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PSA: That free VPN I was using was selling my browsing data
I used a free VPN app for six months because I didn't want to pay for one. Then I noticed my phone kept getting ads for things I searched for on my laptop. Ran a traffic check and saw it was sending my DNS requests to third parties. Switched to a paid service for $5 a month after that. Anyone else have a free tool that turned out sketchy?
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phoenix_thompson419d agoMost Upvoted
Drop the crypto miner part man, those usually just mine when the app is open so you'd notice the battery drain and heat pretty fast. Your weather app was probably selling your location data to ad companies instead, which is way more common.
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hollyc9219d ago
Got a similar story but with a different twist. I installed a free flashlight app once and thought nothing of it until my data usage spiked like crazy. Turns out it was pinging ad servers constantly even when I wasn't using it. @felixlee mentioned a weather app doing crypto mining which is insane, but honestly location data selling is way more common and harder to notice. I only caught mine because I had a limited data plan and saw the charges. Switched to just using the built-in phone flashlight after that and never looked back. Free apps always cost you somewhere, just depends on what they're taking.
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