Millions of Americans have downloaded apps that secretly route their internet traffic through Chinese companies, according to an investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), including several that were recently owned by a sanctioned firm with links to China’s military.

TTP’s investigation found that one in five of the top 100 free virtual private networks in the U.S. App Store during 2024 were surreptitiously owned by Chinese companies, which are obliged to hand over their users’ browsing data to the Chinese government under the country’s national security laws. Several of the apps traced back to Qihoo 360, a firm declared by the Defense Department to be a “Chinese Military Company." Qihoo did not respond to questions about its app-related holdings.

Apple has caved to pressure from Russian authorities and removed a number of the best iPhone VPN apps from the App Store in the country.

WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram among apps cut from iPhone app store to comply with censorship demand

This investigation report contains an applications analysis of 7 different Apple developer accounts (identified so far — maybe there are…