Internet Shutdowns & Free VPNs: Who Owns The Most Popular Apps?

The table below shows an overview of our ownership findings for the 27 VPN apps that were the most popular VPNs during internet restrictions in Russia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and India.

Full details of each of the VPNs app listings and ownership findings are available on this datasheet.

Note: The “Disclosure of Official Company Name” column in the table above indicates whether or not the VPN developer’s official registered company name was discoverable via their Play Store listing, either directly or via a linked resource.

For those VPNs where we have indicated that the company name was not disclosed but their details are included in the table, this was as a result of extensive investigation of public records beyond what could be considered reasonable for the average consumer.

[1] Name of apparent parent company Super VPN, Inc. is not disclosed.

[2] Developer appears to operate other commercial non-VPN apps.

The Russian government quickly moved to block social media in Russia from early March 2022. Russians immediately turned to VPN services in huge numbers to retain access to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Russian government censors also blocked hundreds of news websites as part of their attempts to control the narrative for the Russian people.

VPN mobile apps were the most downloaded type of app overall in Russia in early March 2022.

Most Popular iOS VPN Apps in Russia

The following table shows the VPN apps with the most installs from Apple’s App Store during the period that the Russian government blocked Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in March 2022. The table is ordered by number of app installs, largest to smallest. iOS app install data is monthly, global and the most recent available.

_{Jump to the most popular Android VPN apps in Russia}

[1] Name of apparent parent company Super VPN, Inc. is not disclosed.

VPNSuper

• Monthly Installs: 3 million
• Listed Developer: Mobile Jump Pte Ltd
• App ID: id1370293473
• App Website: mobilejump.mobi
• Support email: contact@mobilejump.info

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Mobile Jump Pte Ltd
• Company No: 201933447E
• Corporate Website: superunlimited.com
• Registered Address: 30 Cecil Street #19-08, Prudential Tower, Singapore 049712
• Company Director:
  • Tanuj Chaterjee, U.S. citizen resident in Burlingame, CA (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholder: Free VPN Pte Ltd (201929358N), also of 30 Cecil Street #19-08, Prudential Tower, Singapore 049712

Corporate Credibility Issues

• While this VPN operator does share its legally registered company name, it doesn’t openly disclose the name of its apparent parent company.
• Mobile Jump Ltd may legally be a Singapore company, but according to incorporation documents it is owned by a U.S. citizen based in the U.S, and seemingly a U.S. registered company.
• Tanuj Chaterjee is currently the sole director of both Mobile Jump and its shareholder Free VPN Pte Ltd. He is also the CEO of Super VPN Inc (T20UF4774F/C4596833) with the same registered address as listed on the superunlimited.com website.
• The U.S. company website, which boasts of the popularity of VPNSuper, also known as “VPN – Super Unlimited Proxy”, is very much investor-focused and is not linked to from the product site.


Screenshot from superunlimited.com boasting of the popularity of the VPN app.

• Despite not openly disclosing its apparent U.S. ownership, the Super VPN Inc leadership is composed of respected Silicon Valley veterans with experience of working on privacy products, including other VPNs.

VPN Proxy Master

• Installs: 2 million (iOS, monthly) | 10 million (Android, total)
• Listed Developer: All Connected Co. Ltd (iOS) | Lemon Clove Pte Ltd (Android)
• App ID: id1365309175 | free.vpn.unblock.proxy.vpn.master.pro
• App Website: vpnproxymaster.com
• Support email: vpnproxymaster-support@lemonclove.net

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Lemon Clove Pte Limited
• Company No: 201813499K
• Corporate Website: web.archive.org/web/20200426235855/https://www.lemonclove.net
• Registered Address: 18 Robinson Road
  #15-01 Singapore (048547)
• Company Director:
  • Zhao Tingting, Chinese national with a Singapore address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholder: Hero Time Global Limited (21UF3603J) Vistra Corporate Services Centre, Wickhams Cay II, Road Town, Tortola, VG1110, British Virgin Islands

China Links

• Lemon Clove previously had directors with Chinese mainland addresses
• Changed directors in January 2021 to another Chinese national, albeit this time with a registered Singapore address.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• All Connected Ltd has been struck off the Singapore business registry, yet remains as the listed developer on the App Store.
• Lemon Clove is not a new company. We discovered how it was connected to VPN Proxy Master and Turbo VPN in an earlier investigation.
• This VPN company now has the same director as Turbo VPN. However there is no transparency about the connection between the two companies.
• The company has a history of changing its registered address. The current address dates from January 2021.
• Sole shareholder Hero Time Global Limited has only existed since April 2021.
• The current director of Lemon Clove was previously the director of a company involved in “advertising activities”, according to its business registration documents. This may indicate a potential conflict of interest.
• The lemonclove.net domain now redirects to the app site, which makes no mention of the company.

