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We recommend referring to our list of the fastest VPNs for a complete breakdown of the quickest and safest VPNs available.

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The discrepancy between Hola VPN’s download and upload speeds demonstrates the inconsistencies of a peer-to-peer network.Īs such, it’s likely your speeds will fluctuate if you connect to a peer outside of your local region.

We experienced an average upload speed loss of 90% connecting to the US West Coast and 69% connecting to Australia. Hola VPN’s upload speeds decline substantially on international connections.

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These are great results for a free VPN but compare poorly against paid services. We registered an average download speed loss of 12% connecting to Germany and 19% connecting to Japan. On far-away connections, Hola VPN’s download speeds decrease slightly. If the peer you route your traffic through has poor internet speeds, yours may suffer too. Plus, the node you’re connecting to can also affect your connection speeds. This results in faster speeds than some VPN services with stronger security, but considerably more risk. However, Hola uses a peer-to-peer network with limited encryption. Hola VPN’s fast speeds are partly due to its outdated and insecure protocols. In fact its privacy policy seems to confirm this, stating that it will “comply with law, regulation, subpoena or court order.” It will also hand over your personal information if it has “good reason to believe that it is necessary to.” Hola VPN is based in Israel, which isn’t an official member of the Five Eyes (or Nine or 14 Eyes) intelligence-sharing alliance, but it collaborates with it.Ĭoupled with Hola VPN’s intrusive logging practices, it’s highly likely that Hola VPN will hand over user data if requested. This practice has sparked criticism among cybersecurity professionals. Luminati uses free users’ bandwidth, which is charged per gigabyte, without reimbursing the free user. Hola Networks Limited provides a free consumer ‘VPN’ service, as well as a premium subscription and corporate service called Luminati. Hola VPN was founded by Ofer Vilenski and Derry Shribman under the company name Hola Networks Limited. Troubling Ownership & Privacy-Unfriendly Jurisdiction This allows Hola VPN to sell your bandwidth to other users. Hola VPN openly admits to using your IP address and bandwidth.įree users also share their ‘idle resources’ (WiFi and cellular data) with the network, to save Hola VPN money. This includes accessing unlawful content, which would be tied to your online identity. To bypass geo-blocked websites, Hola VPN routes your internet traffic through other users’ IP addresses in non-blocked regions.Įach user functions as a ‘peer’ or ‘node’, in a similar way to how the Tor network works.Īt the same time, your own IP address can be used by other Hola VPN users for whatever they wish. Hola VPN Uses Your Personal Bandwidth & IP Addressĭespite its name, Hola VPN is actually a peer-to-peer proxy service that uses peer-to-peer caching for quick access to blocked content. Your personal data is at risk every time you use Hola VPN. Hola VPN’s logging policy is one of the worst we’ve seen. This includes your home address, birth date, profile picture, and any publicly available information on your account. If you subscribe to Hola VPN through a social media account, Hola has access to even more of your personal information. To make matters worse, Hola VPN is also based in Israel which is a major collaborator with the Five Eyes data sharing alliance. This includes your IP address and browsing activity, which can be used to easily identify you. Hola VPN collects more data than the vast majority of VPNs we’ve reviewed.

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You can read Hola VPN’s full privacy policy on its website. By installing Hola VPN onto your device, you are allowing your own IP address to be used by millions of other Hola users.īelow, we’ve outlined Hola VPN’s safety risks for various VPN use cases: Hola VPN is a dangerous VPN with a history of malware and data theft. You can see a summary of Hola VPN’s key specifications in the table below, or you can compare Hola VPN to alternative VPNs later in the review. We’ll explain in detail all the privacy and security risks you’ll incur by using this unsafe VPN service.

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In this updated Hola VPN review, we’ve put all of its software through our stringent testing process. It’s a peer-to-peer network that shares your idle bandwidth with other users, allowing unauthorized activity to take place on your network and compromising your privacy and security in the process. Launched in 2012, Hola VPN is a popular freemium application that provides a VPN service for quickly bypassing website blocks.

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