Techspot has a table of some known bad VPNs, and concludes:
The report does not speculate heavily on Qihoo 360’s motives for concealing ownership of so many free VPN apps, an approach that likely helped boost downloads while avoiding reputational risks. The company, which has well-documented ties to Beijing’s communist regime, may have pursued this strategy to minimize costs and maintain deniability.
For more details on the security issues, this is about the same paper: https://cyberinsider.com/vpn-apps-used-by-millions-contain-shared-keys-and-hidden-backdoors/
That’s opening Pandora’s box though, since you then become aware of illegal activities and take on a lot of liability
I can’t see a Chinese company facing legal action for that
Well yeah, but who would use a Chinese-based VPN? That’s asking for trouble to begin with
The average person is not tech savvy and may pick the best deal without researching.