The Best Android VPN Apps of 2017

Most people understand that the Internet can be dangerous, especially on unsecure networks. Advertisers, attackers, and spies can steal your data from Wi-Fi networks, so security-minded people know to protect their laptops with a virtual private network or VPN service. That's smart, but if you protect your desktop and not your mobile device, it's like locking the front door but leaving the windows wide open. Your Android needs VPN protection, too.

In this roundup, I'll talk about VPN apps for Android only. But most VPN services worth their salt also have apps for iPhone as well. I'll be reviewing and rounding those up soon.

What Is a VPN?

Taking out your tablet or using your phone to access the free Wi-Fi at the local coffee shop is a lot more dangerous than it seems. First, you have no way of knowing if the network has been configured incorrectly, allowing others on the network can't see your data. Second, it's entirely possible that nefarious parties have simply set up an innocent-looking wireless network to trick naive coffee drinkers; they can be very difficult to tell from the real thing.

In both of the scenarios above, someone could monitor your network traffic. Everything you send, from emails to passwords, would be open to them. That's a lot of private information you'd probably rather keep private. One example of a classic man-in-the-middle attack is to use a bogus network to intercept victims' Web traffic and replace legitimate sites with fake ones. When a victim goes to enter their information (everything from passwords to credit card numbers) on the site, the attacker gets it all.

If this all sounds far-fetched, it's probably more common than anyone would like to admit. While attending the Black Hat security conference, I saw some 35,000 devices connecting to a malicious Wi-Fi network, all without the knowledge of their owners. The malicious network was configured to mimic whatever Wi-Fi request was made of it. You can bet that many of those devices were mobile phones merely seeking a familiar Wi-Fi network.

But even if it's a safe Wi-Fi network, your personal information may still be at risk. Advertisers use advanced trackers that correlate your movements between websites. By placing trackers on a variety of sites and watching for requests from the same IP address, advertisers can get a sense of your habits. This is still true when you browse the Web on your Android. What's more, many mobile apps still transmit data without encryption, letting various three-letter organizations keep an eye on you.

When you connect through a VPN, you interact differently with the Internet. Your data is sent through an encrypted tunnel to a VPN server, either nearby or in a far-flung location. Anyone monitoring your network connection only sees the gibberish of an encrypted connection. Because your traffic exits onto the open Web from the VPN server, advertisers and spies see the IP address of the VPN server and not your device. It's a smart and simple way to keep your information and identity secure.