Turbo VPN

App Info

• Installs: 1 million (iOS, monthly) | 100 million (Android, total)
• Listed Developer: Innovative Connecting
• App ID: id1365309175 | free.vpn.unblock.proxy.turbovpn
• App Website: turbovpn.com
• Support email: turbovpn@inconnecting.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Innovative Connecting Pte. Ltd.
• Company No: 201812738K
• Corporate Website: inconnecting.com
• Play Store Listing Address: 8 Marina View #42-099 Asia Square Tower 1 Singapore 018960
• Registered Address: as per app store listing
• Company Directors:
  • Zhao Tingting – Chinese national with a Singapore address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholder Name: Lemon Seed Technology Ltd
• Shareholder Address: Cricket Square, Hutchins Drive, P.O. Box 2681, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

China Links

• While current director Zhao Tingting is a Chinese national who resides in Singapore, Innovative Connecting has had several past directors with residential addresses in mainland China, as documented in our prior research.
• Sole shareholder Lemon Seed Technology has the same Cayman Islands business number as former sole shareholder Linksure Telecom Sea Holding Ltd, which shared a name with Linksure – whose founder and CEO is Chen Danian (Danny Chen) – a well-known Chinese internet entrepreneur.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• As previously revealed by Top10VPN, Turbo VPN is one of several major free VPN services that appear to be linked via an opaque web of companies and associated individuals. All of the related entities appear to have links to mainland China.
• The company has regularly changed directors and address since we first put it under the spotlights in 2018, which may indicate attempts to evade reasonable scrutiny.
• The current director of Innovative Connecting was previously the director of a company involved in “advertising activities”, according to its business registration documents. This may indicate a potential conflict of interest.

VPN for iPhone

• Monthly Installs: 900,000
• Listed Developer: VPN Proxy Secure Express & Private X Hotspot VPN Browser Apps
• App ID: id1492285103
• App Website: vpnsuper.app
• Support email: support@vpnproxymaster.app

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Green Dygital Consulting LLP
• Company No: AAQ-2824
• Corporate Website: None
• Registered Address: B/1/306, West Gate Business Bay, Corporate Road, Makarba, Ahmedabad GJ 380051 India
• Company Director:
  • Ashish Siddharth Anjaria (address not publicly disclosed)
  • Trushit Rohit Vasavada (address not publicly disclosed)

Corporate Credibility Issues

• VPN Proxy Secure Express & Private X Hotspot VPN Browser Apps is not a real company name and a blatant attempt to game the app store search algorithm.
• Claim to be based in California on their website, however we found no evidence at all to support this.
• On the Play Store listing of the Android version of this app, the developer claims their address to be 3544 West Fork Drive in Florida, USA. Again, we found no evidence to link them to this address, which appears to be on a dirt track, according to Google Maps.
• We found several red flags in the privacy policy of this VPN app:
  • It refers to an app called “VPNSuper” instead of “VPN for iPhone”.
  • User data collection is extensive and poorly-defined: “When you use VPNSuper’s features, we may collect information such as your VPN connections history on the app, logs & metadata, connection duration, and purchase history.”
  • User data is transferred internationally between India, Singapore and the U.S.

VPN бесплатно

• Monthly Installs: 600,000
• Listed Developer: Maple Labs Co., Ltd
• App ID: id1465195263
• App Website: namecheap.com/vpn
• Support email: support@maplelabs.co

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Maple Labs Company Limited
• Company No: 0314708964
• Corporate Website: maplelabs.co
• Registered Address: 35 Street 14, Tan Hung Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Company Director:
  • Nguyen Ba Tu – Vietnamese with a Ho Chi Minh City address (full details redacted but available on public record)

Corporate Credibility Issues

• The App Store links for this VPN redirect from freevpn.ai to Namecheap VPN page, which is about a different VPN app entirely.
• Maplelabs.co is registered with Namecheap but this was the only connection we could find in the public domain. The real connection would appear to be as a result of some sort of acquisition that was not publicly announced.
• Maple Labs has at least 18 apps, which are all very different and random. This does not suggest a focus and commitment to privacy.
• All the social media buttons on the Maple Labs website link to Facebook rather than the expected platforms.
• This VPN app was previously called “VPN Proxy Master”, which is the name of a much more popular VPN app. There is a significant problem in the free VPN app market with clone apps.
• The privacy policy is hosted on a different domain to the developer site and app support linked to from the App Store.

Most Popular Android VPN Apps in Russia

The following table shows the Android VPN apps with the most installs from the Google Play Store during the period that the Russian government blocked Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in March 2022. The table is ordered by number of app installs, largest to smallest. Installs are the total to date globally.

[1] Developer appears to operate other commercial non-VPN apps.

Secure VPN

• Installs: 50 million
• Listed Developer: Signal Labs
• App ID: com.fast.free.unblock.secure.vpn
• App Website: secure.free-signal.com
• Support email: signallab07@gmail.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Undisclosed
• Company No: Undisclosed
• Corporate Website: No corporate site
• Play Store Listing Address: 1000 S Fremont Ave #1, Alhambra, CA 91803 US
• Registered Address: Undisclosed
• Company Director: Undisclosed

China Links

• While their identity remains unknown, the developers have previously confirmed to us that they are Hong Kong Chinese.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• No transparency about entity that operates this VPN service. The developers have been very careful to leave no trace of their identity, with no explanation.
• Use of U.S. address on Play Store listing is misleading. Developers have confirmed to us that this address is for payment purposes only.
• This VPN has a very thin privacy policy, with only one small section that isn’t general Terms of Service.

VPN Proxy Master

The iOS version of this VPN service was also among the most installed VPN apps in Russia during the social media shutdown following the invasion of Ukraine.

