Free Youtube Proxy

You haven’t really experienced the actual digital world until you could not view some media due to one of these common reasons: geo-restrictions, speed throttling or content being sensitive. To overcome this nuisance, the best of us have resorted to using a free Youtube proxy, which is seemingly the most obvious solution to unblock the content we wish to view. But is it really worth it?

Using a free YouTube proxy doesn’t come without its risks and dangers when it comes to privacy, which is what we have highlighted in this article. Hang on to learn why it is not an ideal option, and what you can do instead!

The Scary Side of A Free Youtube Proxy

The frustration of a 10-minute Youtube video buffering for 20 minutes does not have a face.

Also, you wake up one morning to find out that you can’t watch your favorite Youtube influencers because of a geo-restriction on their side of the globe. You may come across a wonderful digital marketing course and the other day, the creator may choose to block viewership in or outside a certain territory.

The point is, if you are an active streamer or binge-watcher, or an e-learner, or somebody who loves Youtube, you must have come across a blocked YouTube experience at least once in your lifetime.

Learn more about geo-restrictions here.

Proxies are gaining popularity as a way to circumvent censorship, and it’s no surprise that many users resort to free YouTube proxy since it is one of the highly visited media platforms today (2 billion logged-in users). The main objective of using a proxy is to hide your IP address from third-party intruders. So if you want to view banned content, you can do so with ease by using a proxy. You may subscribe to it by browsing through ProxyCoupons to avail it with discounts. All you need to do is merely copy and then paste the video’s URL onto the proxy website, and you’re good to go!

YouTube proxies offer a quick fix, and users love them especially because they are ‘free’. In fact, they might also be one of the many methods users utilize to troubleshoot YouTube when it’s not working. However,

• They leave your IP and personal information unencrypted, leaving you exposed to the many cyber-criminals lurking in all corners of the internet.
• Because they can’t hide your IP address, your ISP can still monitor your activities on Youtube, and most probably on other streaming services too, and influence your content consumption by bandwidth throttling.

Why You Should Avoid a Free Youtube Proxy

Although proxies seem like a viable solution to bypass all censorship, several problems accompany free proxy websites. You may have heard that if you are not paying for it, then you’re probably the product instead of the customer. This couldn’t be truer in this case. It’s convenient to use free stuff but what we forget is someone or the other is paying for these online services. By using a proxy server, you are surrendering your IP address to the proxy website, which makes you ‘anonymous’ to the websites you’re visiting but not to the proxy server, making a point of privacy altogether moot.

As mentioned earlier, not all proxies hide the IP. Such websites have other ways of unblocking Youtube for users and later they ditch the users one or the other way.

Here are some other reasons why free YouTube proxy servers are a bad idea:

• Almost all free proxy websites do not pass security tests.

It has been observed that most proxy servers do not permit HTTPS connections which is a solid security issue. The lack of HTTPS means that the website is not secure and encrypted, which means that your search queries could be easily visible to anyone monitoring the connection. This makes using a free proxy worthless since it’s not protecting your identity, which is needed for the task it is being employed for.

• It can gain access to your cookies.

The internet would be a safe place if we were talking about chocolate chip cookies, but unfortunately, we’re not. Every time you log on to a server, a file called a cookie is created on your device. This is useful because you don’t have to log in to your data each time you visit the site, but when there’s a proxy server as a middle man, there’s a chance that the server can steal your cookies. This could lead to identity theft leading to more drastic problems, especially when visiting sensitive sites such as YouTube.

• The connection is tracking you.

What do you know about the intentions of the free proxy or their managers? You’re expecting privacy and quality service, but there’s nothing that guarantees exactly that. There’s no way of finding out if the proxy server owners have installed their own hardware to monitor your activities, so do think twice before using free YouTube proxy servers. They can record your activity on or outside Youtube, process such behavior and sell the data on the Dark web.

• Risk of malware

You may consider yourself lucky at finding a free proxy server but consider what you’re entrusting it with. You’re hoping it won’t infect your device with malware either intentionally or accidentally, and that is a risk that could cost you a lot in financial terms and other more substantial losses such as theft of private data and sensitive information. Some servers rely on ad revenue to continue their free services, leading to scammers if they are not vetted diligently.

• Poor service

Even after overlooking the risk they pose, you may find that using free proxy servers does not provide the quality of service you desired. This is because there are so many people using it and lack of funding, making it very slow.

 The Best Alternative to Free Youtube Proxy

A privacy tool but highly reliable for unblocking geo-restrictions is VPN. It helps to keep your activity private and keep your browsing history secure with its no-log policy so that you can access restricted content without risking your safety. Here’s how VPNs differ from proxies:

• By using a VPN, your data is fully encrypted, which means that no one will be able to see your online activity, whether it’s the government, online entities or other digital businesses. Your personal information is safe from hackers because no one can gain access to it on the go when you’re using a VPN.
• If you want to be almost anonymous, then opt for a VPN that has a no-log policy. This means that the VPN will not track or store your information when you’re using the internet.
• VPN is a lot faster than free proxies. A VPN service like iProVPN has dedicated proxies for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers so you can view your favorite content, not only on Youtube but popular streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Disney, whenever and wherever you are!
• A VPN may cost you, but it is worth the investment because it is better to put a price tag on internet safety.

The Bottomline

A free YouTube proxy may sound free, yet it ends up costing you more than you had bargained for: your data, digital identity, freedom, privacy and overall peace of mind. While there are limited alternatives to such programs, a VPN is the best choice since it will keep you cloaked from snoops and keep your information protected at all times. Invest in your security today for a safer future tomorrow!