i never used a free vpn provider for reasons like this. only use high quality vpn,abit high in price but worth the money.
How can they even call this a VPN, since it's obviously just a proxy service? Totally different. It's interesting how people try to maneuver the law in order to create something typically illegal, a botnet, through ostensibly "legal" means. I wonder what scheme is next, and I'm curious whether they'll ever get sued, shut down, or put in jail for this crap. This is reminiscent of the uTorrent bitcoin mining botnet scandal from a few weeks ago...
This is not the first we have heard about Hola. It looks like the OP , max2 was right to be suspicious . Free VPN sounds like a nice idea in theory , but it clearly comes at another type of cost . For me , that price is way too high ! It's clear that using any VPN service involves a degree of trust , but if the provider is "weak" in the ethics department , ( and I'm trying to be as polite as possible here ) we are back with "Throwing out the baby with the bathwater " .
I really don't feel qualified to answer that question for you. If I were asking the question , I'd be looking for advice from mirimir , who is a top poster on here and has excellent advice on all things VPN. I would also be reading this very carefully ( a similar comparison is here ) . When it comes down to the nitty-gritty , it's not too different to buying a used vehicle .... "you pays your money and you makes your choice " . Or to put it in other terms , if it turns out to be rotten , then you found out the hard way
One where you understood their business model and incorporation, and felt that their ability to make money would be severely compromised by cost of messing with customers, so that was prohibitive. Free will never cut this. Of course, that does not make paid-for reputable services fully secure, and they will pretty much always have to comply with LEA in their jurisdiction. For me, my objective is to ensure that that is individually warranted rather than done in bulk - which is the civilized deal that I will subscribe to. Mass surveillance - no. Of course, the reputable services will be under constant attack from the TLAs who will be trying to get the bulk flows using a variety of techniques.
These six seem to be safe: AirVPN, BolehVPN, Cryptohippie, iVPN, Mullvad and PIA. But I've been saying that for years What should we add?
Yes indeed. And I paid no attention. "So what?", I thought, another "browser VPN". But this was more than that! That is going too far, I think. Free VPN trials, or even free (albeit crippled) services, are not uncommon, as a marketing ploy. The free SecurityKISS service, for example, is well-designed and secure. But it does have a 300MB usage cap. There's no way to assess ethics. The key risk factor for Hola was the custom app. I don't believe that what it did is possible using plain OpenVPN.
Do you find Privacy violation https://hola.org/legal_privacy << [..] they don’t enforce rules that say people shouldn’t be engaging in illegal activity because the company has “no idea what you are doing on our platform.”>>
Most people using Hola probably have no clue that they're providing exits for other users. So it's users who need to care about what other users are doing, because they will suffer the consequences.
CyberGhost is another good example. With it's limitations it's just as good, but not as limiting as SecurityKISS.
Hola rocked by botnet accusations - BBC News Hola Prepares Bug Bounty Program, CEO Says - Softpedia @mods, maybe this thread should be linked/merged with this other one, as much of the content has now become relevant to both? I'm happy with whatever is decided best, thanks.
I like Mirimir's list above. In candor I use two of them so those I do feel like I know. Air and IVPN If price is a "thing" you might consider that Air is running a 5 yr birthday celebration with 25% off for a couple more days. Off the top of my head that is like 60 bucks US for unlimited use for a year. No - I am not an Air employee, just a user.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32958624 I'm guessing that, by paying the monthly fee, you get access to free users' IPs. Yes?
No piece of software can be trusted unless the user or some people of a community have seen the SourceCode of both the programs that run on the user's machine and the source code running the servers. Untill then, even the paid providers who have a "good" reputation can't be trusted, and IMO the most reliable ones are the 'autistici.org' VPN and 'riseup.net' VPN.
Haha never trusted this company wanted me to intall its software on my computer in order to use extension that in itself is "phishy".
Yes, and yet most all VPN services at least offer custom clients. But I do prefer to use stock open-source apps.
Hola is garbage. I don't understand why people use that crap. Free VPN = garbage. I've used basically every VPN's custom built client out there and I do wonder sometimes if I'm not giving myself a trojan by installing them. The problem with the custom clients as I see it is that they all need root or admin priverlages to run your system. That includes OpenVPN's open source client. They will not run correctly if they don't have root or admin privelages.