What is the main purpose of a VPN? In theory, simply to protect your data and browse anonymously and privately. However, we’ve talked on occasion that certain VPN services are insecure, and above all must take extreme caution of which are free. Recently, a study by the researchers from Data61/CSIRO, UC Berkeley, UNSW Sydney, and UCSI demonstrated that many Android applications to create VPN not only protect your privacy but contain malware. The vast majority of apps of this type that can be found on Google Play presents problems about data protection. It seems that virtual private networks are not as private as one would like.
According to the data, 18% of VPN applications do not encrypt the data of its users, and 38% contains malware or adware and 80% requests access to private data that do not really need and 84% leak user data. Two of the 283 apps even redirect traffic to servers for advertising purposes. So, if you are going to use a VPN, then simply you have to analyze its reputation on the network, as well as carefully you have to review the permissions that it ask for. If the service is free, then the privacy is probably non-existent and not only that even with the payment you have to keep your eyes out.
Source@techviral
