hotspot shield vpn free download

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A VPN that is among the most fast available on the market

It is Hotspot shield, the most loved VPN service. Do you think this makes it the top in the world? With more than 650 million users as well as unbeatable speeds, and more than 2500 servers across the globe, Hotspot Shield are the world's leading players in the VPN market. They continue to expand at an incredible rate. Fantastic service or amazing marketing? Let's discover. Hotspot Shield is a VPN, i.e. it's a "Virtual Private Network" which hides your computer's IP address making it possible to browse secure and (supposedly) anonymously. VPN services have gained popularity following the Snowden revelations and remain the most popular way to secure internet usage. Hotspot Shield was developed in 2005 by AnchorFree which is which is a US firm based located in San Francisco. A product that is free and features like Hotspot Shield Elite removing the advertisements, adding features and boosting the speed.

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Good design, decent speed and simple to use

Hotspot Shield VPN: unparalleled speed for a cost

The pros are now in the spotlight There are plenty. One of the first things I noticed after downloading Hotspot Shield was its sleek design and gorgeous simplicity. It took less than one moment to locate it download, then download it, and start it up. The black background, featuring a globe with stars and a power button that is simple at the center is visually amazing. Simply press the power button and voila you're safe! If you are using the free version you automatically get the server (in my case, the United States) but if you upgrade to Hotspot Shield Elite you can select your server from more than 61 countries. You can use up to five devices at once and AnchorFree also supports anonymous torrenting , and provides instructions to help you get up and running. Hotspot Shield provides great protection should the server is not working the kill switch will disconnect you automatically immediately, obscuring your actual IP address and any sensitive information. I was unable to access Netflix however, with the premium option it is possible to stream Netflix as well as access geo-protected YouTube videos, and even the stubborn UK located BBC iPlayer. Support is available 24 hours a day (although via Live chat or tickets for support, they're notoriously slow to respond on emails).

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Of course, the main reason why Hotspot Shield blows its competitors out of the water is in the speed they provide. Although I have only tried using the trial version of their service, customers claimed download speeds that were double those of other VPNs, less latency, and faster speed of ping. AnchorFree says this is due to their own Hydra Protocol, which is founded in TLS along with OpenSSL. Actually, it's also utilized by major security companies like McAfee, Bitdefender and even Vodafone. Their VPN uses a highly secure encryption protocol called AES-2526 that guarantees your information is secure from anyone - with the exception of AnchorFree. This brings us to the biggest flaw in the otherwise perfect VPN.

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Hotspot is located in California. In the United States is a member of the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance, and currently US law permits the Government to impose gag orders against VPN businesses. In effect, AnchorFree could be forced to give over your personal information (and be barred of notifying users). It's not even go into the murky contradictions between their most recent Transparency Report and their Privacy Policy. The former is an assertion that there is no logging and the latter acknowledges it Hotspot Shield does "collect anonymous aggregated data on which websites you go to and what applications you are using." There have been formal complaints that have been filed against the firm, alleging that they are guilty of selling personal information to advertisers. Other drawbacks include the absence of bitcoin-based payment options and the fact that you cannot manually set up routers because there aren't any alternatives to VPN tunneling protocols in use. The free version allows you to browse on US server (which are considerably slow compared to their international alternatives) and limit you to 500MB of data per day.

Where do you want to run this program?

Hotspot Shield can be used with the majority of major gadgets. The VPN application is compatible with Windows, Mac and both Android and iOS smartphones. There's also an extension for the browsers Chrome or Firefox.

But, since the VPN is based using it's Hydra Catapult protocols, there isn't an possibility to manually set up routers. Therefore, Hotspot Shield is incompatible with Linux as well as gaming systems or smart TVs. In essence, you won't be in a position to run Hotspot Shield on any of their numerous devices that aren't supported. This includes any phones with a root, Kindle, Windows or Blackberry phones as well as devices like the Amazon Fire TV stick.

Are there alternatives to this?

If it's speed you're looking for, the sole competitor for Hotspot Shield is Express VPN. While you cannot use as much devices at once and there's no free version to download. To use ultra-private browsing, you can try one of the Private Internet Access or Surfshark VPNs. If you are planning to perform lots of torrenting, TorGuard VPN is a great alternative. I have found that TunnelBear to be an excellent VPN and there were no advertising, including in its free edition. CyberGhost is perfect to access BBC iPlayer. For all other streaming services the most reliable choice is NordVPN. It has great speeds, Netflix streaming, smooth torrenting, and extremely secure protocols. It is the most reliable VPN for fast and secure browsing, without compromising your privacy.

Our view

It is obvious that the primary purpose of using the VPN is to protect your data and security. So , why would you select an VPN app that is located in the US and has a murky privacy policy, and have been accused of fraud in the Center for Democracy and Technology?

There is no way to say that everything is absolutely free. Hotspot Shield comes at the cost of ads and has a restricted bandwidth in its free edition. It's even more apparent that Hotspot Shield Elite comes at an expense to your privacy.

Do you need to download it?

Try the trial version for 7 days that comes with a money-back guarantee. If you're searching for speed that is raw only, consider giving Hotspot Shield a miss and test one of the private VPNs.