Problems surfaced in 2016 when a team of academics cited Hotspot Shield in a research paper for using tracking libraries in their VPN service. Launched in 2008, the service gained fame for its use by dissidents during the Arab Spring protests in the early 2010s. Hotspot Shield is one of the older VPN services. Do the apps still suffer leaks? Have they implemented privacy policies that are more protective of their user’s data? Can this VPN even be trusted with your private data? By the time you finish this article, you will know. We’re here today to see how well Hotspot Shield has done putting their problems behind them.

Two years (and a few new owners) later, Hotspot Shield has had the opportunity to recover from those dark times. They are justly famous for playing a small part in the Arab Spring protests, and were once named the “World’s fastest VPN.” But things went down hill for a while, with the company being accused of unfair business practices and suffering a bug that leaked user data.

Hotspot Shield is a well-known VPN service.

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