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Brave browser quietly slips a VPN service onto your Windows PC
(www.androidcentral.com)
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this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Because a vpn can monitor all the websites that you visit. Not directly what you're looking at, but definitely where you're looking. Just line your provider can, if you're not using a vpn. But at least with your provider, you have a contract with them - you pay them to transport your data and nothing more. Some very scummy providers aside, that's where it stops.
A free vpn, however, needs to pay for transporting your data somehow. And if you're not paying for it with money, then who/what is?
See also Tom Scott's explanation about vpns, why you probably don't need one, and why he refused their advertisement money.
I'm interested to hear what you think a vpn will protect you against. Or what you think the flaws in Toms arguments are.
Edit: I don't know about you, but I trust my own, GDPR-backed isp far, far more than I trust whichever foreign based vpn company. Especially if they for it for free or cheap.
The only thing you're "protecting" yourself from by using a vpn to surf the Internet, is your own provider. It won't stop any spying software on your phone, or any nefarious scripts on the websites you visit.
Tom's argument was more nuanced than that, which is why I linked it. I suggest you watch it and explain where he's wrong if you want to give your argument to ignore him any weight. Ad hominems and "imagined" arguments alone won't get you very far, I'm afraid.