VPN Beaver

• Installs: 1 million
• Listed Developer: AdBeaver OU
• App ID: com.vpnbeaver.vpn
• App Website: vpnbeaver.com
• Support email: adbeavercompany@gmail.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: AdBeaver OU
• Company No: 14726930
• Corporate Website: No corporate site
• Play Store Listing Address: Sepapaja 6, Tallinn 15551, Estonia
• Registered Address: Harju maakond, Tallinn, Lasnamäe linnaosa, Sepapaja tn 6, 15551, Estonia
• Company Director:
  • Oleksii Beschetnikov – Ukrainian (no residential address publicly disclosed)

Corporate Credibility Issues

• This company’s business registration documents and annual reports were prepared by LeapIN (now known as Xolo), an Estonian book-keeping firm specializing in supporting sole traders and micro-businesses. Even with the best of intentions, a genuinely reliable and trustworthy VPN requires significantly more resources than a single person to operate it.
• Customer support is via a Gmail address, which does not suggest a high level of professionalism.

VPN – Fast, Safe & Secure

• Installs: 500,000
• Listed Developer: VPN Company
• App ID: vpn.free.proxy.secure
• App Website: vpn2.domriok.ru
• Support email: lidimgroups@gmail.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Undisclosed
• Company No: Undisclosed
• Corporate Website: No functioning corporate site
• Play Store Listing Address: Not provided
• Registered Address: Undisclosed
• Company Director:
  • Unconfirmed but we received an email back from someone called Lidia Ivashova after contacting the lidimgroups@gmail.com support email, and the two names certainly do appear connected.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• The complete lack of public information about the company operating this VPN is a major red flag.
• The .ru corporate website is broken and shows the following error:


Screenshot from vpn2.domriok.ru website.

• Developer also called “Free VPN Company” on apk websites
• The VPN was taken down from the Play Store on March 20
• The developer is also known as “dimiomaxis”, as confirmed by other language versions of the official store listing as well as third-party download sites.
• Russian language in screenshots, suggesting possible Russian ownership. Should the VPN service provider also be based within Russian jurisdiction, this would have potentially serious implications for any Russian users using the VPN to access blocked content, which is illegal in Russia.


Russian language in app screenshots from vpn.free.proxy.secure.

VPN Master

• Installs: 100,000
• Listed Developer: SMAPP. Inc
• App ID: com.VPNMaster.vpn.proxy
• App Website: yfdd3cc91.app-ads-txt.com
• Support email: support@willypeng.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: WillyPeng
• Company No: 1823954
• Corporate Website: willypeng.com
• Play Store Listing Address: Van Nuys CA 91406 U.S.
• Registered Address:
  • Willypeng – 18 Hallmark Avenue, Kriegene Road, Omoku, Onelga, Rivers State, Nigeria
  • Smapp.Inc – 3130 Balfour Rd Brentwood, CA, 94513-5515 United States
• Company Director:
  • Adebo Jerry – Nigerian with a correspondence address in Rivers State, Nigeria (WillyPeng, full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Blessing Orji – Nigerian with a correspondence address in Rivers State, Nigeria (WillyPeng, full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Cheta Williams – Nigerian with a correspondence address in Rivers State, Nigeria (WillyPeng, full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Kevin Kirshner – American with a Brentwood, CA address (Smapp Inc, full details redacted but available on public record)

Corporate Credibility Issues

• The link to the developer website on the Play Store is a redirect from a URL on the app-ads-txt.com domain, which is intended to “publicly declare the specific advertising systems which are authorized to sell their digital advertising inventory”. This in itself is very unusual, however to make things worse for users, the redirect resolves to a page on the Apple website for a seemingly unrelated developer with no content.^[2]


The developer website link on the VPN Master Play Store listing resolves here.

• Smapp Inc is the listed developer, however the privacy policy is hosted at willypeng.com/privacy-policy. The vpnmaster.willypeng.com subdomain also exists, although it is not linked to from the Play Store listing.
• It was very difficult to determine the relationship between Smapp Inc, which doesn’t have a website, and WillyPeng, whose site declares that “We are a development and investment company… and we make stuff.”
• WillyPeng appears to be the developer based on the fact that the VPN page is on a subdomain of their website. There’s also a dominance of posts about Nigeria on the site blog.^[3]
• Smapp Inc. is now registered in the U.S. but it originally self-described as a “West African company”, in an online article^[4] that also links to an old Wix site^[5] which has the same contact email smappdevinc@gmail.com that’s on the Play Store.^[6]
• An archived version of the Play Store listing from 2020 features support@willpeng.com^[7]
• Smapp Inc appears to be a shell company. The address of 3130 Balfour Street, Brentwood is a small multi-occupancy retail unit containing a Mr Pickles Sandwich Shop, nail salon and a massage parlor.
• This is a Nigerian-operated VPN not the US-operated VPN that it first appears to be. WillyPeng has been a serial developer of mobile apps, all of which are have been withdrawn from app stores.
• The email address cited in the WillyPeng business registration documents for director Cheta Williams also appears on an academic paper linking him to University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.^[8] He was recently appointed as Dean of Faculty of Education at the university,^[9] however we could find no public disclosure of his role with WillyPeng.

