These 18 popular VPN shares parent companies and privacy risks

The Advantages of using VPN services To protect your privacy, they are clear: Your ISP and other snoops will not be able to spy your network activity. What is not always clear that the VPN service is reliable.

A VPNOr a virtual private network is software that creates a secure connection between your device and the Internet by routing your internet traffic through the encrypted tunnel to a remote server. VPN essentially masks your IP address and helps some of your activities review private activities. Recently, three university research discovered that 18 is most commonly used Vpns It has a common infrastructure in Google Play Store with serious unsafe deficiencies that could exhibit customer review activity and leave it vulnerable to decryption. These VPNs are among the top 100 most popular in Google Play Store, which make up more than 700 million downloads.

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The Peer-Reviewed Study The symposium for improving privacy is that the symposium is in progress that these VPNs, despite itself, calling on the independent company, actually grouped in three separate companies companies.

None of CNETs Recommended VPNS – ExpressVPN, Nordvpn, Surfshark, Proton VPN and Mullwad – are listed. (If you do not currently have a VPN, Here’s why you could start using one.)

According to the findings, these are three groups containing 18 VPN:

• Family a: Turbo VPN, Turbo VPN Lite, VPN Monster, VPN Proxy Master, VPN Proxy Master Lite, Robot VPN, Snap VPN and Supernet VPN
• Family B: Global VPN, Inf VPN, Melon VPN, Super Z VPN, Tap VPN, VPN Promaster, XI VPN and 3K VPN
• Family C: X-VPN and fast potatoes VPN

Researchers found that VPNs in the family and shares between three providers associated with Kihoo 360, the company identified by the Ministry of Defense as a Chinese military company. VPNs in Family B use the same IP addresses from the same hosting company.

Know your home company VPN

It is a warned story about why it is important to know who is behind the VPN you use, says the CNET Senior writer Attila Tomaschek.

“It is also crucial to know what kind of data, the VPN provider shares with its home company and associated entities,” Tomaschek said. “Some of these companies can even be forced to report users’ activity and share it with the authorities, depending on the competence in which they operate.”

Ashvin Vamshi, Head of Research and Detection Engineering for ConvertHe said that many of these shadow VPNs actually profit customer data. “It is marketed as” free “and promising” overall anonymity, “many of these services create income by collecting, recording and selling user data,” he told CNet. “In most of these cases, consumer data become the transfer of products income that set privacy and security in a significant risk.”

Despite the warnings, Tomaschek says it is not so easy to understand who controls your VPN. But says there are measures that customers can take.

“Users can do several things to ensure that VPN they use are reputable,” Tomaschek says. “Check privacy policy – especially for phrases like” cutting “,” data collection “can help determine whether the VPN is in question. Being especially careful to log in with a free VPN, even if it is listed as a top choice in your application.”

VAMSHI says that individuals and companies must be careful in VPN do not have “independent audits, privacy and transparency”. He recommends that:

• Reliable, Paid VPN providers that conduct strict non-recorded obligations and pass regular compliance reviews.
• Zero Trust / Sass solutions that deliver a safe and identity guided by identity.

Pet researchers reviewed the most expired VPN on Android, seeking overlap between business paperwork, web presence and codec. After identifying the similarity of code, they could group 18 VPNs in three groups. The study was initially encouraged by its own findings of VPN Pro “Who is the owner of your VPN? 105 VPN that only leads 24 companies. “

Tomaschek Cnet has advice for anyone who uses one of these 18 VPNs.

“I would recommend that you delete it immediately from your device,” he said. “If you suspect that any sensitive personal information may be endangered, it is a good idea to watch your credit report and look at the services like dark web monitoring or protection of identity theft.”