缺點

• 昂貴的
• 免費版受限制，由 Android 上的定向廣告支持
• 收集重要但匿名的數據
• 沒有第三方基礎設施審計
• 過時的透明度報告
• 有限的 WireGuard 支持

光環的魅力

通過付費的 Hotspot Shield 免費 VPN 代理和安全 VPN v8.8.1 破解 訂閱，您可以獲得 1Password 密碼管理器、Robo Shield 呼叫攔截器和 Identity Guard 身份盜竊保護服務的免費訂閱。最近，Hotspot Shield 的母公司還推出了一款防病毒產品，作為可選的附加購買，每月 5.99 美元或每年 39.99 美元。

這些附加服務由 Aura 提供，該公司於 2020 年 7 月吸收了 Hotspot Shield。雖然之前的 Pango 品牌已經消失，但服務似乎保持不變。一位代表向我保證，客戶不會為這些服務支付額外費用，並且只要客戶擁有 Hotspot Shield 帳戶，他們就會一直可用。

這篇評論的重點是 作為獨立產品的Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack  ，但不可能忽視這個龐大的捆綁包。這對您來說肯定是很多錢，並且幾乎將 Hotspot Shield 與包含 VPN 的安全套件或像 Ghostery Midnight 等更注重隱私的工具歸入同一類別。

其他一些 VPN 提供附加服務。ProtonVPN 是 ProtonMail 的兄弟姐妹，也是許多以隱私為重點的工具。編輯選擇獎得主 TunnelBear 提供密碼管理器，NordVPN 也提供密碼管理器，它還提供加密文件櫃。不同之處在於，其中大多數都會增加 VPN 訂閱的費用，而您通過 Hotspot Shield 獲得的所有內容都包括在內。

Hotspot Shield 的 VPN 協議

多年來，我們認為 OpenVPN 是創建加密 VPN 連接的最佳選擇。新玩家 WireGuard 使用更新的加密技術，似乎提供了更好的速度。它還沒有被廣泛採用，Hotspot Shield 僅在 Linux 上支持它。現在沒關係，但 WireGuard 有望成為行業標準。

Hotspot Shield 創建了自己的協議，稱為 Catapult Hydra，直到最近，它還專門用於為 Hotspot Shield 供電。需要明確的是，該公司沒有創建新的 加密 協議。一個新的加密協議需要大量的審查，因為一個未被發現的缺陷可以用來破解它。一位公司代表解釋說，Catapult Hydra 使用 Open SSL 庫來加密數據，新協議只是“傳輸協議的增強”。該公司之前還告訴我，Hydra 為數據傳輸創建了多個渠道，以提高速度和可靠性。

 

IKEv2 是一種安全且現代的選項，可在 Windows 和 iOS 上使用。我們更喜歡的開源協議 OpenVPN 僅在路由器上可用。值得注意的是，Hotspot Shield 在 2020 年獲得了最快 VPN 的稱號，雖然它在 2021 年沒有實現重複性能（見下文），但它在配備 WireGuard 的其他服務中擁有自己的優勢。

服務器和服務器位置

Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack 表示它在“80 多個”國家/地區提供服務器。這是一個強大的選擇，與 ExpressVPN 服務的 94 個國家/地區相差不遠。更多地方的服務器為您提供了更多用於欺騙您的位置的選項，這意味著您的位置附近可能有一台服務器。

特別值得注意的是 Hotspot Shield 服務的各種地點。它在四個非洲國家擁有服務器，在南美洲擁有服務器，這兩個地區經常被 VPN 公司忽略。Hotspot Shield 還在中國、俄羅斯、土耳其和越南等具有壓制性互聯網政策的地區提供服務器。

Hotspot Shield 擁有可觀的 1,800 多台服務器。Cyber​​Ghost 擁有我們見過的最大的機隊，超過 6,800 架。擁有更多服務器並不一定意味著更好的服務，但它通常意味著您有更多選擇來找到有效的東西。

 

Many VPN services use virtual servers, which are software-defined servers. A single machine could play host to several virtual servers. Similarly, a virtual location is a server that’s configured to appear somewhere other than where it physically resides. Neither is inherently problematic, but we prefer that companies be clear about their infrastructure and where it is located. If your data passes through a given country, you might be subject to that country’s laws or surveillance regimes.

Hotspot Shield tells me that it relies only on hardware servers. That said, it was vaguer on virtual locations, saying only that 90% of its fleet was physically located where it appeared to be. The company needs to be more transparent about these practices, especially in its app. In contrast, Mullvad VPN lets you know exactly where the server is, whether it’s owned or rented, and what company physically possesses the server.