Internet shutdowns occurred throughout 2021 in Myanmar following a military coup in February. VPN demand skyrocketed by 7,200% on 4 February as the restrictions began.

Despite offering a way to stay connected to the outside world and hide citizens’ communication from surveillance, several of the secretive companies that own the VPNs appear to have links to mainland China, where the monitoring of digital communication is ubiquitous.

The following apps were popular on the Google Play Store during December 2021, as Facebook and Twitter continued to be blocked.

Vast VPN – Secure VPN Proxy

• Installs: 5 million
• Listed Developer: Vast Security Innovation Lab
• App ID: com.vast.vpn.proxy.unblock
• App Website: Undisclosed
• Support email: jincongyueb1@gmail.com | zhigu_operation@luzcorp.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Zhiyu (Hong Kong) Technology Limited
  智娛(香港)科技有限公司
• Company No: 2652855
• Corporate Website: No corporate site
• Play Store Listing Address: None given
• Registered Address: RM4, 16/F, Ho King Comm Ctr, 2-16 Fayuen St, Mongkok Kln, Hong Kong
• Company Director:
  • Wang Qing (王晴) – Chinese national with Shenzhen, China address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholder: Yang Yuanping – Chinese national with Dalian City, China address (full details redacted but available on public record)

China Links

• Both the director and sole shareholder have residential addresses in mainland China.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• While the developer does disclose its official name of Zhiyu (Hong Kong) Technology Limited, this is buried in the Vast VPN privacy policy, where it’s not likely to be found by the average user.
• No developer website disclosed on Vast VPN’s Play Store listing.
• On the Play Store developer page for Vast Security Innovation Lab, the developer website link directs to sandbox-kui.api.intl.miui.com/kui/_redirect.


Screenshot of developer website URL on Vast VPN developer page on Play Store.

• This link does not resolve to a normal website as it’s a URL relating to the development environment for Chinese mobile company Xiaomi’s version of Android. This URL does not load anything useful in a user’s browser and is very unusual to see on an app listing.


Screenshot of browser windown after Vast VPN developer link resolves.

• The developer does not publicly disclose its own address. Even on its business registration documents and annual returns, it instead always uses the address of Hong Kong Tenyan Business Secretary Ltd, the firm acting as its company secretary.
• Zhiyu (Hong Kong) Technology Limited changed directors and shareholders in March/April 2020. The previous owners were also based in mainland China.
• The developer uses a personal Gmail account as the official support email address for Vast VPN, which suggests a lack of professionalism.

Cool VPN Pro – Fast VPN Proxy

App Info

• Installs: 1 million
• Listed Developer: Cool VPN Team
• App ID: vpn.global.free.proxy.super
• App Website: cc.coolline.client.pro
• Support email: foxecomp@gmail.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Fox Economics Pte. Ltd.
• Corporate Website: Undisclosed
• Registered Address: 51 Ayer Rajah Crescent #07-09, Singapore
• Company Directors:
  • Zhao Faming – Chinese national with a Singapore residential address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholder: Zhao Faming, as above.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• The developer of the app used to be called “Foxe Team”, they still use the email address foxecomp@gmail, share an address with Fox Economics, and no other live companies appear to be registered there.
• While we haven’t been able to fully confirm they are definitely the same company, what we have found certainly suggests that they could be connected in some way.
• The use of a personal Gmail account is unprofessional and does not align with standard business practices.
• On its registration documents Fox Economics lists its primary business activity as “Research and Experimental Development on Medical Science”. This may be due to an error that occurred while registering the businesses or perhaps a shift in commercial focus.
• We contacted the developer via their support email under the guise of a normal user to confirm whether Fox Economics is the official company behind the app. We did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Turbo VPN

App Info

• Installs: 100 million
• Listed Developer: Innovative Connecting
• App ID: free.vpn.unblock.proxy.turbovpn
• App Website: turbovpn.com
• Support email: turbovpn@inconnecting.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Innovative Connecting Pte. Ltd.
• Company No: 201812738K
• Corporate Website: inconnecting.com
• Play Store Listing Address: 8 Marina View #42-099 Asia Square Tower 1 Singapore 018960
• Registered Address: as per app store listing
• Company Directors:
  • Zhao Tingting – Chinese national with a Singapore address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholder Name: Lemon Seed Technology Ltd
• Shareholder Address: Cricket Square, Hutchins Drive, P.O. Box 2681, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

China Links

• While current director Zhao Tingting is a Chinese national who resides in Singapore, Innovative Connecting has had several past directors with residential addresses in mainland China, as documented in our prior research.
• Sole shareholder Lemon Seed Technology has the same Cayman Islands business number as former sole shareholder Linksure Telecom Sea Holding Ltd, which shared a name with Linksure – whose founder and CEO is Chen Danian (Danny Chen) – a well-known Chinese internet entrepreneur.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• As previously revealed by Top10VPN, Turbo VPN is one of several major free VPN services that appear to be linked via an opaque web of companies and associated individuals. All of the related entities appear to have links to mainland China.
• The company has regularly changed directors and address since we first put it under the spotlight in 2018, which may indicate attempts to evade reasonable scrutiny.
• The current director of Innovative Connecting was previously the director of a company involved in “advertising activities”, according to its business registration documents. This may indicate a potential conflict of interest.

