It’s not uncommon for people to spend thousands of dollars on a new phone. However, we’re not prepared to spend nearly as much when it comes to software. That also explains the popularity of free VPNs. These sound like a good idea. Why wouldn’t people use it if it does the same job as a paid VPN?
However, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Free VPNs are not what they claim to be. They don’t have much in common with paid VPNs at all. There are excellent reasons to stay as far away from free VPNs as possible. Moreover, installing a free VPN on your iPhone is a greater risk than running it without it.
In this article, we’ll make it clear what’s wrong with free VPNs so you don’t become a victim of their shady practices.
Free VPNs Are Not What You Think
But first, we have to understand what VPNs are supposed to do. A good VPN service will hide your iPhone’s IP address, won’t compromise your personal data, and won’t do you harm.
To do so, a VPN requires a lot of resources. That also means that there’s a lot of money involved in running these services.
Paid and the best VPNs do what they promise. They use the money you pay them to run their network and protect data.
This should already sound some alarms in your head. If this involves that much money, how do free VPNs do it?
Well, it turns out they have no magic formula for reducing cost. Sure, free VPNs are slower; they create more lag and can’t even access some popular services like Netflix.
But still, even with lower performance, they still need to make money. And they do, usually by doing the exact opposite of what they promise.
Instead of securing your data, they track you and sell your data. But that’s not even the worst of it.
Free VPNs are Dangerous
It’s true; not all free VPNs are equally bad. Some that have a lot of downloads may be relatively safe. But there’s always a risk with using their service.
They all need to make money somehow, which is why they will track your internet activity. They usually do this by installing a tracking cookie to collect the info on your browsing history.
Later, they sell that data to advertisers. Some even state this in their user license agreements. Others just ignore privacy laws. In either case, this defeats the purpose of a VPN.
This has the unwanted effect of making browsing with free VPNs a bad experience. They will bombard you with nasty ads you won’t get rid of. These ads slow down your internet speed and can contain malware if you click on them.
In addition to all these, they can even sell your bandwidth! This means that they can use the power of your iPhone to process tasks for third-party paying customers you have no clue of.
Just Not Free
Some of these “free VPNs” will also have a paid plan. Usually, this is a ploy to get you to use their service and pay later.
Usually, they will try to do everything they can to get you to get the paid plan. This includes limiting the data you can use and slowing down your internet.
It’s pretty clear that most of these practices are shady at best and outright dangerous at worst. Moreover, they can never compete with the quality of service of regular VPNs.
For that reason, it is just better not to use a VPN than to use a free one.