- 12% of British VPN users still depend on free VPN services, according to a NordVPN report
- Instead, general VPN attention has risen sharply to 80%
- NordVPN warns of the serious potential risks of privacy
Millions of Britons are still choosing shocking free VPNs rather than a paid service, according to a recent study by NordVPN.
The study conducted in August found that a disturbing 12% of British VPN users depend on free services, which probably underestimates their associated risks, including data collection or weak encryption integration. It follows Techradar’s May study, which revealed that almost 1 in 4 of our readers still depend on free VPNs.
NordVPN’s data indicates that although British users’ attention is growing – even exceeding levels in the United States, Canada and Australia – choosing a stable slice continued to choose free VPNs, which suggests that basic knowledge alone is not enough to discourage people from using them.
“People understand security intuitively. However, online threats often feel abstract until one becomes a victim,” said Marijus Biedis, CTO of NordVPN, the best VPN on the market right now, according to Techradar’s reviewers.
Biedis believes that the choice of free VPNs can be a matter of finances. “Inexperienced users are looking for quick corrections to immediate problems, such as protecting their data or masking their online activities. But when they only face occasional needs, people are weighing down at least resistance without necessarily making an informed trade -off.”
A deal with the devil?
So what exactly are the risks that VPN users can face when choosing a free VPN? In addition to the classic shortcomings – such as limited performance and functionality – some free VPNs often log browsing history, sell bandwidth or insert tracking codes, which effectively turns users into products.
People often assume that free VPNs offer the same core protection as Premium services, just with some ads, Biedis explains. “The reality is that they often provide insufficient security while actively compromising privacy.”
State actors run some free VPNs from countries with questionable data collection practices, notes CTO. Recent studies have found that many freebies in official app shops have not revealed ties with both Russia and China.
“We have also noticed cases of weak encryption protocols that leave users vulnerable on public Wi-Fi and defeat VPN’s core purposes,” Biedis added.
Aggravation of the problem prioritizes the speed and ease of use in relation to privacy practice, which often misleads users to believe that free VPNs have proven their reliability. “Violations of privacy are often invisible to users as they do not see their data being collected or sold,” Biedis said.
In addition, data can be shared by several third parties – not just VPN itself – to put privacy and security at risk with a single click. “Data Brokers collect information from several sources to build detailed profiles,” continues Biedis.
Your money or your data?
Are all free VPNs off the table? Of course, non-best free VPN services are safe and even recommended for certain use cases. Software can be free for ideological or community -related reasons or feed in a larger business model. Protonvpn, for example, is one of this list. However, this is the exception, not the rule.
For users who choose free services, we recommend to keep in mind that the management of a large-scale consumer VPN service requires significant investments in infrastructure, bandwidth costs and ongoing security maintenance.
Because of this, if you look ‘free and unlimited’ in app stores, finances dictate that revenue must come from one place, typically from data income, bandwidth resale or aggressive retail, Biedis notes.
He recommends that users ask themselves the following questions before making a final decision: Who owns this service? How are the servers paid for? Are their claims not to log verified by independent organs?
If these answers are not clear, you can bet your lower dollar on your data will be the price to be paid. And ironically, ‘free’ may prove to be the most expensive purchase you never knew you were making.
