Lawmakers Push FTC To Crack Down On Sleazy VPN Industry
Given the seemingly endless privacy scandals that now engulf the tech and telecom sectors on a near-daily basis, many consumers have flocked to virtual private networks (VPN) to protect and encrypt their data. One study found that VPN use quadrupled between 2016 and 2018 as consumers rushed to protect data in the wake of scandals, breaches, and hacks.
Unfortunately, many consumers are flocking to VPNs under the mistaken impression that such tools are a near-mystical panacea, acting as a sort of bulletproof shield that protects them from any potential privacy violations on the internet. Not only is that not true (ISPs, for example, have a universe of ways to track you anyway), many VPN providers are even less ethical than privacy-scandal-plagued companies or ISPs.
Last week, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and Senator Ron Wyden wrote a letter to the FTC urging it to take a closer look at the increasingly dodgy behavior in the VPN sector:
“In December 2021, Consumer Reports (CR) found that 75 percent of leading VPN providers misrepresented their products and technology or made hyperbolic claims about the protection they provide users on their websites, such as advertising a ‘military-grade encryption’ which doesn’t exist. Advocacy groups have also found that leading VPN services intentionally misrepresent the functionality of their product and fail to provide adequate security to their users. We’re highly concerned that this deceptive advertising is giving abortion-seekers a false sense of security when searching for abortion-related care or information, putting them at a higher risk of prosecution.”
It’s a good segment for the FTC to take a closer look at given the agency’s mandate over “unfair and deceptive” practices. Granted this is the United States where misleading consumers is a sport, and the FTC is tasked with overseeing everything from bleach label accuracy to auto mechanic scams. So given how much is on its plate, it’s not clear whether they’ll actually crack down on dodgy VPNs anytime soon.
After a repeated few years where VPN providers were found to be dodgy or tracked user data when they claimed they didn’t, professionals have shifted their thinking on recommending even using one.
While folks requiring strict security over wireless may still benefit from using a reputable VPN provider, experts say the landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade. Improvements in the overall security of ordinary browsing (bank logins, etc.), plus the risk of choosing the wrong VPN provider, means that, in many instances, people may just be better off without one.
Filed Under: anna eshoo, ftc, privacy, ron wyden, scams, vpn
Comments on “Lawmakers Push FTC To Crack Down On Sleazy VPN Industry”
It would be very helpful to reign in on the broken and deceptive VPNs. As it stands, VPNs require too much technical knowledge to be used securely and even then require trust in the VPN operator. Tor browser does security better but it’s not a functional replacement by far.
That comment counting bug...
Definitely seen again… Counter says one comment, but we can’t see it yet.
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Or how about the anonymous posting bug?
You preview your comment a couple of times to verify it says what you want, then “too many requests” when you try to submit it…
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i’ve had that happen when attempting to post one comment at all, no previews.
i have faith they’ll get it sorted. There’s obviously a lot of shakedown to be done with the new systems.
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That’s a feature, not a bug. It’s related to your IP and not the fact you’re commenting anonymously. I know because it’s happened to me a few times, and I reckon it’s because I’m on a mobile network with thousands of customers, a fair few of whom have commented on this site around the same time that I have on a couple of occasions.
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95% of the time, when I post a comment, it just reloads the page and my comment is nowhere to be seen. It doesn’t show up until some time later, presumably when someone on the staff manually OKs it.
Not to mention that the preview option doesn’t work for me and the comments still look like crap on my end.
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It doesn’t show up until some time later, presumably when someone on the staff manually OKs it.
Have you tried just refreshing the page?
Quality control.
If this is all about making sure the VPN services function as marketed I applaud the effort to provide some regulation to keep the trust in a service many need for completely legal reasons.
I’m curious: Everyone always emphasizes encryption, but statistically speaking, how likely is it that a third party actually taps into your connection to websites/services, and monitors the information that you’re exchanging? Is that actually a large risk?
I mean, I know your ISP can monitor the data that you send and receive unless it’s encrypted, but are there really hackers sitting in basements who are tapping into John Doe’s connection to their bank and recording the keystrokes as they’re sent from his computer to the bank’s website?
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No. They use bots.
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How many times can you afford to have someone empty your bank account?
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Way to completely avoid the question.
Probably just another of them sleazy Home-Spy CIA deals.
You know – where these VPN companies gets special licenses that lets them lie about their products, from the Fed, in return for dumping lots of user data into the CIA data bases. Just saying…