c/technology · by beep@piefed.world · 1d

Proton analyzed 7,000+ mobile VPN apps. 64 apps actively collect physical location via GPS or other geolocation, 3 are owned by market research firms, and 85% of them contain trackers.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1366113/proton-analyzed-7000-mobile-vpn-apps-64-apps-actively-collect-physical-location-via-gps

198 points · 34 comments · view on lemmy.world

34 Comments

Babalugats@feddit.uk · 66 pts · 1d (16 replies)

Any chance of seeing the list broken down by ownership and trackers?

It seems a bit pointless otherwise.

victorz@lemmy.world · 82 pts · 1d (4 replies)

Not important, this is just a disguised advertisement for Proton VPN.

tb_@lemmy.world · 54 pts · 1d (1 reply)

Just because it is, doesn't mean it can't contain useful data.

victorz@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d

I know lol, I was being facetious. 😉 I also want to see the list.

Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -1 pts · 15h (1 reply)

I don't see a problem with that.

victorz@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 11h

It can be healthy to question your sources and their motives. 👍

beep@piefed.world · 39 pts · 1d (4 replies)

Source: David Peterson, Proton VPN General Manager.

Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip · 42 pts · 1d

Its unfortunate they really only name and shame random shovelware vpns it looks like. So it feels difficult to tell whether their points apply to any other real options people have heard of before...

user224@lemmy.sdf.org · 23 pts · 1d (1 reply)

Surely it's too hard to upload a spreadsheet on the internet.

Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -1 pts · 15h

Some people just have to complain about everything. Maybe a specific excel format?

artyom@piefed.social · 20 pts · 20h

Its a good thing they posted them on inaccessible Xitter in a confusing as fuck "thread" instead of their own God damn website...

Th4tGuyII@fedia.io · 22 pts · 1d (2 replies)

Yeah, it would be nice to have an actual list so we're not reliant on their numbers alone. But unfortunately telling only half the story is something Proton seems to do quite a lot.

On the bright side, the actual privacy data for this was by Proton's own admission from Exodus, so while its probably not feasible for you to skim 65K apps on your own, you can at least see the data for specific VPN apps you might be worried about.

CosmoNova@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1d (1 reply)

They would probably get sued if they dropped names of direct competitors.

Th4tGuyII@fedia.io · 6 pts · 1d

Yeah true enough. Even if the data they've got was 100% accurate and easy to prove in court, they'd still be stuck having to pay out the arse for lawyers just to appear in court.

MolochHorridus@piefed.social · 11 pts · 1d

It’s an ad for Proton. Obviously.

Zarobi@aussie.zone · 8 pts · 1d (1 reply)

They listed a few in their article, but yeah a full list would be nice.

Three of the VPN services we looked at are actually owned by market research companies: ‎Phone Guardian Safe WiFi (Sensor Tower), My Mobile Secure VPN (Comscore), and Urban VPN (BiScience, which has been been shown to capture user conversations across several services and share them with AI chat platforms).

In what many could reasonably see as the ultimate act of betrayal, 64 VPN apps actively track your physical location using GPS and other geolocation data. [...] These apps include some of the most popular VPNs in the US, such as VPN Proxy Master, VPN-Fast VPN Super, and X-VPN

PineRune@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 1d

Those all sound like fake VPN apps that I wouldn't trust anyway.

esc@piefed.social · 52 pts · 1d (3 replies)

No list, advert for proton.

beep@piefed.world · 12 pts · 1d (2 replies)

Check my other comment.

esc@piefed.social · 8 pts · 23h (1 reply)

So no full list, just cropped screenshots? Why?

boatswain@infosec.pub · 6 pts · 20h

To avoid defamation lawsuits, most likely.

perishthethought@piefed.social · 6 pts · 19h (1 reply)

This is the trackers and permission site referenced in the X posts