An Aura representative confirmed for me that Hotspot Shield shares server infrastructure with five other VPN companies owned by Aura. They are: Betternet, Hexatech, TouchVPN, VPN360, and VPN in Touch. Hotspot Shield VPN has been white-labeled in the past, so it’s not surprising to see that it’s sharing space with sibling companies.

The company takes measures to secure its infrastructure but does not own all its servers, which is not unusual. Some VPN companies, such as ExpressVPN, have migrated to RAM-only servers to prevent tampering. Hotspot Shield says it has other security mitigations in place.

Your Privacy With Hotspot Shield

If it were malicious, a VPN could see everything you do online. That’s why it’s important to understand what efforts a company makes to protect your privacy. Remember that security is built on trust. If you do not feel that you can personally trust a VPN company, you should switch to one you do. There are plenty to choose from.

Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack is owned and operated by Pango Inc. dba Aura, which is incorporated in the US state of Delaware. The company says it has a “distributed workforce” in the US and Ukraine. The parent company for Aura is WC SACD Holdings Inc. Some companies tout their offshore HQs as a check against requests for information by governments and law enforcement, but Aura does not.

Many VPN companies release third-party audits of their products to establish security and privacy bona fides. Hotspot Shield VPN has yet to release the results of an audit. TunnelBear, on the other hand, has delivered annual audits for several years.

Hotspot Shield company issued a lengthy and detailed transparency report for 2016 through 2018, which indicates it has never released user information despite numerous requests. However, this report is not easy to find—here’s a PDF link to it—and the company should commit to releasing updated reports annually.

Two documents cover your privacy with Hotspot Shield. The first is a broader policy related more to Aura’s overall operation. The second is focused solely on VPN products. We looked at both documents. There’s been some effort to bridge the gaps between the two, with the former calling out specific differences with the latter. To its credit, the company is transparent in all of its documents. We absolutely understand what the company says it’s doing and why, even if we don’t always agree with it.

The company says that it does not store any information on users’ browsing activity. The company does gather your IP address to match you to the best VPN server, but that information is encrypted during use and deleted at the end of your VPN session. The company says it does not have the ability to connect activity at a given server with a specific person using that server. This is a better practice than some other VPNs.

The company does log session duration and the amount of data used, to enforce its policies. It also stores device hashes (that is, theoretically anonymous identifiers), but the company says these are not linked to user activity. The company says that it must collect this information because it does not require users to create an account to use the product. Other companies can provide services without these practices.

Company representatives explained to me that Hotspot Shield also logs the domains—but not complete URLs—of sites accessed by each VPN server, with a timestamp. This is also outlined in the privacy documentation. The company tells me there is no way to connect this information to individual users, and that this is done to improve service. Some competitors have similar practices, but I’d like to see Hotspot Shield find creative ways to further protect user data.

A Thorny Question of Free Privacy

It’s always difficult to ascertain whether a VPN is acting in its customers’ best interests, but even more so with Hotspot Shield, because it chooses to monetize its free subscription in a way that other companies we’ve reviewed simply do not. Hotspot Shield deserves credit for its efforts at transparency, but the consequences of the company’s decision to profit from its free users mean that its efforts toward privacy will always come with an asterisk.

In all of our conversations with the company over many years, representatives have stressed that they feel a moral obligation to provide a free VPN product to help people living under oppressive regimes. But they also insist that they must pay for it with ads on the Android version of its app.

This is done with ad network SDKs and Google Ads, both of which gather user information to target advertisements. We should stress that this is only an issue for the free Android version of the app; these privacy concerns do not apply if you purchase a subscription or use the free subscription on a different platform.

You could argue that targeted advertising in the free Hotspot Shield Android app is no worse than any other ad-supported app, or even browsing most websites, and that the cost in privacy is weighed fairly against free VPN protection for everyone. Yet ProtonVPN and TunnelBear both also offer free subscription tiers but do not monetize their users. A VPN is intended to improve your privacy, and we believe it must be held to a higher standard than the average mobile game. The company has gone to great lengths to minimize the privacy concerns that stem from monetizing its free version, but a far simpler solution would be to simply not serve ads.

Hands On With Hotspot Shield for Windows

Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack provides apps for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. Several streaming devices, including Android TV and Amazon Fire Stick, also support Hotspot Shield apps. There’s also a command line app for Linux, and the company provides instructions on how to configure your router to use Hotspot Shield. In our testing, we used an Intel NUC Kit NUC8i7BEH (Bean Canyon) desktop running the latest version of Windows 10.

The Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack client looks much more at home on Windows 10 than other VPN apps. It’s a simple, dark blue window with snazzy cyan highlights. It looks and feels solid and modern.

Opening the app for the first time, we were greeted by a large button labeled Connect to VPN. A menu in the lower right corner displayed which server would be used. We really like this approach, since it gave us an obvious action to take and made clear what would happen.

 

Once you connect your device to a server, the main page shows upload and download speeds, latency, the load on the server you’re using, and your apparent IP address. A map in the upper left shows a stylized view of the world. You can select a new location from the menu above. There are also panels showing your daily data usage and what network connection is active. Easy to miss is a Stop button at the very bottom of the app. This disconnects your device from the VPN server.

When you go to select a new location, you see a grid of available server locations with the flag of that region. A search bar at the top makes short work of the numerous server locations. If there is more than one location within a region, you can choose where you’d like to connect—usually nothing more fine-grained than a city. This is pretty good, but we prefer services that let you choose specific servers and display information on the usage load of a server or region.

The Settings section is fairly light but has useful tools. You can choose your preferred VPN protocol from the Protocols section or let the default setting make that choice for you. There’s a Kill Switch, which cuts off all internet traffic should your VPN become disconnected. Perhaps the most powerful tool is the Smart VPN (aka split-tunneling), which lets you designate which apps or URL domains must use a VPN connection or must bypass the VPN. If you have an app or service that’s frequently blocked when using a VPN, this could help. The problem is that the app confusingly uses “Bypass” and “Pause” as the possible actions for apps and URLs, instead of something more descriptive.

當您使用 VPN 時，您希望您的 IP 地址和 DNS 信息不會洩露。為了確認是這種情況，我們使用了 DNS 洩漏測試工具。我們的測試表明我們的 IP 公共地址已更改，並且我們的 DNS 信息是安全的。請記住，我們只測試了一台服務器。其他服務器可能配置不正確。

使用 VPN 通常會阻止您訪問 Netflix，即使您連接到美國境內的 VPN 服務器也是如此。不幸的是，當我們在連接到美國服務器時嘗試從 Netflix 流式傳輸視頻時，我們只能訪問 Netflix Originals 內容。情況可能並非總是如此。一天工作的服務經常在下一天被阻止，因此在購買 VPN 時請記住這一點。

 

速度和性能

VPN 通常會對您的網速產生負面影響。為了了解使用 VPN 的影響，我們使用 Ookla SpeedTest 網站進行了一系列測試，並發現使用和不使用 VPN 的測試結果之間的百分比變化。您可以在恰當命名的文章 How We Test VPNs 中閱讀有關我們測試的更多信息，包括其局限性。請注意，Ookla 歸 PCMag 的出版商 Ziff Davis 所有。

2020 年，我們確定 Hotspot Shield 是可用的最快的 VPN。情況已不再如此，但值得注意的是，它在使用 WireGuard 的服務方面表現出色。我們的測試表明，Hotspot Shield VPN 將下載和上傳速度測試結果分別降低了 31.3% 和 60%。它增加了 42.9% 的延遲。

在前幾年，我們連續進行了所有 VPN 速度測試，以進行鳥瞰。今年，我們將使用滾動系統，為您帶來更新鮮的數據。這種新方法也是必要的，因為 COVID-19 限制限制了我們訪問 PCMag Labs 測試網絡。最新結果如下

一般來說，我們不認為速度是選擇 VPN 時最重要的因素。價格、隱私和可信度遠比快速下載更有價值。還值得注意的是，我們的測試不能被視為速度的最終決定。我們的測試只是一個快照，您的體驗幾乎肯定會有所不同。

動手使用 Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack for MacOS

為了測試 Hotspot Shield 的 macOS VPN，我們使用了運行 OS Big Sur 版本 11.2.2 的 MacBook Air（M1，2020）。該應用程序可供在供應商網站上註冊免費或高級服務的用戶使用，也可以從 Apple Appstore 下載。

Hotspot Shield VPN 的 MacOS 應用程序看起來與 iOS 應用程序非常相似，因為它既現代又黑暗。要連接到 VPN，您可以從屏幕底部的國家或城市列表中進行選擇，然後單擊該位置的名稱。您也可以單擊屏幕中間的巨大藍色按鈕進行連接。

 

我們通過訪問 DNS 洩漏測試站點並執行擴展測試來檢查 Hotspot Shield VPN 沒有洩漏數據。令人高興的是，在測試過程中只出現了 VPN 服務器的信息——我們的個人數據被屏蔽了。我們只測試了一台服務器，因此其他服務器可能存在洩漏。

Hotspot Shield VPN works fine for most video services on MacOS. Using Hotspot Shield on a Mac, we found that YouTube took a second or two longer to load than usual, but videos played fine without any stuttering or lagging. We ventured over to Twitch and that’s where the limitations of the VPN came through. The video froze, lagged, and eventually played—when we turned the video quality settings on the player down to their lowest levels.

