Data Collection Methods

Initial searching is performed manually using a combination of sourse listed in table 1.

Table 1. Data Sources

Google play

sensortower.com

appfigures.com

similarweb.com

For Google play, we entered the term VPN, and logged the VPNs. For SensorTower and ??? we started at the country level and select apps in the ``tools'' category. Next, log the top 10-20 VPNs for each of those countries. Next, we search for the VPNs on Google play and log its name, the developer's name, the website, physical address, privacy policy, and email address on gmail. Next, use recursively used this meta-data as search terms into Google, Reddit, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Baidu.