Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial

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CSIRO: VPNs not always as private as thought
Research Organisation (CSIRO) has warned users of virtual private networks (VPNs) that their security often does not live up to the technology's name.

CSIRO recently reviewed 283 Android apps that use the OS's VPN permissions, examining a wide range of their security and privacy features, and published a report , An Analysis of the Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps .

The organization's researchers found that 18% of the apps they reviewed actually did not encrypt user traffic, 38% delivered malware or intrusive ads directly to the user's device, and more than 80% requested access to sensitive data, such as user account information and text messages.

16% of VPN apps analyzed use opaque proxies that modify user argentina whatsapp data traffic by inserting and removing headers or using techniques such as image transcoding.

Additionally, two VPN apps were found to actively inject JavaScript code into user traffic to distribute ads and track user activity, and one of them redirected e-commerce traffic to external advertising partners.

“The main reason tens of millions of users install these apps is to protect their data, but this is precisely the function these apps do not perform,” the report says.