{"id":14338,"date":"2021-07-22T22:51:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T17:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stechguide.com\/?p=14338"},"modified":"2021-07-22T22:51:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T17:21:37","slug":"are-free-vpns-a-good-idea-for-an-expat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stechguide.com\/are-free-vpns-a-good-idea-for-an-expat\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Free VPNs a Good Idea for an Expat?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/expattech.proprivacy.com\/expats\/free-expat-vpn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting a safe VPN as an expat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> while keeping it completely free can be a difficult task (we\u2019ll get into why soon enough). For now, you can follow the link above for several decent choices. Some free trial options were included to give you a taste of what a full-fledged VPN is capable of.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As for why free VPNs aren\u2019t a great idea most of the time, just scroll on for the details.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Three Reasons to Not Use a Free VPN<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While you can\u2019t complain about the price tag (who doesn\u2019t enjoy free stuff?), the security and privacy issues affecting most free VPNs can end up costing you even more than a yearly subscription. Here\u2019s what you need to keep in mind if you want to do your own research:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>#1 Most Free VPNs Will Sell Your Data<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ever thought about how any \u201cfree\u201d service makes money? Customer data is pretty valuable to advertisers, and free VPNs pretty much have access to your entire browser history, which network apps you use, and so on. It\u2019s easy to put two and two together here and see how <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/be-cautious-free-vpns-are-selling-your-data-to-3rd-parties\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free VPNs profit off your data<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Or pay for the server and maintenance costs, at the very least.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>#2 Your Data Could Be Leaked Online<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Far worse than having your browsing history sold off to some shady ad companies, is having it leaked online along with other sensitive network data. For instance, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nordvpn.com\/blog\/free-vpn-data-breach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">20 million free VPN users<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> woke up one day to find that their emails, physical addresses, payment info, and more were leaked online. The worst part is that all seven free VPNs involved in the leak claimed they kept no user logs.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>#3 Your Device Could Get Infected with Malware<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A study by CSIRO found that at least 38% of free Android VPNs outright <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">contain malware<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or other forms of malicious code designed to extract data. Free VPNs on the App Store didn\u2019t fare any better, as many of the top 20 providers don\u2019t even follow <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/337885\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apple\u2019s data collection guidelines<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Why Free VPNs Make Sense for an Expat<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you can see, choosing the right provider can feel like navigating a minefield. Nonetheless, there are still several good reasons to use a free VPN if you\u2019re an expat. Go with one of the providers recommended at the start of the article, and you can:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Benefit from a modicum of security on potentially <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">unsafe public networks<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Free VPNs may be a security hazard most of the time, but the right provider can still keep your data relatively safe.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bypass Internet censorship during social media blackouts &#8211; especially if you\u2019re currently living in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2013\/jun\/04\/turkish-protestors-encryption-software-evade-censors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">restrictive country like Turkey<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, for example.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get around pesky firewalls at work and other public locations that block the \u201cfun\u201d parts of the Internet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unblock some online content (albeit in a more limited capacity than subscription-based VPNs). These mostly include news sites and business pages still outside of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2018-08-09-us-news-sites-unavailable-europe-gdpr.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GDPR compliance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, blocked YouTube videos, specialized local websites (such as home banking services), and others.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No Netflix or other content platforms, unfortunately. Free VPNs are frequently blocked on streaming sites, due to how easy it is for companies like MaxMind and IP2Location to aggregate their IP ranges for blacklisting purposes. You might have a better time with free trial VPNs instead, so give those a shot if you can\u2019t afford a paid plan at the moment.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getting a safe VPN as an expat while keeping it completely free can be a difficult task (we\u2019ll get into why soon enough). For now, you can follow the link above for several decent choices. Some free trial options were included to give you a taste of what a full-fledged VPN is capable of. As <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12892],"tags":[14674],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are Free VPNs a Good Idea for an Expat?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stechguide.com\/are-free-vpns-a-good-idea-for-an-expat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are Free VPNs a Good Idea for an Expat?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getting a safe VPN as an expat while keeping it completely free can be a difficult task (we\u2019ll get into why soon enough). 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