While many VPN service providers would want you to believe that they have charitable aims in offering VPN access for free, the reality is that most free VPN services are glorified data farms. While many people turn to VPNs to prevent ISPs from selling their data, to prevent ISPs from controlling what kind of content they have access to, or to prevent prying eyes from seeing what they are up to when they go online, in reality, they are only contributing to a goldmine of data for advertisers and the highest bidders. What has worth is worth paying for.”Īs far as free VPNs are concerned, this couldn’t be truer! In the classic The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green, the 40th law states, “What is offered for free is dangerous – it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. ![]() Using free VPNs, in particular, is like having a fox guard the henhouse. In the face of growing censorship, free VPNs, in particular, have an allure: for one, privacy is expected to be a basic human right, and the vast majority of people in censorship-ridden countries - such as Eritrea, Syria, or Ethiopia - cannot afford to pay a monthly fee to use a VPN service on top of the cost of their monthly Internet service subscription. What’s more interesting, however, is the percentage of this growth that came from the US: while Hotspot Shield was mostly used outside the US before 2017 (with about 80 percent of people using it internationally), that all changed in 2017.ĪnchorFree, the company behind Hotspot Shield, credits recent policy changes and events in the US for this growth: Hotspot Shield noticed its first big spike in usage from the US in March 2017 when Congress voted to allow internet service providers to sell user data without permission from the user, it noticed another spike after the massive Equifax hack that exposed data of over 140 million users, then it noticed an even bigger spike thanks to the repeal of net neutrality. Hotspot Shield, which is perhaps the biggest VPN service in the world today, reported having over 100 million downloads in 2017 alone (more than it has ever had in any given year) - a sign of increasing interest in VPN usage thanks to growing censorship. According to a particular source, VPN usage rose 170 percent in the US in reaction to net neutrality repeal, 470 percent in Australia, and 89 percent in Turkey in reaction to similar attempts to curtail Internet freedom. ![]() Thanks to recent policy changes such as the US government legalizing the ability of ISPs to sell user data without user permission, the repeal of net neutrality, and the metadata retention scheme in Australia, VPN usage is on the rise –, particularly in the West. ![]() Internet censorship is on the rise, and data from Freedom on the Net, based on an annual assessment of the situation of Internet freedom in 65 countries, reveals that not only has Internet censorship been on the rise for seven straight years now but developed nations are not exempt. If you are a VPN user it is time to come out from the myth that every VPN is here to secure your privacy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |