Cousin swore by that free VPN, got his login stolen anyway

My cousin told me to use this free VPN called Hola last month for streaming, and I said it looked sketchy but he insisted it was fine. Three days later his email got hacked and someone tried to drain his PayPal through a login session they scooped up. Who here thinks free VPNs are always a trap, or can some actually be safe if you know what to look for?

2 comments

2 Comments

scott.grace1mo ago

I read somewhere that over 80% of free VPNs actually make money by selling your data or injecting ads into your traffic, which is basically the opposite of what you want. That Hola app your cousin used is a prime example because they were caught using their users as exit nodes for other people, so your IP can get flagged for stuff you never even did. I think the only way a free VPN is safe is if it's from a legit company that's just using it as a trial, like ProtonVPN's free tier that doesn't log data but limits your speed. But even then, you're trusting them not to get hacked themselves, which happens more than people realize. My rule is pretty simple if you can't pay for it with real money then you're probably the product being sold, not the customer.

the_miles1mo ago

Hang on, people have been saying this stuff for years and I'm still not convinced it's as common as everyone makes out. Yeah, Hola got busted for sketchy stuff, but that was years ago and most free VPNs aren't running that kind of operation. A lot of them just show you a popup ad every hour or throttle your speed hard to push you to the paid version. I mean, if you're just using a free VPN to watch a region-locked YouTube video or check your email on public wifi, who cares if they log your IP? You're not doing anything illegal. The real risk is if you're torrenting or logging into your bank account, but that's where common sense comes in. I feel like the "you're the product" line gets thrown around way too easily these days. Not everything is some big conspiracy to sell your browsing history. Why not just be smart about what you do on a free VPN instead of acting like it's automatically a trap?