Improve your privacy with a VPN for your Android mobile device<\/b>
\nUsing your Android phone or tablet on a public Wi-Fi network can be dangerous for several reasons. For example, an incorrectly configured network could expose your data to others. There’s also the possibility that nefarious parties have set up an innocent-looking wireless network specifically to trick you into connecting. Fraudulent networks can be very difficult to distinguish from the real thing, so you should use a virtual private network, or VPN to protect yourself. VPNs are still a good investment even when you know the network is safe. ISPs are allowed to sell anonymized user metadata to advertisers and other third parties. Lots of other companies, like Facebook and Google, hunger for a piece of the tasty and lucrative data pie. Speaking of advertisers, they use advanced trackers that correlate your movements between websites. This is still true when you browse the web on your Android device. What’s more, some mobile apps may still transmit data without encryption, letting various three-letter organizations keep an eye on you. You might not think anyone would be interested in your data, but it’s not always individuals who are targeted for surveillance or attack. At the 2016 Black Hat security conference, some 35,000 devices connected to a mysterious Wi-Fi network, all (presumably) without the knowledge of their owners. The network was configured to mimic whatever Wi-Fi request was made of it. You can bet that many of those devices were mobile phones merely seeking a familiar Wi-Fi network. What Is a VPN? When you connect to a VPN, it routes your web traffic through an encrypted connection to a server operated by the VPN company. This means that anyone monitoring your traffic, whether its a Wi-Fi spy or an ISP, won’t be able to see what you’re up to. Out on the web, correlating online activities to you is much harder when you use a VPN. An observer will see all your web traffic (and the traffic of other VPN customers) flowing in and out of the VPN server, not your Android device. Also, when you’re connected to a VPN, your true IP address is hidden. All a snooping advertiser or scurrilous spy will see is the IP address of the VPN server. This protects your privacy but also makes it harder for anyone to discern your location. That’s because IP addresses are distributed geographically, and can sometimes be eerily close to where you are physically located. What a VPN Isn’t As important as it is to understand what a VPN is, it’s also important to know what it isn’t. It isn’t a true anonymization service and you can’t use one to connect to hidden websites on the Dark Web. For both of those activities, you should use the Tor anonymization network. There are Tor client Android apps on the Google Play store, so getting online with Tor is simple. While some VPN services claim to protect you against malware and phishing sites, standalone antivirus software definitely does a better job. One of the most dangerous threats people face is having an account taken over by an attacker. To protect against this, we strongly recommend using a password manager to create strong, unique passwords for every site and service you use. We also recommend enabling two-factor authentication, wherever it’s available. Do VPNs Work With Netflix? A common use of VPNs is location spoofing. When you send your web traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a remote server, the data appears to originate from the VPN server rather than your actual location. Journalists and activists have used this capability to get around restrictive internet controls imposed by various governments. But for most people, this feature is probably for watchihg streaming content that’s restricted to specific geographic regions. That said, video streaming services are starting to get wise. We’ve noticed that Hulu and Amazon Prime Video also frequently block access when they detect a VPN. Note that streaming companies are well within their rights to block VPN users. Just because you’re paying to watch Netflix in the US doesn’t mean you are allowed to view UK Netflix. Some VPNs work with Netflix, but their effectiveness can change on a day-to-day basis as the streaming companies and VPN services play a cat-and-mouse game of spoofing and blocking. VPNs and Speed It’s not surprising that rerouting your connection to other, perhaps distant, servers can negatively impact your web browsing speeds. Usually, a VPN greatly increases your latency and reduces the speed of download and uploads. The severity of the impact depends on the location of the VPN servers and the network infrastructure the VPN provider can access, among other things. Note that most VPNs can also protect you when you’re connected to cellular networks. This might seem like overkill, but there are exotic attacks to intercept phone data. One such attack involves jamming the LTE and 3G bands, forcing nearby phones to attempt to connect via a 2G connection, the encryption of which has long been broken. The attackers use a portable cell tower, similar to a Femtocell, and trick nearby phones into connecting. In testing, we don’t look at VPN performance over cellular connections. That’s because we can’t control how or when the phone connects with cell towers. Instead, we test speeds only on Windows machines. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have only limited access to the PCMag Labs testing facilities and have moved to a rolling model where we provide new speedtest results throughout the year. Our most recent results are in the table below. What Makes a Good Android VPN? Although Android phones and tablets are a radically different form factor than desktops and laptops, what we look for in a VPN remains the same. The number and distribution of available VPN servers provided by the company is important. Lots of servers in lots of places means finding a server near where you live and while traveling should be easier than with a service that has only a few server locations. A surfeit of servers also means there are many options when spoofing your location. The location of a VPN company is also important. Depending on where the company has its corporate headquarters, local laws may require the company to retain user data. That’s not a good thing, especially if maintaining your privacy is your primary concern. Reading the company’s terms of service is a great way to figure out the logging and data retention policies. Another important feature Android owners should look for is split tunneling. This lets you designate which apps send their data through the VPN connection and which travel outside it. That’s useful for apps that frequently block VPN access or require a lot of bandwidth but not security\u2014such as video or music streaming apps as well as mobile games. Finally, the price and number of licenses per subscription are important factors to consider. VPN services range from free to incredibly expensive, but it’s typical for a service to allow five simultaneous accounts per subscription. Some companies have started moving away from this restrictive model, which is good news for consumers. If you’re paying more than about $10 per month, be sure that the VPN service offers features that justify the price. Our list of the cheapest VPNs is a good place to start and our list of free VPNs gets the job done without requiring you to open your wallet. Get a VPN for Your Android Chances are you don’t use a VPN, but you should. Whether you’re a globe-trotting business magnate or a humble homebody, a VPN service is a worthy investment. VPNs help protect your privaxy, even when you’re using your smartphone or tablet. It won’t protect you from every threat, of course, but it’s a simple way to be much more secure.<\/p>\n