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BigMama VPN Service Caught Selling User Data
farsighter
Member
An intriguing method of cheating in Meta's VR game revealed that a VPN service called BigMama VPN is selling its users to anyone willing to pay. "If you've downloaded the service, there's a very high chance your device is being offered for sale"
Beyond accessing geo-blocked content, VPN's primary advantage is protecting user privacy by concealing the original browsing location. But what if the VPN company itself sells its users?
Free Service? You're the Product
BigMama VPN, which markets itself as a "VPN born to be free", offers access through servers in 17 countries. The service's Android app has been installed over a million times on Google Play. While emphasizing it's "truly free" without advertisements or speed limitations, a recent investigation reveals it simply sells users' IP addresses to third parties.
The case was discovered by Wired, which exposed the fraud through a VR game called Gorilla Tag. According to the report, the service offers a proxy network selling users' IP addresses to anyone interested, allowing buyers to "ride" these addresses at will.
"If you've downloaded the service, there's a very high chance your device is being offered for sale on BigMama's marketplace," says a Trend Micro cybersecurity researcher. The company notes that following Gorilla Tag's fraud wave, Meta's VR headsets are the third most common device for this problematic VPN's installation.
Comments
Never heard of them, but anyone using 'free' or comically cheap 'lifetime' VPN services already have zero regard for their own personal privacy.
This has been happening for literal YEARS. Every single "Free VPN" does this. Every. Single. One.
I wouldn’t really trust a VPN app named BigMama tbh
Free VPN - Dangerous VPN. Do you like adrenaline?
This is a common business model. The user allows their IP address to be used for something and in exchange gets something else. There is nothing wrong with that if the user knowingly agrees to it.
Several similar services exist, another example: https://brightvpn.com/
People using a VPN should read this:
https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/vpns.html
Right but Tor is more slowly than VPN and a lot of sites don't work properly through Tor.
The user don't think about their IP and don't know what is happened with it.
You lost me at BigMama
FTFY
Free == you're the product (in most cases)
just duh really, how do free services pay the bills?
Really? Any help needed?
What's your opinion on comically cheap annual VPS?
Like, $3~7/year for 2GB RAM with Ryzen 9 processor?
Deadpool! Unless it has no IPv6 or only has IPv6.
why MAMA sold my info
Not the first, won't be the last...
I thought this was well known for 'free' VPN services... Also not sure why it needed a "Trend Micro cybersecurity researcher" to discover...
This is an incomplete thought/sentence? They are not selling its users, they are selling its users' internet connection. Wouldn't be surprised if they were offering it for free to other users too.. Basically crowd-sourcing a VPN network.. Cheaper than needing to build your own.
softether does the same thing, maybe without the paying option.
“Millions of ethically sourced proxies” 🤣
Anyway, I wouldn’t expect anything less from a VPN with a name like that.
Enjoy it while it lasts or manage your expectations for long term reliability and performance.
Is this worse than honey extension stealing from influencers?
when your BigPapa is your BigBro
That drama was stupid. Everyone with SOME technical knowledge knows that’s exactly how all coupon sites have always worked. You click see coupon. You get sent to the site using an affiliate link and you get to see the coupon. Honey just made that process an addon.
They replace affiliate links even if they dont have coupons. If existing shop breaks away from them, they generate -60 to -80% codes for that shop which wont obviously work in cart to cause angry customers to contact them as punishment.
I saw the megalag part 2 content already in his discord.
Sounds like every coupon site since 1995.
What @MannDude said, plus: some kind of trap and/or brutal node occupation (as in 1 Vcore ~ 1/8 of a Ryzen HWT).
But hey, as long as there are plenty enough who buy such a VPS ...
.
Isn't that what anyone uses a VPN for?
They are ethically sourced, the users agreed to have traffic routed thru them. Unethical in the proxy space is only botnets, everything else is ethical.
Yeah, same as mamaVPN. When they installed it, they agreed to whatever conditions Mama could come up with.