The shutdown of the internet in Zimbabwe contributed to a rise in the downloads of free VPN mobile applications, but is it really free.


The internet has been shutdown in Zimbabwe because of the protests and violence that the Country has experience. And as a result of that, since most of the people are now addicted to whatsapp , twitter and facebook, almost more than 50% on internet users in Zimbabwe downloaded the Virtual Private Network apps. The most app that was being used was the VPN master so that people will now have access to the internet.

VPN stands for virtual private network. It is a secure tunnel between two or more devices. VPNs are used to protect private web traffic from snooping, interference, and censorship. Express VPN can also act as a proxy, allowing you to surf the web anonymously from wherever you want. And if you are blocked to access the internet like what happened here in Zimbabwe, VPN can unblock you by allowing you to surf the web anonymously.

Despite the fact that people managed to communicate with each other using free VPNs, the question which remains is that . Are these free Android VPN apps really free? Some free Android VPN apps are not good to use. If the VPN free apps allows you to surf the web anonymously , my thinking is that those apps can gather you private data anonymously also because they are capable of doing great.

My conclusion, despite the fact that in Zimbabwe we have experienced the use of VPNs and VPN has become the word of the day and word of the year in 2019 l think, everyone downloading any application should take extra caution because some applications are not really for free as we may think.


5 Comments to “The shutdown of the internet in Zimbabwe contributed to a rise in the downloads of free VPN mobile applications, but is it really free.”

  1. I am not a tech guru, and what l know in Zimbabwe is that people will always want to download free apps especially here in Zimbabwe because we do not have money that’s why we go for free apps

  2. l am Emmanuel Mhetu the chief editor at ,From the research that l did, by far, the biggest risk is intrusive permissions with 99 of the 150 apps tested asking for user location, microphone and camera access or device information. For products that are specifically pointed towards security, it’s a worrying finding.The research claims that the 150 apps tested have over 260 million downloads on the Google Play Store, meaning the security risks are fairly widespread. And it gets worse as 38 of the VPNs were found to have DNS leakage, which could result in users private data being compromised. Furthermore 27 VPN apps that was tested with Virus.Total were flagged as potentially containing malware. So l think when downloading a free app on the google play store make sure you do a short survey, don’t just go and install the app and click next, next because l know most of the people they don’t read terms and conditions they just click, l understand and click next.

  3. Interesting… Indeed most people are unaware of the potential dangers of some of these so called “free services.

  4. Very educative indeed.

  5. Very educative

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