Some free services log users’ browsing data and sell it or turn it over to governments when asked. Others say they are based in the United States or the Cayman Islands but actually operate out of countries with censorious governments.

Still others obscure what a VPN can actually protect people from.

“They are marketing themselves as ‘sprinkle our security or privacy dust on your device and suddenly it will become private and secure,’” said Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on digital rights.

AnchorFree made for an attractive venture investment because the technology it has built on top of the open-sourced VPN software makes it faster than other VPN services, said Sujay Jaswa, a partner at WndrCo, the investment firm that led the latest round of financing. Many of AnchorFree’s competitors license its technology, including Bitdefender, Dashlane, Kaspersky and McAfee.

AnchorFree’s tech is also prevalent in smartphones and the products of telecommunications companies. Samsung Galaxy phones come loaded with AnchorFree’s VPN software; Verizon and Telefónica license it as well. The companies split revenue earned from anyone who becomes a paying customer.

The company said it has been profitable since 2010. It has just 110 employees; 80 are engineers, and it has no salespeople. Hotspot Shield is free, but a small percentage of users pay a monthly fee for extra features, including faster internet speeds, the ability choose their internet server, and added protection from phishing, malware and spam. The company recently added a product specifically for businesses.

In 2017, the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that promotes digital rights, asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate AnchorFree and Hotspot Shield, accusing the company of deceptively redirecting users to certain websites and sharing data.