Technologies

VPN trackers: Everything you need to know

Not all VPNs actually care about your privacy. Choose one that doesn’t track you.

Public concern over web tracking is higher than ever. That concern has been mounting for well over a decade, but we’re no better off now than we were then — pervasive tracking and unbridled data collection is still the lay of the land all these years later. Websites and apps deploy trackers that follow us all over the web and share the information they collect with third parties. Our ISPs collect hordes of data every time we go online, then sell it off to the highest bidder.

As a result, consumers are increasingly turning to virtual private networks to help them evade these tracking practices. But what can you do when it’s the VPNs themselves that are doing the tracking? As with any app or online service, it’s important to do your research and make sure you choose a provider that actually takes your privacy seriously. Just because a VPN company boldly states that it cares about your privacy doesn’t mean it’s true.

VPNs are supposed to protect your privacy online and help you fight back against the machine hell-bent on exploiting your data for its own gain. And gaining privacy from tracking is one of the main reasons you should seek the help of a VPN. But it can be difficult to sort through the various ways VPNs might track you. Here’s what to know about the different trackers VPNs use, and how they separate the best VPNs from the ones you should avoid.

First-party trackers vs. third-party trackers

Not all trackers are the same. For example, there’s a crucial difference between first-party and third-party trackers. There’s a similarly vital distinction between trackers used on a VPN’s website versus the ones inside a VPN’s app. In both cases, the second option will have much greater implications on your privacy than the former.

First-party trackers, also known as cookies, are used and stored by the websites you visit. They’re used for things like remembering your preferences, geographic region, language settings and what you put in your shopping cart. They’re also used by website administrators to collect data as you visit their sites, helping them better understand your behavior and figure out what will keep you on their site longer and buying more of their products and services.

Basically, first-party trackers are there to provide you with a smoother experience as you visit the websites you frequent. It would be annoying to have to set all your preferences each and every time you visit a site and to have to re-add each individual item to your shopping cart every time you click away from your cart.

A VPN company may use first-party trackers on its website to save your settings, display account-specific information after you log in and see what marketing channel brought you to its site.

Third-party trackers are different in that they are created by entities other than the site you’re visiting. After a site puts these trackers on your computer via your browser, they follow you across the websites you visit. They are injected into a website using a tag or a script and are accessible on any site that loads the third-party’s tracking code. But the big difference is that they’re used to track your online behavior and make money from you, rather than improve your online experience.

In simpler terms, third-party trackers exist to help companies bombard you with targeted advertisements based on your online browsing activity. Targeted advertising is big business, and there are mountains of cash to be made at the expense of your digital privacy.

That said, Apple and Google have begun shifting their policies regarding the use of third-party trackers in their respective mobile app marketplaces and have provided users more transparency and a much greater element of control when it comes to restricting how apps are able to track them. Google even proposed a solution to eliminating the use of third-party trackers altogether. That proposal, however, turned out to be a failure after people began pointing out the ways in which Google’s proposed alternative would make it even easier for the company to track and identify you for targeted advertising. Google was forced back to the drawing board and ended up shelving the idea for at least two years. Still, the industry is slowly showing signs of progress.

If a VPN company is using third-party trackers on its website for marketing purposes or to enhance your experience on the site itself, the tracking is easy to block in most cases. But when a VPN tracks you on its app, the alarm bells should start going off. In-app trackers should make you seriously concerned about what that VPN is really up to (Spoiler: It’s to make money from sharing your data) and should ultimately steer you away from that VPN altogether.

Why would VPN companies need to track you through their apps?

Simple answer: They don’t. Their apps would function just as well for you whether they tracked you or not.

But many VPN companies will employ trackers in their apps regardless of how much they say they care about your privacy. Those VPNs put users’ privacy at risk so they can make as much money as possible. And what some of these VPN apps track and share with third parties is actually quite alarming. This is the biggest reason we advise you to avoid using free VPNs.

What data is being collected by these trackers and who is it shared with?

The scope of data collection will vary greatly from one VPN to another, and will differ in terms of whether the trackers are being deployed on the VPN’s website or within the app itself. But let’s focus on trackers embedded within VPN apps themselves.

There are VPN apps out there that will track and share things like your user ID, device or advertising ID, usage data and even your location. They track this information just to sell it on to third parties for targeted advertising purposes, making money at the expense of your digital privacy. Any VPN engaging in such activity should be avoided at all costs.

