The Hidden Risks of VPNs: How Privacy Tools May Compromise Your Security
Exposing strategies used by VPN companies to exploit user trust while promising anonymity.
The Unseen Surveillance Economy
Despite marketed claims of safeguarding your privacy, certain virtual private network (VPN) providers engage in surveillance practices mirroring those they claim to protect against. The discovery originates not from illegal operations but from systems intentionally designed to enable data exploitation while bypassing ethical boundaries.
Facebook's Coordinated Data Collection
In 2013, Facebook acquired Onavo, marketed as a data-saving app developed by cyber intelligence specialists. Technically, it functioned as full-spectrum surveillance software. Once installed, it routed all phone traffic—app usage, background processes, tapping patterns—through Facebook’s servers. This allowed Facebook to monitor user behavior across competitors’ apps like Snapchat.
When Snapchat began encrypting its traffic, Facebook responded with "Project Ghostbusters," bypassing HTTPS encryption via a secret VPN profile. Using fake certificates, it conducted man-in-the-middle attacks while appearing fully functional to unsuspecting users. Disturbingly, paid tests ($20 gift cards) primarily targeted minors aged 13–17.
Corporate Ownership Concerns
Key companies operating popular VPN services—once involved in malware and adware—have reorganized under new identities to build privacy-washing ecosystems:
- Kape Technologies (formerly Crossrider), acquired top VPN brands CyberGhost (2017), ZenMate (2018), Private Internet Access (2019), and ExpressVPN (2021). Simultaneously, it owns "independent" review sites VPN Mentor and Safety Directives, systematically ranking its own VPNs highest.
- VPNs like TurboVPN, ProxyMaster and ThunderVPN (millions of installs) are linked through offshore shells to QiHOO 360—blacklisted by U.S. authorities.
Audit Deficiencies
"No logs" claims, widely used in VPN marketing, are critically reliant on:
✓ Needed for trustworthiness:
Full-scope third-party audits assessing infrastructure, software, and data-handling practices.
✗ Problems documented:
- Often limited or discontinued audits
- Cases of leaked customer information (e.g., 1.2TB of logs exposed from 7 "no-logs" VPNs in 2020)
Key VPN Capabilities Clarified
| How VPNs Work | Where VPNs Fall Short |
|---|---|
| • Encrypts traffic to/from a server | • Cannot prevent behavioral fingerprinting or device tracking |
| • Hides IP from websites visited | • Offers zero protection against malware or phishing |
| • Bypasses regional restrictions/censorship | • Central point could store metadata subject to subpoenas |
Reliable Privacy Strategies
🖥️ Trust-Checked VPNs:
- Mullvad: Audited, cash payments accepted, no email required
- IVPN: Transparent audits, anonymous signups/crypto payments
- ProtonVPN: Swiss-based, publicly audit reports available
🔒 VPN Alternatives:
Actual anonymization requires layered approaches:
- DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH): Encrypts DNS requests
- Tor Browser: Masks IP across relays—but login defeats anonymity
- Browser Hardening: Firefox with extensions like uBlock Origin (blocks trackers)
- Self-hosted VPNs: Run personal tunneling from independent servers ($5/month)
HTTPS remains foundational—encrypting content separately while DNS-over-HTTPS blocks ISP data profiling.
