Proton Finds Trackers in 85 Percent of VPN Apps Downloaded in the US

Proton analyzed more than 7,000 mobile VPN apps and found that 85 percent of VPNs downloaded in the US contain trackers used for analytics, advertising, or profiling, undermining the privacy users expect. Some VPN apps can access sensitive device information such as device ID, phone model, carrier, network type, and even GPS location, with 64 apps capable of collecting physical location data. These 64 apps alone accounted for more than 3 million US downloads in June, highlighting the scale of the problem. Proton’s findings follow earlier research showing that many free Android VPNs leak identifiers or DNS traffic outside their encrypted tunnels. The company also discovered that 64 of the 390 VPNs downloaded in the US are owned by Chinese companies, while 31 more obscure their ownership behind offshore registrations. Trackers inside these apps send data to servers in China and Russia, totaling nearly 3 million US downloads in June. Proton warns that many VPNs marketed as privacy tools may actually expose users to more tracking and data collection. The report emphasizes that users must investigate who owns a VPN and what data it collects, because installing the wrong app can reduce privacy instead of improving it.

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