Are Free Mobile VPNs Safe to Use?

Many people tend to think of mobile devices as computers you can fit in your pocket, using them on the go to access even the most sensitive data, including proprietary business records, passwords, and more. In fact, mobile usage surpassed desktop usage in 2016, and it continues to grow. This shift raises some significant security questions. You may have foreseen problems and installed a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on your mobile device — but how confident can you be that your security is fully protected?

The answer to that question depends largely on what type of VPN you're using and where you acquired it. Yes, there are a lot of cost-effective providers available, but should you trust them? Is your data safe when you use a free mobile VPN? Take a look at some potential issues to consider if you're thinking about connecting to a free VPN on your phone or other mobile device.

They Have to Make Money Somehow

If you're considering a free mobile VPN, you're probably trying to avoid paying for your service (which, admittedly, isn't the least expensive security option out there). But operating that network isn't free to the provider, which needs income to keep its service up and running. So where does a free VPN provider earn its income?

A free VPN still earns its income from its users. It just doesn't do so through fees. Instead, providers all too often sell data about you to third parties to earn income. This data can include your personal contact information, your IP address, the sites you're visiting, and information about the content you're sending on the internet. In other words, the free VPN is collecting and disseminating the very information that you want it to protect.

They Don't Have the Privacy Policies You Need

The vast majority of free mobile VPNs — over 85% of them, in fact — have privacy policies that experts consider completely unacceptable. Some estimates believe that as much as 50% of these free VPNs are based in China, with many specifically designed to pass user data to Chinese authorities.

These disturbing numbers hold true across both the iOS and Android platforms. While Apple has pushed back hard against apps that share user data without permission, the free VPN apps in the App Store are still doing it. On the Android side, Google Play downloads of free VPNs deemed unsafe topped 200 million in 2019.

They May Contain Malware and Other Threats

If you download a free VPN to your mobile device, you run a significant risk of transferring malware to your smartphone. In fact, a 2017 study of Android VPN apps found that 38% of them were loaded with malware.

Other numbers from that study are also highly concerning. 75% of free providers actually tracked the online activity of users, and 82% sought access to text messages and emails sent via the smartphones carrying the free VPN. Given that one of the main points of using a VPN in the first place is to provide data encryption, it's unnerving that 18% of those studied did not encrypt transmissions in any way. And in a truly shocking report, some of the VPNs in the study injected unwanted code into the users' mobile devices.

They Tend to Be Sloooooow

In some cases, free VPNs have been caught purloining their customers' bandwidth and selling it to entities for the use of bots. That's what happened in 2015 with the free VPN service Hola, which tried to justify its activities by pointing out that its services were free.

Even if your free mobile VPN service isn't acting in such a dastardly fashion, it's likely to be using fewer servers than more legitimate providers. You may find your traffic waiting until paid users have been taken care of. And if you're trying to use a free VPN to access streaming content, you'll probably discover that the bandwidth you're receiving simply isn't enough to watch videos without endless buffering.

Given that reliable VPNs are available at a wide range of budget levels, you should be able to get the features and protection you need without having to resort to the dangers associated with a free mobile VPN. Keeping away from free providers is an easy choice to make if you want to avoid some real security issues with transmissions from your mobile devices.