiries from Hong Kong increasing by 120 times. The growing awareness of digital privacy has become hugely lucrative for opportunists. A survey run by NordVPN shows that half of Americans are using VPNs, and a third of them rely on free services.
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