When we say your data is being shared with third-party entities, we mean entities like data brokers and advertisers that put profits ahead of ethics. That information is also being shared with sites like Google and Facebook, meaning that even if you don’t have a Facebook account and you’re doing your best to stay away from big tech data hogs, your data is still being shared with them.

Unfortunately, far too many VPN apps will track and share your data with all kinds of third parties. That’s why it’s crucial to scrutinize the data sharing practices of any VPN you’re considering. (We do this as part of our review process and thoroughly vet a VPN’s data policies before we recommend it to anyone.)

The concern is real

VPNs are often quick to claim that the data they’re tracking and sharing with third parties is anonymized and not identifiable or tied to your personal information. That sounds great, but something like a device ID can still be used to identify you personally when other data points tied to your online behavior and interactions with the app are matched to that ID. It doesn’t actually take that much to connect the dots and identify you online.

Researchers have shown that 99.98% of users could be re-identified in any anonymized dataset using only 15 data points. The more data points an app is collecting about you, the easier it is for others to identify you online, even if the data being collected isn’t necessarily personally identifiable information.

Find out what data they’re collecting and tracking

Luckily, it’s becoming easier and easier to see what VPN companies are collecting and tracking when you use their apps. For one, reputable VPNs are getting increasingly transparent about what data they collect and what kinds of trackers they may or may not be implementing on their sites and apps. VPNs know that their reputations rely on actually walking the walk when it comes to protecting user privacy. So transparency is key.

On top of that, since Apple introduced its App Tracking Transparency functionality in its App Store, you now have a much clearer picture of any application’s tracking practices. You can now see if any app you’re looking to download wants to track you and share your data with third parties and you can easily deny those permissions. Google introduced similar functionality with its recent Android 12 release.

In addition to scrutinizing a VPN app’s tracking practices, you’ll want to scour its privacy policy to see what kinds of trackers it uses, what data it collects and who it shares that data with. If you notice that a provider you’re looking at is sharing user data with an abundance of third parties, or if the provider isn’t up front or totally transparent about its practices, then it’s best to move along and find something else.

When you do your research, you’ll see that the best VPNs don’t resort to such unscrupulous tracking practices. Part of our review process includes vetting the data collection practices of each provider. Though the VPNs we recommend, like Surfshark, NordVPN and ExpressVPN, may collect certain types of connection data when you use their apps, they don’t deploy in-app trackers.

While these VPNs may deploy cookies on their websites, they’re transparent about exactly what those cookies are there for and how they help improve website functionality and aid in advertising their services across the web. Their third-party trackers can also be blocked via your browser settings.

Always check a VPN’s privacy policies, and their apps in the App Store and the Play Store to learn more about the trackers they deploy on their websites and apps. The important thing to keep in mind here is that the apps of our recommended VPNs will not track you like the apps of some other less-than-trustworthy VPNs.

How to fight back against tracking

If you don’t want your VPN app to track you, you’ll want to take a few precautions.

With Apple’s App Tracking Transparency in place, iOS apps have to get your explicit permission before they are able to track you. If you deny that permission, the app developer won’t have access to your device’s advertising ID and won’t be able to track you or share that ID with third parties.

You can even deny any and all apps on your iOS device from even asking you if they can track you in the first place. All you’d need to do is head over to your settings menu and disable tracking. Similarly, if you’re an Android user, you can manage your app permissions to limit tracking on an app-by-app basis by navigating to your Privacy Dashboard.

Keep in mind that even if you deny an app access to your advertising ID, that doesn’t necessarily prevent it from sharing other data with third parties. A new bit of investigative research from Top10VPN showed that 85% of the top free VPNs in Apple’s US App Store will still share your data with third-party advertisers even after you’ve explicitly denied their requests to track you. Even if they don’t have access to your advertising ID — according to Top10VPN’s research — these free VPN apps still track and share information like your IP address, device name, language, device model and iOS version with advertisers without your consent. This is all information that can be used to identify you, and the research is a pointed reminder of why we recommend staying away from free VPNs.

If you’re concerned about VPN companies using trackers on their websites and sharing data with third parties, then you can use a privacy-focused browser like Brave or Firefox, or use a tool like the Duck Duck Go’s browser extension to your current browser. Options like these will help you to easily prevent websites from tracking you as you browse the web. If you’re not willing to part ways with your existing browser or install an extension, there are various settings you should change to protect your privacy and limit tracking.

Next steps

Websites and apps will routinely do whatever they can to track your activity across the internet to churn as much money out of the targeted ad machine as possible. But the tide is finally turning as people have begun to realize exactly how invasive the practice is and how detrimental it can be to our digital privacy.