Speedfiy, Speedfiy Pro

Note: These apps are grouped as they are both owned by the same company, Prime Digital Pte. Ltd.

The free version of Speedfiy was among the most popular VPN services during the Myanmar internet disruptions, while the Pro version was among the most-downloaded during Nigeria’s Twitter ban.

App Info

• Installs: 10 million | 5 million (Pro version)
• Listed Developer: Prime Digital Pte. Ltd.
• App ID: com.free.speedfiy com.speedfiypro.app
• App Website: primedigitalpteltd.com (no SSL)
• Support email: primedigitalpteltd@gmail.com or lilinda@primedigitalpteltd.com

Who’s behind these VPNs?

• Registered Company Name: Prime Digital Pte. Ltd.
• Company No: 202028838W
• Corporate Website: primedigitalpteltd.com (no SSL)
• Play Store Listing Address: Undisclosed
• Registered Address: Vision Exchange, 2 Venture Drive #11-31, Singapore 608526
• Company Directors:
• Zhou Yu – Chinese national with Hunan, China address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Willard Ng Zheng Yang – Singaporean national with Singapore address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Li Jing – Chinese national with Guangzhou, China address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholders:
• Li Jing – as above
• Zhou Yu – as above

China Links

• Prime Digital directors and shareholders Jing Li and Zhou Yu are Chinese nationals with residential addresses in mainland China.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• The Play Store listing links to an error-strewn single-page website about an unrelated app called Uranus NetTest, with no mention of Speedfiy VPN.
• The privacy policy linked from the Play Store relates to Uranus NetTest rather than Speedfiy VPN. This means the policy is not legally enforceable.
• Prime Digital does not disclose that it’s connected to Dyes Pte Ltd, which develops the VPN Tunnel-solo app, despite the two companies sharing a director in Zhou Yu.
• Speedfiy and Speedfiy Pro are popular apps, with over 15 million installs combined.

1.1.1.1: Faster & Safer Internet

App Info

• Installs: 50 million
• Listed Developer: Cloudflare, Inc.
• App ID: com.cloudflare.onedotonedotonedotone
• App Website: cloudflare.com
• Support email: mobile@cloudflare.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Company Name: Cloudflare, Inc
• Corporate Website: cloudflare.com
• Play Store Listing Address: 101 Townsend San Francisco, Califronia, 94107, United States
• Company Directors:
  • Michelle Zatlyn (US national)
  • Mathew Prince (US national)
  • John Graham-Cumming (US national)

Corporate Credibility Issues

• Cloudflare is one of the world’s largest web infrastructure and security company based in the United States
• It is a publicly traded company, with very few corporate credibility issues.

Note: In a blog post from 2019, the company wrote the app “is not designed to allow you to access geo-restricted content… It will not hide your IP address from the websites you visit.”^[2] Because of this, it’s not the ideal app to use during internet shutdowns.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari banned access to Twitter on 5 June 2021. In response, citizens turned to VPN to access the social media website. We documented a 1,409% rise in demand of VPNs but many of the most popular apps appear to be highly unprofessional and several even have links to China.

FastVPN, RavoVPN

Note: These VPN apps are grouped as they are both owned by the same company, Five Oceans Tech Limited.

FastVPN was among the most downloaded VPN apps during the Nigerian Twitter ban and during the Indian internet shutdown specified in this report.

RavoVPN was among the most popular VPN apps during the Kazakh internet outages.

App Info

• Installs: 10 million (FastVPN) | 10 million (RavoVPN)
• Listed Developer: Five Oceans E-Commerce
• App ID: com.network.tools.fast.vpn | com.bettertec.ravo.app
• App Websites:
• FastVPN: app.toponeerp.com
• RavoVPN: app.dasiding.com
• Support email: fiveoceansec@gmail.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Five Oceans Tech Limited
• Company No: 2641456
• Corporate Website: fiveoceans.tech
• Play Store Listing Address: Flat/Room A 20/F Kiu Fu Comm Building 300 Lockhart Road Wan Chai Hong Kong
• Registered Address: Flat/Room A 12/F ZJ 300, 300 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
• Company Director: Xu, Liang – Chinese national with Xi’an City, China address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholders:
  • Company Name: Xi’An Vision Network Technology Co. Ltd (西安远景网络科技有限公司)
    • Company No: 91610131MA6TYDTC8C
    • Place of Incorporation: China
    • Registered Address: Room 1201, Xi’An Chuangxin Design Center, No. 69, South Second Ring West Section Beilin District, Xi’An City, Shaanxi, China
  • Company Name: Xi’An Five Oceans Network Technology Co. Ltd (西安五大洋網絡科技有限公司)
    • Company No: 91610103MA6U6NEBXG
    • Place of Incorporation: China
    • Registered Address: Room 1110, Chuangxin Design Center, No. 69, South Second Ring West Section Beilin District, Xi’An City, Shanxi Province, China

China Links

• Five Oceans E-Commerce director is a Chinese citizen with an address in Xi’an, China
• The company’s shareholders are also incorporated in Xi’An City, China

Corporate Credibility Issues

• The developer’s registered address is actually that of Linkup Secretary Limited, the firm acting as its company secretary. Nowhere does Five Oceans Tech Ltd. publicly disclose an address unique to that business.
• The address used on the Play Store listing is in the same building as its company secretary but is one used by many other businesses.^[3]
• Both RavoVPN and FastVPN’s websites have the same sparse single-page structure, with no mention of who is operating these VPN services.
• The domains used for both VPN app websites also appear to refer to different apps entirely
• Director Liang Xu holds, or previously held, 22 other directorships in a wide array of industries. Many of which have little to do with app development or internet security.

