10 Secret Chinese VPN Companies You Should Know About
In the VPN industry, users have to trust that their data is in safe hands. VPN service providers that are shady raise red flags and ultimately mean that users should not trust such services. A VPN that you use should be completely transparent about its structure, location, privacy policy, and every other thing that affects its users.
Secrets about a VPNs origin are only beneficial to the VPN service and detrimental to users who expect complete transparency. This article dwells on ten VPN companies with secret links to China.
Chinese Companies That Secretly Own VPNs
With its autocratic style, the Chinese government influences every company that originates from China. They have a strict policy regarding VPNs, and VPN owners need a license to operate in China. VPN applications are also not available on the Chinese Android and iOS application stores (Google Play Store and Apple Store). With this in mind, it is not abnormal to suspect any VPN originating from China to be a surveillance tool for the Chinese government, and such a company will likely not keep its promise of privacy.
We have discovered that there are VPN companies with secret links to China. These companies are not fully transparent about their origin, and that is a huge red flag. Also, considering that most of these companies offer free VPN services, it is highly likely that you cannot trust them to protect your data. Free VPNs and China is a combination that VPN users should do well to avoid. Let’s take a look at some of these secret Chinese VPN services.
1. TurboVPN
Turbo VPN has more than a hundred million installs on Google Play Store. Its developer on the Play Store is Innovative Connecting, which owns multiple mobile VPN applications, including VPN Proxy Master. Innovative Connecting is also called ALL Connected Co. and is linked to two other companies: Lemon Clove and Autumn Breeze.
TurboVPN is officially based in Singapore but has Chinese citizens (Li Chenguang and Sun Kaixuan) as its directors. TurboVPN has the same directors as Snap VPN (Autumn Breeze), and if you check their websites, you can see the similarity. Its privacy policy is similar to that of VPN Proxy Master and Snap VPN. If you think your data is in safe hands, then think again because TurboVPN keeps logs of your connection data.
2. VPN Proxy Master
With over 35 million downloads across Play Store and Apple Store, VPN Proxy Master is also linked to SnapVPN and TurboVPN. There is no transparency about how close these companies are, which is scary. For example, VPN Proxy Master is developed by ALL Connected but offers email support through the same domain as Turbo VPN.
Its privacy policy is similar to Snap VPN and TurboVPN and also mentions Lemon Clove (Snap VPN) as its developer instead of ALL Connected. In fact, TurboVPN used to have ALL Connected as its Apple Store developer and Innovative Connecting as its Play Store developer. You can see the apparent connections between these companies. VPN Proxy Master’s director is a Chinese citizen that is resident in mainland China.
3. Snap VPN
Snap VPN has over ten million downloads on Play Store. Besides having Chinese directors (Li Chenguang and Sun Kaixuan) with connections to mainland China, it is also Singapore-based, like VPN Proxy Master and TurboVPN. These three VPNs share a connection in one way or the other. Indications point to the theory that Autumn Breeze, Lemon Clove, ALL Connected, and Innovative Connecting are the same. Aside from that, nothing they do can erase their connection to mainland China.
4. X-VPN
More than 25 million people have downloaded X-VPN on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. Free Connected Ltd, the company behind this VPN, is based in Hong Kong. With mainland China’s increasing authority in Hong Kong, we cannot write this one out at the moment. Besides, its sole director is a Chinese citizen (Li Jin) resident in mainland China. The main issue with this VPN service is the lack of transparency with its users about its ownership. Its privacy policy is decent and transparent, with only a few issues on advertising and geolocation.
5. Thunder VPN
Thunder VPN has been downloaded more than ten million times on Google Play Store. You will see that Signal Lab is the developer for Thunder VPN if you check on Google Play Store. Signal Lab is also associated with Secure VPN. There is no information on who owns this company or their location. It has only a single page on its website and no information on contacting them or reaching out to support.
According to its privacy policy, ThunderVPN can use the data it collects to build a profile for each user and sell it to advertisers. On further investigation, we discovered that the developers are from Hong Kong. With unconfirmed links to China, this VPN’s lack of information about its parent company is shady, and VPN users should avoid it.
6. Secure VPN
There is really not much to say about Secure VPN because it is basically under the same conditions as ThunderVPN. It shares the same support email, privacy policy, and developer.
7. Vpnify
Neonetworks Solutions Ltd, which has its office in Hong Kong, is the company behind Vpnify. This company has no website, but we discovered its sole director is Chinese (Yin Yu). However, you cannot find that information on its website. Vpnify’s parent company has no history except its registration in Hong Kong in 2019.
8. Sky VPN
Sky VPN’s parent company is Tengzhan Technology Ltd, whose parent company is Tengzhan Group. So technically, the Tenghzan Group owns Sky VPN. While we could get this information, there is no indication on Sky VPN’s website about its parent company. This lack of transparency is a red flag and could mean the VPN service doesn’t want its users knowing a Chinese company owns it. Its privacy policy also collects more information than necessary which they can use to build a profile for each user.
9. Sec VPN
The first red flag on Sec VPN is that its website has no SSL certificate. SecVPN has more than a million downloads on Google Play Store, yet its website lacks basic security. The company behind this VPN is known as TCL Mobile Communication HK Company Ltd, whose parent company is the famous TCL Corporation. The TCL Corporation has strong ties to the Chinese government. Its privacy policy is quite similar to that of ThunderVPN and Secure VPN. Like all other VPN service providers on this list, the lack of transparency between owners and users ultimately results in a lack of trust.
10. VPN Tomato
VPN Tomato has about a million downloads on Google Play Store. Lovinpal Pte. Ltd. is its parent company and is Singapore-based. This company has a sole director that is a Chinese citizen (Tian Yuan) and has links to several other companies with little or no online presence. It looks like a deliberate attempt to stay anonymous. Its website only hosts its privacy policy and has only two words on the front page: “Hi, Welcome.” VPN Tomato appears like a ghost company with links to China, and its privacy policy seems like a template with no specific information tied to it. There is absolutely no form of transparency with this VPN.
Conclusion
These companies have one thing in common; they all lack transparency. A VPN company with links to China is not as severe as one that tries to hide those links. As we said earlier, if VPN users cannot trust that a VPN company will keep their data safe, they should stay away from such companies. These companies have proven they are not trustworthy, and you should be careful not to use their VPN applications.