VPNs are believed to be the most secure way of private browsing, but unfortunately, there are a lot of VPNs that fail to protect its users’ private data. Most of the people use VPN apps with a view that there is no risk involved and their data is secured completely, but that is not the truth. Numerous VPN applications on Google Play Store are likely to leak the data of their users. Pro Privacy performed an analysis on 250 VPN applications available on Google Play Store for free and found out that 79 apps out of them were unable to protect the personal information of the customers.
People rely on VPNs without investigating whether the app is authentic or not to keep their identity anonymous, and according to the study, it is predicted that VPNs will gain more users in the coming years. The VPN apps are downloaded more than 80 million times and will continue to grow.
As per the Pro Privacy reports, the apps that failed to provide basic security to the users is mainly because they use IPv4, which is an older version of the 32-bit protocol. Previously, this protocol had the ability to identify different devices and assign various variables, and the protocol could hold around 4.3 billion unique addresses for the users. But, as more and more people are using VPNs, it has resulted in outdating the unique addresses and the newer version, i.e., IPv6 took over. The IPv6 is the latest version protocol having 128 bit that can provide up to 340 undecillion unique addresses.
IPv4 was the first-ever trusted protocol as it had laid the foundation of the internet. This is the foremost reason why almost every free VPN application trust previous addresses to safeguard their users’ data. One thing that they don’t consider is the growing traffic on the internet couldn’t keep up with the older addresses; hence IPv6 is required for enhanced security, newer features and ensured the protection of data.
On Google Play Store, researches had found several VPN applications with similar names to those that provide optimal security to the users. This is a tactic to attract and confuse users among applications.
Pro Privacy recommends the users to trust only paid VPNs rather than the free ones. Don’t forget to stay careful while choosing your paid VPN package. Make sure you go for a package that is not super expensive and offers good security options.
The infographic attached below shows complete stats of free VPN applications available on Google Play Store and how much secure are they to use.
Infographic by: Digitalinformationworld.com
