Get Android TV VPN. Get Surfshark

Yes. Surfshark VPN, vetted by Google and available via the Google Play Store, is guaranteed to work with any up-to-date Android operating system. But if your Android version is older than Android 5 (Lollipop), you may not even see the Surfshark app on the store. Is there anything you can do in this case? Yes, you can sideload the app – just read the guide here. 

There are several reasons why you might need an Android TV VPN.

Streaming services often engage in geo-blocking. Netflix libraries differ from country to country – the US has the most extensive one. There are some amazing shows you can’t see without access to US Netflix. Other streaming services such as Hulu and Peacock are not available outside the US. With a Surfshark VPN, you can access all of them, wherever you are. 

Streaming video uses a lot of internet bandwidth. That’s why internet service providers would like to spy on your traffic and slow your connection down when you’re streaming video (it also happens to P2P sharing, online gaming, and so on). But a VPN shields your data from the ISP, and you can watch what you want without slowdowns. 

Furthermore, streaming devices can be hacked. But when the VPN is shielding your connection, this becomes much harder to do.

You should definitely not use a free VPN with your Android TV – or any other device. Free VPNs don’t have the funding to keep up with the latest developments in technology and can’t offer you the most secure encryption and tunneling. 

Even without development costs, there’s the question of maintenance. How do they pay for keeping the servers running for a free VPN? One possibility is that the free VPNs keep logs of your browsing data – and sell them to advertisers. That is, if it’s not doing something more insidious – about a third of free VPN apps on Google Play Store contain malware.

Yes, there’s nothing illegal in using a VPN on Android platforms. Some countries like Russia or China restrict or heavily regulate VPN use, but it is not an issue in most of the world.