#Hotspot shield free vpn proxy review full#

This is an incredibly arrogant and blatantly harmful stance to take. Not only do you need to manually active the kill switch, but they also claim when DNS leaks are detected while using their VPN, it’s because the sites that detect such leaks are wrong. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends for this section. And the y have some form of DNS leak protection and an auto-protect feature as well. HotSpot Shield understands a kill switch isn’t optional, so they made sure to add one to their system. We recommend taking a look at our Beginner’s Guide to VPN Protocols, as well as this article on VPN encryption, to better understand why this is so dodgy. Which explains the substandard encryption standard, of course. They claim it’s because OpenVPN (the best-recommended VPN protocol) was creating latency issues, but to do so they had to reduce the amount of data being transferred. Translation? In the foreseeable future, HotSpot Shield’s encryption will only effectively be 64-bit.Įspecially considering they’re using Catapult Hydra for their VPN protocol.

But the industry standard is 256-bit AES because it’s twice as secure.Īnd if you think it doesn’t really matter, consider the fact that quantum computing advancements are expected to halve the effective key sizes of encryption standards. To be fair, 128-bit AES encryption is still secure. Great news! Additionally, they now offer multiple VPN protocols in addition to their proprietary protocol (Catapult Hydra), including OpenVPN, Wireguard, and IKEv2.Īdding to the ever-growing list of reasons to avoid HotSpot Shield is their substandard encryption: 128-bit AES. Strong Encryption and a Proprietary VPN Protocol (edit: +more)ĮDIT: As of, confirmed with HSS that their encryption standard was upgraded from 128-bit to 256-bit. When it comes to online privacy, we don’t suggest you give any VPN with such shady policies the benefit of the doubt. We’ll need to wait for the FTC to eventually conclude and publish their investigation’s findings before making it official, but we recommend giving HotSpot Shield a very wide berth. Sure, Pango follows that up with the claim “device hashes are not linked to VPN browsing activity.”īut that doesn’t add up with the fact they do record your VPN browsing activity and device hashes are used to “understand how you interact with our VPN.” “ Device hashes used to identify devices and associate them with other data we collect (such as for measuring bandwidth use, providing support, understanding how you interact with our VPN, and other analytics and marketing purposes).” Pair that up with the following, and you’ll see why we absolutely do not recommend anyone trust Pango-owned VPNs: It’s here that Pango straight-up admits they personalize ads displayed in their VPN apps (albeit only the free versions).Įven worse, they “log what domain names that users visit” (apparently they forgot to proofread), though they claim it isn’t together with any identifiable data. And that eventually redirects you to a “ Product Privacy Notice – VPN Products ,” which is meant to cover the several VPNs owned by Pango. HotSpot Shield doesn’t have its own privacy policy – it redirects to Pango’s. The facts are against HotSpot Shield – but you have to read the fine print to realize it. Unfortunately, Pango CEO David Goro dyansky’s statements referring to the complaint as “unfounded” are empty words. Until they do, it’s up to HotSpot Shield to prove the allegations wrong.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) still seems to be investigating, declining to comment on the investigation’s status.

#Hotspot shield free vpn proxy review full#

Here’s a snippet from the press release (you can follow the link for the full filing):

Then there’s the question of a rather serious 14-page filing by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDC). HotSpot Shield’s parent company, AnchorFree (now known as Pango ), advertises itself as a privacy services solution… but is also known to partner up with advertising and marketing companies. On top of that, the company has an “ethically ambiguous” history. If you know anything about VPNs, then you’ll know 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes jurisdictions aren’t privacy-friendly. This is because the US is literally one of the eponymous nations of the UKUSA Agreement, also k nown as the 5 Eyes Alliance. We have nothing against American companies, of course, but the fact remains it’s one of the worst countries for a VPN provider to be based in. To begin, HotSpot Shield is an American company. Take a look at How We Rate VPN Providers ! Poor Location, CDT Privacy Accusations, and an Ongoing FTC Investigation