There’s plenty of great free VPN services that will make some question the point of existence of paid VPN services, but then there are others like you who are pondering are free VPN services safe to use in 2019 and at what cost? Here’s the thing, when something is free, you often pay with the currency of privacy.
Well, that’s not a great start to this post, huh?
But that’s the reality.
It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use a free VPN, as for some they might still be a great choice, depending on the cost you are willing to pay, and on what you actually need.
If you are wondering are free VPN services safe to use in 2019 and at what cost, the cost part is very interesting.
It seems that your data can be worth around $240 per year. A lot more than you would pay for a yearly VPN subscription. Of course, the data used for that isn’t exactly based on the VPN industry, but it does show that data is valuable.
But VPN services are meant to provide privacy, right?
Yes, but when something is free, you often pay with the currency of privacy.
Facebook has a VPN called Onavo. You might have heard of it. Perhaps not. Either way, it collected a lot of data. Apple eventually ended up removing it from its store matter of fact! It’s a free service, and it protects you like a VPN should, except you also pay for what you are getting, with what you are getting.
That’s just one VPN service. Data can be sold to third parties. And what if a government buys it? It’s not ethical, but it’s doable. It wouldn’t be a surprise for countries like China to do something like that.
Free VPN services in most cases are safe to use. But that’s because nobody cares about the fact that you are accessing something you probably shouldn’t be accessing.
The problem is when somebody starts caring or uses your data against you. That’s when free VPN services become dangerous.
If you do anything that could be considered illegal in the country that you are in and are asking are free VPN services safe to use, you should invest in a paid service before you regret it.
But it’s not just about doing illegal things. It’s about holding information that could potentially be accessed or be known that it came from you because a service has information about you. We are talking customer information. We are talking private conversations.
The privacy issue extends beyond free services. The thing is that free services are more exposed to privacy issues as that’s how they make money. Paid services, they make income from paid subscriptions, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t store data. There have been incidents in the last few years relating to VPN companies claiming they don’t keep logs that can expose anyone while they did.
And ultimately while free VPN services collect data, the likes of Onavo at least tell so. Some paid services claim they don’t when they do. And that’s a big danger. Do you go for a free service and wonder are free VPN services safe to use in 2019 hoping that this post was incorrect or do you get a paid service that is still able to expose you?
We aren’t going to tell you PrivateVPN is the most perfect service ever made as then we would never need to release updates, what we will tell you though is that we were chosen as the best service for customer service and value. And that value is especially shown in the entertainment section with our support for the most Netflix locations, DAZN, Hulu, BBC, and most other entertainment platforms meaning that whatever you desire to use, you pretty much can, regardless of where you are, even if you are in China with our Stealth VPN that works on even on the Amazon Fire TV Stick!
But more importantly for you, since you are reading this post and are looking for a service that is fully safe, PrivateVPN is a Swedish company, with Sweden being ahead of other countries as far as privacy laws go. We don’t want your data, but if we did, we can’t even legally have it. And if there’s anything to trust, perhaps it should be the law.
Most people will be safe when using a free VPN service. If you are searching for this though, chances are you aren’t doing something in the safe region. And if you are, then while a free VPN might be enough for you in terms of safety as most people won’t care, you won’t be able to use most of the internet in countries where censorship takes place, not to mention that you will miss out on entertainment features that a VPN service provides.
Ultimately your privacy is the cost though, and while you probably don’t care about somebody knowing what sites you accessed today, you will care when somebody accesses something you really don’t want to be known by somebody.
Written by Michael Smolski.