Hola VPN has been detrimental to privacy and security
This is a non-exhaustive summary of how Hola VPN has been detrimental to both privacy and security. This is just one example of how VPN services can be harmful. All sources have been archived on the Wayback Machine and/or Archive.Today.
Hola is an Israel-based VPN service which has accumulated approximately 256 million users as of November 2022. Hola (carelessly) sells users bandwidth which allows strangers to route their traffic through the connections of Hola users. This has been used for DDoS attacks as Hola can function like a botnet. The original post from Fredrick Brennan is archived here. This may also put Hola users at risk with the law since this is essentially the equivalent of running a Tor exit node from home, which is strongly discouraged because of the extreme risk involved. Hola users are also easily identifiable (which allows for tracking) regardless of what precautions users may take. But wait, it gets worse! Hola has also left users vulnerable to malware. This might've not even been strictly hypothetical as malicious actors may have exploited Hola. Security researchers have said that this must've been a result of utter incompetence and negligence. After this news reached the public, Hola claimed to patch the vulnerabilities, however this was not true. Hola has even gone so far as to re-write history, seemingly in an attempt to mislead journalists.