Watchdog Raises Concerns Over VPNs With Hidden Ties to China

The VPNs are available to download on Apple and Google app stores, the Technology Transparency Project found.

A man uses a computer, in this file photograph taken in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, on Aug. 4, 2020. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

Apple and Google app stores are still offering Americans virtual private networks, or VPNs, with undisclosed ties to Chinese companies, despite “serious privacy and security concerns” that user data could be shared with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a tech watchdog group said on June 12.

VPNs encrypt data, allowing individuals to surf the web anonymously.

An April report by the Technology Transparency Project (TTP) found that more than 20 of the top 100 free VPNs in the U.S. Apple App Store in 2024 showed evidence of Chinese ownership that was not disclosed to users.

None of the apps disclosed their alleged Chinese ties, and some “obscured their origins behind layers of shell companies,” TTP said.

Several of the apps were also linked to Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360, which has been sanctioned by the United States over its ties to the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army, TTP found.

While some of those apps have since been pulled from the Apple App Store, 13 others identified by TTP remain available more than six weeks after they were first identified.

The Google Play Store still offers 11 apps that have ties to Chinese companies, TTP said.

TTP is a research initiative of Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit ethics watchdog group headquartered in Washington.

According to its official website, the project seeks to hold large technology companies accountable and “shed light on the power and influence of the major tech platforms and their failures to protect users.”

“After being informed of this issue once already, Apple and Google continue to make many of these VPN apps available to Americans without warning them of the security risks,” Campaign for Accountability Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said in a statement.

“It’s now fair to question whether the large profits Apple and Google make from their app stores have anything to do with this inaction.”

Apple’s guidelines explicitly state that apps offering VPN services in its app store “may not sell, use, or disclose to third parties any data for any purpose, and must commit to this in their privacy policy.”

Google’s Play Store says app developers “must be transparent” in how they handle user data, including any information collected from or about a user, such as device information.

“That means disclosing the access, collection, use, handling, and sharing of user data from your app, and limiting the use of the data to the policy compliant purposes disclosed,” the policy states.

TTP’s report pointed to the CCP’s strict national security laws, under which it can force Chinese-owned companies to share personal user data. It said offering VPNs without revealing they’re owned by Chinese companies “keeps Americans in the dark about privacy and national security risks.”

The same national security laws have fueled fears about Chinese-owned video-sharing platform TikTok, which has soared in popularity in recent years and was briefly taken offline in the United States in January when a federal divest-or-ban law imposed under the Biden administration took effect.

President Donald Trump postponed enforcement of the law shortly after returning to the White House in January to allow his administration more time to negotiate a sale or an alternative solution to a ban on the app, which is owned by China-based ByteDance.

Another extension deadline is set to expire on June 19. Trump told NBC News in May that he would likely extend the deadline again if a deal had not been reached.

The Epoch Times has contacted spokespersons for Apple, Google, and Qihoo 360 for comment.