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We collect this information to 1) Perform analytics on our services, including measuring whether our users are able to successfully access certain websites or apps and 2) Troubleshoot service issues and improve service quality.Ģ HotSpot Shield VPN: Installation and Ease of Use We do not attribute any specific website visits or app usage to any specific user. We collect only anonymous, aggregated data about which websites our users visit and which apps our users use. This is what HotSpot Shield has to say about its user’s data privacy: This may not mean much to certain users but those who strictly value user privacy may find this unnerving. Nevertheless, advertisers may be able to collect certain information independently from you or your device when serving ads from the Hotspot Shield application, such as your device’s advertising ID and wireless carrier. Hotspot Shield does not share any personal information about you with advertisers. H ere are some excerpts from the logging policy: The site specifically claims that it does not sell any user data to advertisers but advertisers may themselves keep a log of certain technical data such as a user’s Operating System (OS), Web browser, ISP and more. To be honest, HotSpot Shield’s logging policy is quite ambiguous and can be very confusing for new users with little prior knowledge of how a VPN works.
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On finer reading, I found out that although it did not keep track of the websites I visited or what I downloaded, it did keep certain usage statistics from time to time. HotSpot Shield VPN claims to keep no usage logs and does not store any data after a session is over.
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The logging policy is the first thing that most users check while considering a VPN service and so did I. Bypassing Chinese Firewall is now a walk in the park thanks to HotSpot Shield VPN. HotSpot Shield will soon extend its services to other video streaming platforms such as Google Video, Amazon Prime and the very popular Twitch. You can stream from other websites such as BBC and Hulu without any restrictions as well. Using HotSpot Shield VPN you can watch live sporting events, record video or audio content and play live games without giving away your IP address to your ISP or government trackers.
VPN SHIELD DESKTOP REVIEW ANDROID
I streamed Netflix both from my Windows desktop as well as from my Android mobile and the experience was smooth on both- fast speed, unlimited data, no bandwidth capping and more that too anonymously. Netflix can be accessed from anywhere in the world and it takes a couple of seconds to unblock geo-restricted contents. Streaming is a joy on the HotSpot Shield VPN because of its ultra-fast speed and good connectivity to nearby servers. I tried checking for leaks with the kill switch turned off and I found that the app almost instantly alerts the user in case of any signal drop which might leave your IP address visible. If however your connection is compromised due to some unforeseen event then the app has a kill switch which can immediately disconnect your device from the server so that any private data such as your IP address or DNS is not leaked, even to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). I checked numerous times on different web browsers for any leaks but I was unsuccessful in finding any DNS leak or any other sort of leaks.
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Fortunately, HotSpot Shield does not leak your IP (Internet Protocol) address or DNS (Domain Name System) to third party trackers or hackers. DNS leaks and WebRTC leaks are major headaches for those users who value their online privacy as highly as I do. User privacy is not limited to just what protocol or encryption is used. There is not much to worry though as renowned cybersecurity companies such as McAfee and Bitdefender employ the same Catapult Hydra protocol to provide VPN services from within their app. The downside of this Hydra protocol is that the working of the VPN becomes difficult to assess but the upside is lightning-fast speed and better performances. New keys are generated for each new sessions and a key lasts as long as the session lasts. The motive of the Catapult Hydra is to improve performance speed and provide perfect forward secrecy (you can read more about HotSpot Shield support for OpenVPN protocols on the official website). The Catapult Hydra is based on TSL (Transport Layer Security) 1.2 and carries 128-AES encryption and 2048-bit RSA for server authentication. Instead of the more secure (and popular) OpenVPN protocol, HotSpot Shield uses its own proprietary Catapult Hydra technology. OpenVPN and similar protocols are known to be secure and have gained the trust of users over the years. What caught my attention was the fact that HotSpot Shield VPN does not support any standard VPN protocols such as OpenVPN, LT2P or IKEv2 which are used by the vast majority of VPN service providers if not all.
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