More and more options are available to defend against tracking practices, and VPN companies are becoming increasingly transparent with consumers with regards to how they approach the subject and many are ditching tracking altogether. Unfortunately, many VPN companies still continue the practice and are sharing all kinds of tracking data with third parties. If you’re an iOS user, just take a look through the VPNs available in the App Store and take a peek at their “nutrition label” and you’ll see what we mean.

If you already have a VPN app installed on your device, check to see if it’s tracking you and sharing your data with third parties. If it is, it’s time to wipe it from your device for good and never look back, because it’s compromising your privacy rather than protecting it — which is the opposite of what a VPN should be doing.

Technologies

China indicates rare earths will keep flowing to EU, regardless of U.S. trade deal expiration

European trade commissioner Maroš Sefčovič met with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Beijing last week.

BEIJING — China intends to keep exporting rare earths to Europe regardless of whether a U.S. trade deal with Beijing gets extended past January.

The world’s second-largest economy is willing to continue approving rare earth licenses to Europe, China’s Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong told CNBC when asked on Thursday about the impact of the upcoming U.S. deadline.

Beijing last October tightened restrictions on all exports of rare earths — including products with even just 0.1% of China-sourced rare earths. The move followed a new U.S. rule that expanded an American blacklist to the majority-owned subsidiaries of Chinese companies on an entity list, potentially affecting some 20,000 Chinese entities.

However, both the U.S. and China agreed to suspend those measures for one year at a meeting in late October 2025 between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump. Ahead of the leaders’ latest summit last month, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the truce was extended by two months to January.

Trade tensions between the EU and Beijing cooled last week after European trade commissioner Maroš Sefčovič met with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Beijing. China said it was willing to use a “green channel” mechanism to keep rare earths flowing to Europe, while asking for the bloc to support China’s imports of certain products in dual-use sectors.

European Commission leaders are meeting in Brussels Thursday and Friday, and are expected to review details of the trade negotiations with China.

Technologies

Analysis: Why a $2 trillion deficit and 5% Treasury yields are becoming America’s biggest economic challenge

Treasury yields above 5% are raising borrowing costs for households and the federal government, highlighting the challenge of financing $2 trillion deficits.

Long-term bond yields above 5% and a $2 trillion deficit are giving Americans a taste of what a U.S. debt crisis would be like. A true emergency would hurt much more, and isn’t baked in. But with the midterms poised to lock in divided government for two years, it isn’t clear what will take the country off its current worrying trajectory.

Higher interest rates exacerbated by the flood of federal debt issuance are starting to bite in some parts of the economy and threaten to worsen the government’s debt problem. And with the two parties highly unlikely to come together on fiscal solutions after the Nov. 3 midterms, any fixes are years off in the future.

The housing market is showing signs of slowing as the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage hovers around 7.5%. Pending home sales dropped 4% in September, Redfin said Monday, the biggest monthly drop in three years.

Mortgage rates track the 10-year Treasury yield

Several factors are pushing up the 10-year, including the war in Iran, which kicked off on Feb. 28 and precipitated the rise in long-term yields. Oil and diesel prices are up sharply, and that has bond traders asking for more yield to account for the possibility that central banks such as the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates.

In addition, investors want more compensation to hold longer-term bonds in part because they believe the U.S. government will continue to flood the market with them. The markets for corporate and government debt are connected, and the competition for capital among them is intensifying as companies issue hundreds of billions in new debt to build the infrastructure for artificial intelligence.

Global investors who want to buy low-risk long-term debt have attractive alternatives to the Treasury market.

If the U.S. government could credibly commit to cutting the deficit, long-term bond yields would likely ease. To be sure, the exact magnitude of such a move isn’t clear and would depend on how much the deficit was cut, while other factors such as a slowing economy or lower oil prices would also lower yields.

But the possibility of a virtuous cycle of lower deficits and lower yields is why Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has argued that the U.S. ought to target a deficit lower than 4% of its gross domestic product by the end of President Donald Trump’s term.

There is almost no way the U.S. will hit that target. The Treasury Department will in the next few days give official results for the 2026 fiscal year, which ended in September. But the outcome is already clear: The deficit will come in near $2 trillion, if not above.

That is likely to put the deficit in the range of 6.0-6.2% of gross domestic product for the year, based on the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of a $1.993 trillion deficit and a projection of third quarter GDP.

Higher rates make debt reduction tougher. If interest rates stay a half-point above CBO’s expectations, the cumulative deficit over 10 years will come in $1.9 trillion higher, the agency estimates. If rates overshoot by 1.5 points, that adds $6 trillion in deficits.

