The 18 VPNS subscribes to parental companies and privacy risks

the Benefits of using VPN service To protect your privacy is clear: your internet service provider and other Snooops will not be able to spy on your online activity. What is always unclear is the trusted VPN service.

A VPNOr a virtual private network, is a program that creates a safe connection between your device and the Internet by directing your traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a distant server. VPN mainly thwarts your IP address and helps keep some of your own browsing activities. Recently, three university researchers have discovered that 18 are among the most widely used VPNS At the Google Play store, she shared infrastructure with dangerous security defects that could display customer browsing activity and leave them vulnerable to decoding. These VPNS are among the best 100 of the 100 best stores in the Google Play store, which includes more than 700 million downloads.

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the Study of the counterparts Through a symposium on privacy enhancement techniques, I found that these VPNS, although described as independent companies, are actually assembled to three separate families for companies.

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According to the results, these are the three groups that contain 18 VPNS:

• 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, Touch VPN, VPN Promaster, XY VPN and 3x VPN
• Family c: X-VPN and Fast Potato VPN

The researchers decided that VPNS in Family A is shared between three providers linked to Qihoo 360, a company identified by the US Department of Defense as a Chinese military company. VPNS in Family B uses the same IP addresses of the same hosting company.

Learn about the parent company of VPN

It is a warning story about the importance of knowing who is behind the VPN.

“It is important to know the types of data that the VPN provider shares with its mother company and its entities,” Tomashk said. “Some of these companies may have to register the customer’s activity and share it with the authorities, depending on the judicial jurisdiction in which they work.”

Ashwin Famchi, Head of Research Engineering and Detection of CybleMany of these shaded VPNs said in fact benefiting from customer data. He told CNET: “It was marketed as” free “promising to not be identified,” many of these services generate revenues by collecting, registering and selling user data. “

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

“Users can do some things to help ensure that VPN uses a good reputation,” says Thomaschik. “Check the Privacy Policy – especially for terms such as” registration, “sharing data” or “data collection”. Google’s search for the provider can help determine whether VPN is involved in a doubtful activity.

Vochi says that individuals and companies should be cautious about VPN networks that do not have “independent audits, private and transparent policies.” Instead it recommends:

• Reliable, paid vpn providers who apply strict obligations that do not cover and undergo regular compliance reviews.
• Zero Trust / SAS solutions that provide safe and identical access.

The most VPNS pets have examined their downloads on Android, looking for interference between commercial paper, web and codebase. After defining the similarities of the code, they managed to collect 18 VPNS in three groups. The study was initially pushed through the results of the private VPN Pro “,”Who owns your VPN? 105 VPNS is run by only 24 companies“

Tomaschek from CNET has advice for anyone who uses one of these 18 VPNS.

“I recommend that it be removed from your device immediately,” he said. “If you suspect that any sensitive personal data may have been at risk, it is good to monitor your credit report and consider services such as dark web monitoring or the protection of identity theft.”