Daily App: VPN Defender Makes Security Free, Easy

High-profile data breaches have once again turned world attention to security. Coming to the rescue is VPN Defender for Android and for iOS, a new app that works behind the scenes to protect communications with strong encryption and delivers access to websites that might otherwise be blocked. And it does so with no bandwidth restrictions, no perceptible performance lag and no cost or ads. But there's a catch.

VPN Defender installed in seconds on our Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone, and after a few more seconds reported that our phone was "Protected." This meant that all communications were being routed through and encrypted by servers hosted by App Annie, a mobile-app analytics firm headquartered in San Francisco. VPN Defender also hides the device's IP address, which is useful for anonymous browsing and peer-to-peer file sharing. In exchange for its protection, the company monitors and analyzes mobile-device usage patterns and produces intelligence reports that it offers for sale to app developers large and small. Usage data, which is always stored in the U.S., is "aggregrated and anonymized" before being sold, according to a company spokesperson.

Unlike most other VPN clients, which are turned on and off as needed, VPN Defender stays on the job unless protection is "paused." This obviously serves App Annie's needs far better than if its app was used only on occasion. Protection can be paused using a toggle in the app's Settings screen.

VPN Defender runs on Android version 4.0 and higher. The iOS edition is optimized for iPhone 5 but works with any Apple device running iOS 7.0 or later. The tool is published to app stores by Smart Sense Enterprises, a company owned by App Annie, which also has offices in Moscow, London, San Francisco, Tokyo and elsewhere. VPN Defender would make an excellent addition to the security apps on an MSP's standards list, as long as there are no qualms about having usage patterns monitored.

PUBLISHED JAN. 6, 2015