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A VPN or virtual private network is often recommended as a way to boost your online privacy and safeguard your data and internet activities from prying eyes, including those of your internet service provider (ISP). Although experts typically recommend going with a trusted VPN service provider, which is most often paid, not everyone wants to spend on another monthly or annual subscription when there are so many free VPNs on the market. While a free VPN may seem like a good option, as something is better than nothing, there are several potential risks that you should be aware of before opting to use one.

As the saying goes, "if you are not paying for it, you are the product." The same is typically true for free VPNs. As a VPN service has to make money, not only for profit but also to run the server and security infrastructure required to operate a virtual private network, free VPNs can sell your data to advertisers, show unnecessary advertisements, or even cut costs in otherwise important areas.

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One of the biggest risks of using a free VPN is the likelihood of poor security, which can defeat the whole purpose of using a VPN and put you at risk. If a VPN doesn't charge a subscription fee and has no other reliable source of funding, it may not have the resources to maintain strong security protocols. Without these, not only is the privacy of your internet connection threatened, but your devices and network become vulnerable to cyber threats. Not only is there the potential for something like this, but this is actively happening with free VPNs.

According to research by Zimperium, over 65 percent of the 800 free VPN apps it checked on the Apple and Google app stores showed risky behavior, including the use of dangerous APIs that leave the potential for abuse and insecure activity launches that can allow attackers to bypass system-level security mechanisms. Further research into 100 VPN apps by Top10VPN showed similar failures, poor security, and risky permissions. Such issues put your device in danger of being exploited by malicious parties.

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Besides the fact that free VPNs can sell your collected data, the collected data logs are also at risk of being leaked in the wild because of insufficient security measures. This has actually happened multiple times in the past. Personally identifiable information of 20 million users of VPNs, who claimed to be collecting no data, was exposed online in 2020. Similarly, over 25 million records of free VPN users were leaked in 2022, and 360 million records were exposed online in 2023. In all three cases, the VPN service providers had left the databases containing the user information online without any security measures.

This makes a strong case for opting only for trusted providers, even if you have to pay for a premium VPN. That said, not all free VPN services are necessarily bad; some trusted and reliable providers, like Proton and Windscribe, offer free VPN plans as a way to allow users to test their services and potentially switch to a paid plan in the future. However, these plans are pretty limited and may not be sufficient for everyday use.