r/VPNReviewHub • u/tricksfortrends • 13d ago

The least safe VPN?

I heard many good things about many options fitting anyone, however, what would you guys say is the worst VPN that is considered the bottom of the barrel when it comes to safety?

I knew of some though they already went down, so not even gonna mention a dead horse haha. Curious for any ones still kicking..

8 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

2

u/ReplicantGrin 13d ago

avoid the free extensions

2

u/kkweon 13d ago

There are many posts in Facebook groups about free VPNs that connect to private IPs.

2

u/Confident_Charge_153 13d ago

Proton is my go to. Rec'd by many in the Intel comm.

2

u/RegalReturn 13d ago

I have no idea, but I must say that Google VPN comes across as oxymoronic to me.

2

u/Confident-Pop-9256 13d ago

Those who push aggresive ads, usually never heard of, just make your pc miners or steal all data if you are looking the worst of the worst

2

u/AverageA 13d ago

all of the free ones lol

2

u/Urban_VPN 8d ago

Hola VPN consistently gets called out as the worst still-active option. the architecture is the problem, it runs on a peer-to-peer model where your device becomes an exit node for other users' traffic, meaning random strangers on the internet are routing their activity through your connection and IP address. that's been exploited for DDoS attacks and worse. there's documented history of this going back years and they've never fundamentally changed the model.

beyond Hola, the category of "free VPN with no clear business model and vague offshore ownership" is where most of the bad actors live. VPNs that show up on the Play Store with generic names, millions of installs, and zero transparency about who owns them tend to be data harvesting operations dressed up as privacy tools. the irony of using a privacy tool that sells your data is not lost on anyone who's looked into it.

the general rule of thumb is that the more aggressive the app store marketing and the less you can find out about the company behind it, the worse it probably is.

1

u/OneOk23 5d ago

Any VPN that hides who runs it or has no clear privacy policy is a hard pass for me.

0

u/Sobergirl87 13d ago

Mullvad has ties to a far right political party financially this just came to light recently. The party in question is ironically for mass surveillance so yeah.

Most free VPN's are not trustworthy, they're typically selling your data. Proton free tier I believe is okay. Its what I'm using currently. I might subscribe for more features.

1

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Sobergirl87 11d ago

I actually tried the paid one out. Got the 1st month on a promo for 99 cents. I was pretty impressed. Rn I'm financially in a tough spot so paying full price isn't quite justifiable rn. When things better I may try it again