The use of a VPN is highly recommended to reduce the odds of anyone spying on your online activities. One exception: when the VPN is owned and operated by spies.
Two US senators have asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to look into the possible dangers of US government workers using VPN apps that are owned by foreign companies and which redirect sensitive government-related traffic through servers located in other countries – namely China and Russia.
Their request comes after heightened fears on Washington’s side that foreign governments are spying on US citizens and government workers using commercial products. The two would like the DHS to issue an emergency directive and ban the use of foreign VPN apps if intelligence experts deem them a national security risk.
The DHS may have a pretty easy job at assessing the national security risk of VPN applications. A study conducted by Simon Migliano, Head of Research at Metric Labs, a company that runs the Top10VPN portal, found that roughly 60 percent of the top free mobile VPN apps returned by Google Play Store and Apple Play Store searches are from developers based in China or with Chinese ownership.
Details may be found in an article by Catalin Cimpanu in the ZDnet web site at: https://zd.net/2WNvQTg.
Comment: Never use a free VPN (with one exception: ProtonVPN). For the reasons why, read Never use a free VPN by Joel Lee at https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-vpn-cut/.
The one exception is explained in my earlier article at http://bit.ly/2mGoOyg. ProtonVPN at https://protonvpn.com/ is a free VPN that appears to be legitimate with no built-in spyware or advertising. ProtonVPN is headquartered in Switzerland and also operates the highly respected ProtonMail encrypted email service at: https://protonmail.com/. For details, see my earlier articles about ProtonMail at https://privacyblog.com/2019/01/02/protonmails-free-secure-email-service/ and about ProtonVPNat http://bit.ly/2mGoOyg.
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Categories: Online Privacy & Security, VPN (Virtual Private Networking)
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