USA VPN – Get USA IP

App Info

• Installs: 1 million
• Listed Developer: AltApps
• App ID: vpn.usa_tap2free
• App Website: tap2free.net
• Support email: support@tap2free.net

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Company Name: AltApps
• Official Name: Undisclosed
• Company No: Undisclosed
• Corporate Website: Undisclosed
• Play Store Listing Address: 02137, Ukraine, Kyiv, PO BOX #17
• Registered Address: Undisclosed
• Company Director: Undisclosed

Corporate Credibility Issues

• The link to the developer website displayed on the Play Store directs to a blank page with no content, despite being the domain’s home page. This is because the site is no more than a bare bones directory of privacy policies and an IP checker.^[14]

• Extensive efforts to confirm the official company name and address failed to uncover what should ideally be easily accessible information. This stark absence of any information at all, combined with the decision to host a bare bones corporate website, suggests the company is actively trying to avoid reasonable scrutiny.
• The developers have created more than 20 VPN apps targeting various countries, including China. Combined, they’ve been downloaded more than 12 million times.
• We contacted the developer via their support email under the guise of a normal user to confirm the legal entity handling user data and where it was incorporated but had yet to receive a response by the time of publication.

VPN Master – Fast Secure Proxy
VPN Master Pro – Fast & Secure

Note: These apps are grouped together as they are both have the same listed developer, VPM Master.

The listed as “VPN Master – Fast Secure Proxy” was among the most downloaded VPN apps during the Nigeria Twitter ban.

VPN Master Pro was been among the most popular VPN apps during the Kazakhstan and India internet disruptions.

App Info

• Installs: 50 million (Pro) | 10 million
• Listed Developer: VPM Master
• App ID: com.vpnmasterx.pro | com.vpnmasterx.free
• App Website: vpnmasterx.com
• Support email: gp@vpnmasterx.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Undisclosed
• Company No: Undisclosed
• Corporate Website: No corporate site
• Play Store Listing Address: Room 22 8/f BLK G Kwai Shing Industrial Building (Stage 2), 42-46 Tai Lin Pai Road Kwai Chung (Hong Kong)
• Registered Address: Undisclosed
• Company Director: Identity unknown

China Links

• The address displayed on the Play Store is in Hong Kong
• Due to the complete lack of corporate transparency, it’s impossible to verify whether there are links to mainland China as well as to Hong Kong.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• These VPN services were among the most-downloaded VPN apps in India, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria during major government internet outages. Yet the company operating them remains elusive.
• Exhaustive investigations of the address given on the Google Play Store listing returned no useful information.
• The same developers also operate Fast VPN – com.vpnmasterx.fast – which has accumulated over 10 million installs worldwide.
• VPN Master’s privacy policy is hosted on Google’s free website builder on the default URL rather than its own domain.
• Both privacy policies refer to VPN Master Team. We were unable to confirm this is the name of any legitimate registered business.
• We contacted the developer under the guise of a normal user to gather information about the company behind the app. No response has been received at the time of publication.
• There is such a stark absence of information available about this company anywhere in the public domain, in any language, that it would appear to be a deliberate strategy to avoid reasonable scrutiny.

Speedfiy Pro

This VPN app is owned by Prime Digital Pte Ltd. This company also operates the free version of Speedfiy, which has been among the most popular VPN apps during the Myanmar internet disruptions.

Windscribe VPN

App Info

• Installs: 10 million
• Listed Developer: Windscribe Limited
• App ID: vpn.global.free.proxy.super
• App Website: windscribe.com
• Support email: support@windscribe.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Company Name: Windscribe
• Corporate Website: windscribe.com
• Play Store Listing Address: 59251 Yonge St #8901, Richmond Hill, ON, L4C 9T3, Canada
• Company Directors:
  • Yegor Sak – Canadian national with Ontario, Canada address (full details redacted but available on public record)

Corporate Credibility Issues

• Windscribe is a reliable VPN and considered one of the most trustworthy free VPN currently available
• It is privately owned and operated, with no external investors.

In early January, authorities in Kazakhstan imposed several internet blackouts during protests that initially emerged because of fuel shortages. The disruptions cost the economy over $400 million.

Although VPN are not effective during full internet blackouts, citizens still turned to the apps in the hope of hiding their digital footprint. We previously documented a 3,405% rise in the demand for VPN services.

However, many of the most popular apps citizens were downloading were run by opaque companies that appear to have done everything in their power to hide their identity.

The following apps were popular in the country as of 5 January 2022.

Smart Clean-Booster, Cleaner

Note this is a multi-purpose app that includes a VPN service.

