We won’t blame you if you say you find it hard to ignore anything with a ‘free’ tag. The word ‘free’ has much power, and we all get tempted by hearing this. While many free things can be helpful, the free proxy is something that will give you burnt hands most of the time.
A free proxy can do anything wrong to your online data – From leaking IP addresses to selling your browsing history to others.
In this post, we will explain why to avoid using free proxies as much as possible and only use a reliable paid proxy service. The money you’ll pay will undoubtedly bring a lot of value and benefits to the table.
The Annoyance Of Free Proxies
A proxy is an intermediary between a website server and the client. It receives the client request, replaces the real IP address with a proxy or fake IP address, and then forwards the client request to the website server. So clearly, a proxy server will have access to your browsing history, IP address, and some basic system details.
If you’re not choosing a proxy server wisely, you might end up putting all this sensitive information at stake. The odds of happening so are higher with free proxy services as they are:
● Not Secure
The most secure and preferred connection is HTTPS, but most free proxies only use an HTTP connection. This connection has no encryption power and can easily let hackers decode what you’re trying to communicate with the website server.
Depending upon your interaction, an HTTP-based connection can let the hacker steal personal and financial data like ATM PIN, email passwords, net banking login credentials, and so on. This doesn’t seem reasonable, does it?
● Very Slow
For any proxy to provide reliable speed, the servers must be latency-free, capable of blocking ads, and have unlimited bandwidth. Sadly, all these features come at a cost, and free proxies cannot bear that expense. So if you’re using a free proxy, either you are ready to experience sluggish speed or sell your data to experience some features.
● Stealing Cookies
It’s not tough for skilled hackers to steal cookies for free proxy server users. They can easily modify the static HTML of a proxy server connection and insert malicious code in it. This way, hackers can force a free proxy server to save or steal your cookie’s data.
If this happens, hackers will have access to everything the cookies store about your online activities immediately.
● Not Diverse
If any free proxy server can manage to provide considerable service, its offering won’t be diverse, and you will have limited proxy servers. Maintaining proxy servers is a pocket-heavy task. That’s why most of the free proxy servers offer a handful of proxy servers.
If you plan to use a proxy server to unblock geo-restricted websites or streaming platforms, you won’t have many choices left. Because of the same reason, you will fail to experience powerful security, unlimited bandwidth, reliable customer support, and many other essential features you ought to enjoy as a proxy server user.
You cannot take lightly the hassles, which are part and parcel of free proxies services. Even though a free proxy doesn’t charge you directly, it can cause huge havoc and damage indirectly. For instance, you may end up losing your precision data. You need an immediate fix, and a verified paid proxy server is the one.
Pay Pennies And Remain Stress-Free
We know that not everyone is ready to pay for a proxy server. But, if you want to use the features of a proxy server regularly and want to keep your sensitive data, using a paid server is a wise move to make. You will have every possible feature and facility with a paid proxy server. However, you have to play smart and make a wise move.
Remember that every other paid proxy provider is not worth your trust and money. Carefully conduct market research and then make the decision. Good Luck!