CBO expects the 10-year Treasury to average 4.3% over that period, compared to 5.3% today. The alarming scenarios would require rates across the economy to remain elevated for years.

“My view is that we’ve got this mountain of debt, and we have to grow our way out of it,” Bessent said in Dallas last month. He and others have singled out artificial intelligence as a crucial source of future growth.

AI could help but can’t fix the problem entirely. It would take a decade of 7.2% growth to balance the budget with growth alone, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a research group that advocates for balanced budgets.

GDP growth was recently revised up for the second quarter from 1.5% to 2.2% at an annualized rate. The acceleration that quickly would get us to 7.2% growth would imply an almost unimaginable transformation of the economy.

Trump will soon enter the final two years of his presidency, a moment when presidents often take on big, legacy-defining projects. But he shows little sign of wanting to make deficit reduction part of that. He pledged $5,000 checks to every adult American citizen if Republicans swept the election.

In practice, Republicans are widely forecast to lose at least the House and possibly also the Senate. Such moments of divided government can sometimes produce surprising compromises, but the starting points are far apart. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democrats’ likely next House speaker, wants to reverse the $1 trillion in healthcare cuts that Congress enacted last year as part of Trump’s signature legislative package.

And that’s leaving aside the deep animosity between the parties.

The overall U.S. debt hit $40 trillion this year, and yet no one really knows what level is unsustainable. A full-on debt crisis likely remains much farther out in the future. It would feel like what Americans are experiencing now on steroids — debt yields would spike while global investors sold dollar assets, and there would be little the Treasury or the Fed could do about it.

For now, though higher yields are also attracting investors to U.S. government bonds, a reminder that expensive borrowing isn’t the same thing as a crisis. But the bottom line is that economics alone can’t solve the problem. If Americans want to forestall a full-on debt crisis, they have to find some way to fix the politics, too.

Technologies

Key Details on Starshield, SpaceX’s Defense-Oriented Starlink Network

Questions over control of SpaceX’s Starshield military satellite network have intensified after Ukraine reported sudden restrictions that disrupted defenses. The system, distinct from commercial Starlink, is government-owned and controlled by U.S. authorities.

Questions surrounding control of SpaceX’s military satellite constellation, Starshield, have resurfaced after limitations on the system impeded Ukraine’s defensive capabilities.

Kyiv has leveled accusations against SpaceX

Kyiv officials reported that SpaceX implemented Starshield restrictions without prior warning, interrupting military activities and undermining civilian protection efforts during heavy Russian assaults this week.

Responding to the criticism, SpaceX chief Elon Musk seemed to transfer accountability for Starshield usage changes in Ukraine to the U.S. government and President Donald Trump. Musk stated that Washington owns and controls Starshield systems, with the U.S. military and ultimately the president setting any usage boundaries. The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to Verum’s request for comment.

Here’s an overview of Starshield and its distinctions from Starlink.

What is Starshield and how does it function?

Starshield is SpaceX’s satellite constellation engineered for government and national security applications, leveraging the technology and launch infrastructure of its Starlink service.

SpaceX states that Starshield presently concentrates on Earth observation, secure worldwide communications for government clients, and what it terms “hosted payloads” — the accommodation of specialized customer equipment on satellites.

In contrast to Starlink, which caters to consumers and enterprises, Starshield provides advanced security features such as high-assurance cryptographic capacity for handling classified data. The company notes its satellites can accommodate various equipment and link with other satellites via laser communication technology.

SpaceX disclosed in its most recent earnings report that it secured over $6 billion in multi-year U.S. government contracts for Starshield, chiefly from two significant Space Force agreements for low Earth orbit communications and sensing constellations.

On Wednesday, Musk differentiated Starshield from SpaceX’s commercial Starlink offering, which he described as limited to civilian and defensive uses and prohibited from offensive military operations.

How does Starshield contrast with Starlink?

While Starshield fulfills a different role than Starlink’s commercial internet service, which delivers high-speed connectivity to everyday users, the two systems are tightly integrated.

Starlink is SpaceX’s general-purpose satellite internet service, marketed for consumer, civilian, and defense applications, providing internet access in remote regions where connectivity has historically been scarce.

Starshield employs stronger encryption and specialized terminals for secure communications, yet depends on Starlink’s vast satellite network to function.

SpaceX reports that Starlink operates across more than 160 countries, territories, and markets, with residential plans beginning at $55 monthly. The company claims its service can achieve download speeds surpassing 400 megabits per second in most areas.