App Info

• Installs: 100 million
• Listed Developer: lj1831952@gmail.com
• App ID: com.Atto.Beyond.cleaner
• App Website: res.taotecenbao.com/privacypolicy.html
• Support email: lj1831952@gmail.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Company Name: lj1831952@gmail.com
• Official Name: Undisclosed
• Company No: Undisclosed
• Corporate Website: Undisclosed
• Play Store Listing Address: Undisclosed
• Registered Address: Kwai Shing Industrial Building (Stage 2), 42-46 Tai Lin Pai Road Room 020, Block H, 3/F, Hong Kong
• Company Directors: Undisclosed

China Links

• The address listed on the Google Play Store is in Hong Kong.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• It is extremely unusual to see a VPN app with so many installs have a Play Store listing that has an email address as the listed developer name rather than a company name of some sort.
• The privacy policy refers to Smart Clean as the developer, however this is not a legal entity as far as we could confirm.
• The developer has used the address of another firm HK Gangxin International Accountancy Secretary Limited 香港港鑫國際會計秘書有限公司 (Company No. 1462638) on its Play Store listings. Given the nature of this business, it’s likely that it has been appointed as company secretary for the developer.
• Despite extensive efforts, we were unable to find any other address for this developer.
• This developer has previously been known as TopAppStudio, although this does not appear to be a legal entity either. This developer name appears on privacy policies for other VPN apps hosted on the same domain as this VPN’s privacy policy.
• Significant attempts appear to have been made to conceal the identity of the operator of this VPN service. This lack of transparency prevents consumers from understanding exactly how their data is being stored and used.
• This developer appears to have some connection with Nox Ltd, which operates the well-known Android emulator NoxPlayer. Nox is also based in Hong Kong.
  • The connection arises from the com.applock.privacy.free Android app that lists a topappstudio.com support email address on the Play Store.
  • This app has a listed developer of Super Speed and address of PLZ 44708, Ort Bochum.
  • Multiple third-party app stores list the website of this developer at that address as www.noxgroup.com

Clean Master Pro

Note this is a multi-purpose app that includes a VPN service.

App Info

• Installs: 10 million
• Listed Developer: CleanMaster
• App ID: com.freeboosterpro.secure
• App Website: www.supercleanmaster.com
• Support email: CleanMaster1314@protonmail.com or CleanMaster365@protonmail.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Company Name: CleanMaster
• Official Name: Undisclosed
• Company No: Undisclosed
• Corporate Website: www.supercleanmaster.com
• Play Store Listing Address: Undisclosed
• Registered Address: Undisclosed
• Company Director(s): Undisclosed
• Shareholder Name: Undisclosed

China Links

• Chinese language seen on the VPN website’s homepage and Terms of Service
• Third party code linked to Alibaba’s SDK was found in the app’s source code
• Alibaba is also the VPN website’s hosting provider
• Another app by CleanMaster called Scannertube, a barcode scanning tool, also contains Chinese libraries by Huawei and Tencent

Corporate Credibility Issues

• Lack of transparency regarding ownership as corporate information on the developer was impossible to find. CleanMaster is most likely being a fictitious entity with no links to its true owners.
• The VPN app’s website is hosted on a non-secure HTTP domain, with no meaningful information about the company that developed the app.
• CleanMaster’s eight applications, with over 38 million installs combined, disappeared from the Play Store simultaneously on January 13 2022. This development occurred during the period of our investigation.
• Our previous Free VPN Security Investigation revealed that CleanMaster shares users’ Google advertising ID and device information with Facebook and app marketing data service, Adjust. Users’ real IP addresses are also shared with Google’s advertising platform, DoubleClick.
• Support email is on a generic ProtonMail domain, a poor indicator for trust.
• We contacted the CleanMaster via their customer support email under the guise of a normal user to confirm the legal entity managing user data and where the company was incorporated, however no response has been received at the time of publication.

Daily VPN – безопасный VPN

App Info

• Installs: 10 million
• Listed Developer: Daily VPN
• App ID: com.get.squidvpn
• App Website: dailyvpn.io
• Support email: getdailyvpn@gmail.com or getsquidvpn@gmail.com
• VPN App Name Aliases: Squid VPN

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Official Company Name: UpUp Technology Limited
• Company No: 2905291
• Corporate Website: upupfly.com
• Play Store Listing Address: Undisclosed
• Registered Address: Room 1508, 15/F, Phase 2, Grand Plaza Office Building, 625 Nathan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
• Company Director: Li, Wanwan – Chinese national – Beijing, China address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholder Name: Li, Wanwan – Chinese national
• Shareholder Address: Beijing, China address (full details redacted but available on public record)

China Links

• Company director and sole shareholder, Wanwan Li, is a Chinese national who resides in mainland China
• UpUp Technology Limited is incorporated in Hong Kong

Corporate Credibility Issues

• UpUp Technology Limited has previously traded as “GetSquidVpn” and “Professional VPN”.
• This VPN app was previously analyzed as part of our 2019 Android VPN Risk Index research, which revealed intrusive permissions, such as CAMERA and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE. At the time it was marketed as SquidVPN, however it shares the APK file name of com.get.squidvpn with Daily VPN.
• The com.get.squidvpn APK was also found to contain code relating to the collection of a user’s last known location, unique device information, and the operation of their device’s camera.