 

Hands On With Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack for iPhone

Hotspot Shield’s iPhone VPN has a modern black interface with bright blue highlights. It’s extremely obvious when you’re connected; there’s a bright blue button in the middle of the home screen that toggles on and off with your connection and disconnection.

You don’t need to sign in to start using the VPN. Just press the large blue outline of a button in the middle of the screen, agree to let the app create a VPN connection on your phone, and the app will connect you to a server. The Basic VPN server is slow, and its location and information are not divulged. We streamed a couple of YouTube videos, and they took a few seconds longer to load than they normally do. You are also prompted to upgrade to a Premium account pretty often, which gets old quickly.

Once we signed in with our Premium account credentials, we could choose from a host of VPN server options. There’s also an Auto option to connect you immediately. You can also choose the city where your server is located if it’s in a country that has multiple Hotspot Shield VPN servers.

As with the Windows test, it appears HotSpot Shield VPN’s iPhone app is not prone to DNS leaks. We performed tests on both a “Streaming Server” located in Atlanta, Georgia, and a regular server located in Copenhagen, Denmark, and neither showed leaks. As always, it’s a good idea to perform your own test by visiting DNSLeakTest.com.

The app doesn’t have much in the way of VPN special features like multi-hop or P2P connections, but it does offer some tools that come with a Premium subscription.

Hands On With Hotspot Shield for Android

Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack has a dark, sleek appearance, with a large round connection button in the middle of the screen. When connected to a VPN server, the app shows you various server information, like the IP address, the server load and the server latency.

We used a Samsung A71 5G running Android 10 to test the app. Note that you can’t choose the individual server you want, only the city where the server is located. Furthermore, the app does offers neither a Kill Switch nor malware protection, as many of its competitors do. HotSpot Shield’s Android app is just for making VPN connections.

 

One confusing thing about the app is that it has dedicated profiles for different VPN usage, like browsing, streaming or gaming. We clicked on the streaming profile to connect to one of Hotspot Shield’s fastest US-based servers and, according to the graph on the app, our ability to stream was Limited, browsing was Excellent, and gaming was Average. Over the course of testing we connected to four different VPN servers (two in the United States, one in Australia, and one in Argentina) and none of them had a good rating for streaming or gaming. We only received an Excellent rating for streaming when connected to a server in Argentina. The opaqueness of this feature outweighs its potential utility.

We checked to see if the app was leaking DNS information while using a VPN server in Argentina using DNSLeakTest.com. We found that Hotspot Shield did not expose our DNS requests or our IP address, but other servers may not be correctly configured.

While still connected to the server in Buenos Aires, we noticed that loading YouTube videos took longer than any other app we’ve tested, but once loaded they played without issue. We then visited Twitch.tv’s mobile site and while the live streams loaded slowly, they eventually played out without noticeable lag or pixelation.

A Shield for Your Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack?

所有產品都有權衡，但 Hotspot Shield 的優勢超過平均水平。它擁有強大的速度測試分數，但在最流行的平台上不提供 WireGuard。它很貴，但提供免費選擇。免費訂閱選項相當慷慨，但它會限制數據並將廣告推送給 Android 上的免費用戶。它擁有出色的服務器集合，但您無法選擇單個服務器。它提供對一系列其他隱私和安全服務的訪問，但這可能對您沒有價值。它的隱私政策非常透明，但其中的內容並不總是很好。

What hurts Hotspot Shield the most, and why its score has dipped slightly, is that other companies offer VPN protection without all those caveats. Some competitors have even decided to forgo customer data and monetization in the name of better privacy. Hotspot Shield is still a compelling product, but its competitors are simply able to make clearer arguments for their value and security.

PCMag has several Editors’ Choice winners to recommend. ProtonVPN offers the best free subscription option, which may appeal to Hotspot Shield users. IVPN and Mullvad VPN both offer outstanding privacy protections for far less than Hotspot Shield. TunnelBear VPN has an interface that could not be friendlier, or easier to use. Lastly, NordVPN has a similar price to Hotspot Shield, but has a large server network and just about every tool you could want in a VPN.

結論：

Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy & Secure VPN v8.8.1 Crack 看起來很棒，並且擁有與之匹配的出色服務器網絡，但它的隱私承諾因其在移動設備上的免費訂閱層貨幣化方式而變得複雜。