Concerns about privacy online have been heightened by the recent Dobbs-v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Many are and are looking to VPNs for help. In the past year, researchers found that VPN searches reached peak levels on the data critical to abortion-related statements. They also saw a dramatic increase in interest in states as they passed laws related to abortion.
Many VPN providers, many in the eyes of industry experts, make privacy claims about their products that they do not support. Even more disturbing is that many VPN apps collect massive amounts of data from their mobile users without their consent. These issues go far beyond post-Roe privacy issues and apply to businesses using VPNs as well.
The issue came to the fore last week when U.S. Representative Anna G. Eshoo and Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan, urging her and the committee to “end the deceitful and abusive data collection practices by many companies offering Virtual Private Network (VPN) services.” The two also noted that “the consumer VPN industry is full of deceptive advertising and illegal data practices.”
The full article on Network Computing is available here