Virtual private networks have gone from a niche tool for techies to something your parents, your boss and your favorite streamer all talk about. A VPN promises more privacy, more security and the power to hop between virtual locations with a tap. That boom in popularity has a dark side though. 
The same word that people associate with safety has become a perfect disguise for attackers, and Google is now warning that the danger is not just shady websites but fake VPN apps that quietly hijack your phone.
Before diving into the warning, it is worth recapping what a VPN actually does. When you switch one on, your internet traffic is encrypted on your device and pushed through a secure tunnel to a server run by the VPN provider. To the outside world it looks as if you are browsing from that VPN server, not from your real IP address at home, at work or on mobile data. Your internet provider sees less of what you are doing, advertisers have a harder time following you, and you can often reach content that is normally locked to another country.
There is always a trade off. Because your data now has to travel through an extra stop, download and upload speeds usually take a hit. Run a speed test while a VPN is active and do not be surprised if the numbers drop. That slowdown is usually the cost of encryption and routing, not necessarily a sign something is broken. A VPN is a privacy tool, not a magic accelerant for your internet connection.
Google warns about malicious fake VPN apps
In a recent security bulletin, Google highlighted a surge in malicious apps that pretend to be legitimate VPN services. Threat actors are publishing apps across platforms that borrow VPN branding, familiar color schemes and even the names or icons of well known services in order to win your trust. Others lean on aggressive marketing, including sexually suggestive ads or dramatic references to wars and political crises, to hook people who are desperate for a safer way online.
Once installed, these impostor apps are not protecting you at all. Instead they deliver malware: information stealers that vacuum up your contacts and messages, banking trojans that sit on top of your financial apps to grab logins, remote access tools that give criminals hands on control of your phone and code that hunts specifically for cryptocurrency wallets. The badge on the icon may say VPN, but under the hood it is just another way to get spyware and fraud tools onto millions of devices at once.
For first time VPN users this is a perfect trap. People hear they should use a VPN for safety or to watch shows from another region, search quickly in an app store or click the first ad they see and install something they barely check. A few taps later the very tool they hoped would boost privacy can completely destroy it.
How Google Play Protect tries to defend Android users
On Android, Google leans heavily on machine learning to spot suspicious apps. The company urges users to keep Google Play Protect enabled so it can scan new downloads for potentially harmful behaviour and block the worst offenders before they ever run. A recent fraud focused update goes further by flagging apps that request dangerous combinations of permissions often abused in financial scams. If you try to sideload one of these risky packages from a browser, file manager or chat app, Play Protect can simply refuse to install it.
This makes one thing crystal clear: if you have to turn off security features in order to install a VPN, that VPN is not worth the risk. The short term win of free or dirt cheap access is nothing compared to the damage a data stealing app can do to your bank account, your private messages or your crypto wallet.
CISA adds an important reality check
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the arm of the United States Department of Homeland Security that focuses on digital risk, has also weighed in on VPNs. Its message is blunt. A personal VPN does not make risk vanish, it simply shifts it from your internet service provider to the VPN company. In some cases the attack surface actually grows, because you are now trusting yet another organisation with your traffic patterns and your metadata.
CISA also echoes concerns about low quality services, pointing out that many free and even commercial VPN providers have weak security practices or vague, lawyerly privacy policies. If a service is free, it still has to make money somehow, whether through aggressive advertising, selling data, embedding trackers or cutting corners on infrastructure. A VPN can be a shield, but in the wrong hands it becomes just another form of surveillance and data mining.
Why free and shady VPNs are especially dangerous
That is why security professionals repeatedly warn people away from random free VPNs, particularly those built and run in jurisdictions where transparency is limited and accountability is thin. Some suspicious apps wave the flag of privacy while quietly logging everything you do. Others are basic white label products resold under dozens of brand names with almost no oversight, patching or investment in security. A zero dollar price tag is the easiest way to lure victims who would never dream of paying a subscription, but it is also a huge red flag.
A safer approach is to choose a reputable paid provider with a clear subscription plan, transparent privacy policy and a history of independent audits and technical scrutiny. Services such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark or privacy focused options like Proton or Windscribe are frequently mentioned by experienced users not because they are magically perfect, but because their entire business model depends on treating trust and privacy as core products. If your goal is to get around location restrictions on streaming, book travel deals from abroad or shield your browsing from your internet provider, dedicated consumer VPNs from vetted vendors still handle that better than most one click browser extensions.
Of course, a VPN is not the only way to add layers of protection. Some privacy conscious users rely on the Tor network, SOCKS5 connections or tightly controlled private proxies for specific tasks where they do not want traffic monitored at all. These tools demand more technical understanding and come with their own limitations, but they underline an important point that is easy to forget in marketing: the objective is to reduce who can see what you are doing, not to worship any single technology as a cure all.
How to choose and use a VPN more safely
If you decide that a VPN still makes sense for your situation, treat the choice the way you would treat a bank, not a casual mobile game. Always download apps from the official Google Play Store or Apple App Store, avoid mysterious download links from pop up ads and never install a VPN that asks you to disable Google Play Protect or other built in security checks. Take a few minutes to read the privacy policy and look for clear statements about logging, data retention, ownership and how the company responds to law enforcement requests. Check whether the service offers basics such as a kill switch and protection against DNS and IP leaks, which stop your real address from leaking when the connection drops.
On Android, verify that Play Protect is turned on before you start hunting for VPN apps. On iOS, be just as wary of obscure brands with tiny web sites, nearly identical names or no real support channels beyond a single email address. Be especially skeptical of VPNs that promise to be totally free and unlimited forever. In the security world there are almost always strings attached to that claim, and those strings often lead straight to your data.
The bigger picture: trust, tech giants and digital identity
Many readers roll their eyes when Google raises any security issue, pointing out that a company built on advertising will always prefer traffic it can see and analyse. That skepticism is healthy. At the same time, dismissing every warning from big tech or government agencies as corporate propaganda is its own kind of risk. The truth sits somewhere in the middle. Use what vendors and regulators share, but combine it with your own common sense, a habit of checking sources and an understanding that not all VPNs, or VPN articles, are created equal.
Looking ahead, debates around digital identity, real name policies and centralised login systems could push even more people toward VPNs and other privacy tools. If digital real ID systems ever become mandatory in more countries, keeping parts of your online life separate may feel less like a luxury and more like basic self defence. That makes today the right moment to clean up your toolkit, remove mystery VPN apps you barely remember installing and replace them with services you have actually researched and configured properly.
In the end, VPNs are neither heroes nor villains. They are powerful tools that can either harden your privacy or blow it apart, depending entirely on who built the app sitting on your phone and how you choose to use it. Treat them with the same caution you give your banking app, read before you tap install and Google style warnings stop being scary clickbait. Instead they become what they should have been all along: a reminder that real security starts with the decisions you make long before you connect to any server.