HOTSPOT VPN FREE

However, the company hasnвЂ™t released another transparency report to account for the time that has passed since then, so thereвЂ™s no way of knowing whether it has given up user data to any third parties. The report shows the number of data requests Hotspot Shield received from authorities around the world since 2016 (227) вЂ“ crucially, it also showed that Hotspot Shield didnвЂ™t hand over any data. In January 2019, Hotspot Shield released its annual Transparency Report. Invasive jurisdictions like the US can compel supposedly privacy-focused companies like Aura to retain and share user information. These countries work together to collect, share, and analyze mass surveillance data вЂ“ this alone is a red flag.

ItвЂ™s also one of the founding members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. But as of July 2020 it has been acquired by a security company called Aura.ДЄura is based in the US, which has very intrusive privacy laws. Until recently Hotspot Shield was owned by Pango, formerly known as AnchorFree. If you want a VPN that doesnвЂ™t log web activity, read our PIA VPN review. Combined with a worrisome past concerning user privacy, we canвЂ™t recommend the service for users seeking high-level anonymity online.

This is unlikely to happen, but we would rather Hotspot Shield didnвЂ™t log this information for three years.ДЄt the very least, Hotspot Shield VPN monitors your IP address and website requests, even if in aggregate form. As always, itвЂ™s best to stay away from ad-supported services when trying to stay private online.Д¬onnection timestamps could potentially be used вЂ“ alongside other data points вЂ“ to prove that you have visited a certain website.

HOTSPOT VPN FREE

If you use the free version, youвЂ™ll also be sharing personally identifying information with advertisers. If youвЂ™re using Hotspot Shield Elite, the company monitors вЂњ the nature of the requests that you make to our servers (such as what is being requested, information about the device and app used to make the request, timestamps, and referring URLs)вЂќ along with a whole host of other information. While itвЂ™s encouraging that Hotspot Shield isnвЂ™t able to link any behavior to your specific account, this level of data collection is still far too invasive for any user concerned about privacy or anonymity. вЂ¦Even if a government agency physically seizes one of our VPN servers and succeeds in breaking disk encryption on those servers, they would not find any logs or information that would reveal what any individual user was browsing, viewing, or doing online via a VPN connection.вЂќ If youвЂ™re looking for reassurance, the company states that: If you use Hotspot Shield Free, the service can also share even more data with third-party advertisers:

Non-personal logs of websites (domain names, not specific URLs) visited via Hotspot ShieldвЂ™s VPN servers вЂ“ these are aggregated on a monthly basis.

Device-specific information, such as device identifiers, browser types, device types and settings, operating system versions, mobile, wireless, and other network information (such as internet service provider name, carrier name and signal strength), and application version numbers.Bandwidth used per user, per session вЂ“ used to monitor, support, and optimize VPN services, and stored for three years.

Connection timestamps вЂ“ used to monitor, support, and optimize VPN services, and stored for three years.Your approximate geographical location вЂ“ derived from your IP address and used to connect you to the nearest VPN server.Your IP address вЂ“ encrypted, only for the duration of your session, and not linked with your activity while using the VPN.While the VPN doesnвЂ™t keep any logs of your browsing history or online activity, it does collect plenty of other information and its privacy policy is often vague or misleading.ДЄccording to its terms and conditions, Hotspot Shield Elite collects the following data: Hotspot Shield has a questionable logging policy.

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