How Do Free VPNs Make Money?
Most "free" VPNs are not actually free because you pay for them with your personal data, and the cost can be high. We'll explain how free VPNs make money off their users and why a high-quality VPN is worth the investment.
What's Wrong with Free VPNs?
Most of them are a watered-down version of paid VPNs and lack essential features. Some limit your bandwidth or monthly traffic, making them unsuitable for use. Other "free VPNs" are simply tools for spreading malware. Besides potentially infecting your device, they may not work at all. Therefore, it's very important to understand how a service makes money before you sign up for it.
5 Ways Free VPNs Make Money
With most free VPNs, the old saying often holds true: "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product." Here's how most free services make money:
1. Displaying Ads
Advertisers pay to show ads in VPN apps. Connect to many free VPNs, and you'll be bombarded with pop-up ads. Moreover, these ads are often "personalized," meaning your VPN service has shared your personal data with advertising providers to target you. These data can include your browsing history, which you're trying to protect by using a VPN. Thus, the very tool you trust to protect your privacy may be making money by compromising it.
2. Selling Your Personal Data
Many free VPNs make money by tracking you in some way. They use technologies like cookies, web beacons, and tracking pixels to record where you go on the internet. They then sell your browsing history to advertisers or data brokers. Moreover, they may combine this with personal data you provided at sign-up: your name, address, email address, etc.
3. Sharing Your Data with Partners
"Free" VPN services are often part of a larger group of companies. Some VPNs make money by selling your personal data, especially your name and email address, to their partner companies or third parties. For example, Hotspot Shield, a VPN service accused of tracking its users, is part of the Aura group. And Aura's privacy policy clearly states:"Neither Aura nor any of the companies within Aura sell your personal data (except in the cases when you use our free products)".
4. Infecting Your Device with Malware
Perhaps the most shocking way some free VPNs make money is by compromising the security of your computer, tablet, or smartphone. The most malicious free VPNs can secretly download malware onto your device, such as spyware or ransomware, with potentially devastating consequences. At least one VPN service, Hola, used malware to turn the devices of its free users into exit nodes or VPN servers. If you didn't pay for the service, Hola used your bandwidth and IP address for paying users — without your knowledge. Worse, Hola allowed devices of free users to become part of botnets, networks of devices used for spreading spam or launching cyberattacks.
5. Supporting Themselves Through Paid Service
The best free VPN providers support their free version by funding from paying users. But there are nuances here as well. First, many such VPNs remove essential features, limit your speed, or restrict your monthly data limit to encourage you to upgrade to a paid plan. Second, free VPNs often use your personal data for advertising. Overloaded with pop-up ads, you might pay just to not see them anymore.
And what does all this mean?
For the best security, we recommend using a paid VPN service. Shiva VPN offers a micro plan for 3 days, which is available to everyone and allows you to test speed and bypassing blocks.