VPN Master Pro – Fast & Secure

The developer of this VPN app is VPM Master, which also operates the VPN Master app. These apps were among the most popular VPN apps during the Nigeria and India internet disruptions cited in this report.

RavoVPN

Five Oceans Technology, the company that owns this VPN app, also operates the FastVPN service. FastVPN was among the most downloaded VPN apps during the Nigerian Twitter ban and during the Indian internet shutdown specified in this report.

Authorities in India regularly restricted access to the internet during the past 12 months due to protests, conflict, and even exams. In total, the shutdowns cost the economy at least $500 million.

VPN demand often spikes before and during the restrictions. In March, VPN demand rose 61% during a shutdown that was imposed in Karnataka. However, many of the most popular apps have opaque ownership structures and several have links to China.

On the 23rd and 27th of October, authorities in Jaipur restricted access to the internet because of local exams. The following apps were popular on the Google Play Store as of 26 October 2021.

Global VPN – Hotspot VPN Proxy

App Info

• Installs: 5 million
• Listed Developer: Super App Developer
• App ID: vpn.global.free.proxy.super
• App Website: freesupervpn.com
• Support email: snailvpnservice@gmail.com
• VPN App Name Aliases: Snail VPN

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Free Link Pte. Ltd.
• Company No: 202019919R
• Corporate Website: freelinkapp.com
• Play Store Listing Address: Undisclosed
• Registered Address: 3 Shenton Way, #09-02 Shenton House, Singapore 068805
• Company Directors:
  • Fu Lin – Chinese national with Chongqing, China address (full details redacted but available on public record)
  • Cher Li Keow – Singaporean national, Singapore address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholders: Fu Lin, as above

China Links

• Director and sole shareholder, Fu Lin, is a Chinese national that resides in mainland China.

Corporate Credibility Issues

• It was very difficult to identify Free Link Pte. Ltd. as the legal entity trading as Super App Developer. As far as we could determine, this is not publicly disclosed anywhere. We only found it because:
  • The developer’s support email was the same as that listed on the snailvpn.com domain, which allowed us to connect the two; and
  • As part of a prior free VPN investigation, we had an archived Apple App Store listing showing the Free Link Pte. Ltd. name for a developer then known as Snail Inc, whose site was on the snailvpn.com domain.
• Free Link Pte. Ltd. director Fu Lin also owns AppSuperb Pte. Ltd., which operates the Fast VPN and Safe VPN apps.^[15][16] It is not disclosed anywhere on the store listings for these apps however that they are owned and operated by the same person.
• Free Link has also until very recently operated four other Android VPN apps with a combined 21.5 million installs:
  • SuperVPN – com.snailvpn.androidproxy
  • Space VPN – com.spacevpn.vpn.proxy
  • Super VPN Lite – com.supervpn.proxy.android
  • Shield VPN – com.vpn.shield.freevpn.proxy
• The Global VPN store listing does not link to a privacy policy. The listing does link to the developer’s website, however that only features a privacy policy for a differently-named VPN.
• Global VPN disappeared from the Play Store during our investigation, despite racking up over 5 million downloads in just four months after first appearing in September 2021.

Mystery Lite

App Info

• Installs: 10 million
• Listed Developer: Mystery Solutions Pte. Ltd.
• App ID: com.lite.mystery.unlock
• App Website: mystery-lite.web.app
• Support email: mysterylite@runbox.com

Who’s behind this VPN?

• Registered Company Name: Pixl Solutions Pte. Ltd.
• Company No: 201943748W
• Corporate Website: pixl.world
• Play Store Listing Address: Undisclosed
• Registered Address: 7 Temasek Boulevard, #12-07, Suntec Tower One, Singapore 038987
• Company Director: Toh Han Wei – Singaporean national, Singapore address (full details redacted but available on public record)
• Shareholder Name: Toh Han Wei, as above

Corporate Credibility Issues

• The company’s address is listed as “22 Cross Street, Singapore, S048421” which is a shared co-working space, a not ideal arrangement for privacy-focused work.
• Mystery Lite’s website is of minimal utility and contains scant information on the developers or the VPN service itself
• The VPN service’s privacy policy admits to transferring and processing personal data overseas, outside of the Singapore jurisdiction, however fails to disclose where this may be.
• We were only able to determine Pixl Solutions Pte. Ltd. was the legal entity behind the Mystery Lite VPN service by combing through old third-party app store listings, which is not something a typical user would expect to do to.
• The switch to the official-sounding company name Mystery Solutions Pte. Ltd., which does not actually exist as a legal entity, suggests deliberate misdirection of Play Store users on the part of this VPN service provider.

FastVPN

Five Oceans Technology, the company that owns this VPN app, also operates the RavoVPN service. The two apps were among the most downloaded VPN apps during the Nigeria Twitter ban and the January 2022 Kazakhstan internet disruptions.

Smart Clean-Booster, Cleaner

This is a multi-purpose app, which also includes a VPN service, was also among the most downloaded apps during the Kazakh internet disruptions.

VPN Master Pro – Fast & Secure

The developer of this VPN app is VPM Master, which also operates the VPN Master app. These apps were among the most popular VPN apps during the Nigeria and Kazakhstan internet outages cited in this report.