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PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

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Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#11

Post by mirimir »

rasengan wrote: post #4

This article and articles like this miscast Kape in an incorrect light. To be clear, in the past the company was known as CrossRider and provided a developer SDK that could be used to integrate with browsers. Unfortunately, CrossRider didn't do enough to prevent malware (like platforms these days and their fake news) and the platform was used by some bad people for bad purposes. When the new management team of CrossR…

I've recommended PIA for years.

But no longer. I just don't trust Kape.

Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#12

Post by mirimir »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #10
v64 wrote: post #3

Former PIA user who recently just moved to Mullvad [1]. Very transparent about their operations and they don't require any information from you to open an account. You can even mail them cash or pay with cryptocurrency to avoid having your real identity financially linked to your subscription. [1] https://mullvad.net/en/

Their ios support isn’t great. I’m using ExpressVPN and while they cost more (as much as 3 times as these budget services) they so far seem to offer a fast product. You can also sign up with crypto currency if you want.

> You can also sign up with crypto currency if you want.

But can you renew with Bitcoin etc?

Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#13

Post by cbsks »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #10
v64 wrote: post #3

Former PIA user who recently just moved to Mullvad [1]. Very transparent about their operations and they don't require any information from you to open an account. You can even mail them cash or pay with cryptocurrency to avoid having your real identity financially linked to your subscription. [1] https://mullvad.net/en/

Their ios support isn’t great. I’m using ExpressVPN and while they cost more (as much as 3 times as these budget services) they so far seem to offer a fast product. You can also sign up with crypto currency if you want.

I use Mullvad with OpenVPN on iOS with no issues at all. What issues have you experienced?

Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#14

Post by beilabs »

Disappointed. I've been with PIA for a few years now and I always recommended them and loved their support. I just cancelled my annual subscription which was due to expire in 100 days. Vote with your wallet. Any recommendations for a new VPN provider?

Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#15

Post by rasengan »

juanbyrge wrote: post #8
rasengan wrote: post #4

This article and articles like this miscast Kape in an incorrect light. To be clear, in the past the company was known as CrossRider and provided a developer SDK that could be used to integrate with browsers. Unfortunately, CrossRider didn't do enough to prevent malware (like platforms these days and their fake news) and the platform was used by some bad people for bad purposes. When the new management team of CrossR…

Sure, nothing has changed yet. That's how it goes with acquisitions. But people (including myself) are more concerned about the future. At some point in the future there will pressure from within Kape to increase revenues. And at that point I don't want my browsing data to be sold to advertisers and marketing agencies.

The merger agreement includes a written guarantee to never log. I don't think there is any other VPN that has that, and I _know_ that many other VPNs will not sign that with us.

Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#16

Post by [deleted] »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #10
v64 wrote: post #3

Former PIA user who recently just moved to Mullvad [1]. Very transparent about their operations and they don't require any information from you to open an account. You can even mail them cash or pay with cryptocurrency to avoid having your real identity financially linked to your subscription. [1] https://mullvad.net/en/

Their ios support isn’t great. I’m using ExpressVPN and while they cost more (as much as 3 times as these budget services) they so far seem to offer a fast product. You can also sign up with crypto currency if you want.

[deleted]

Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#17

Post by rasengan »

mirimir wrote: post #11
rasengan wrote: post #4

This article and articles like this miscast Kape in an incorrect light. To be clear, in the past the company was known as CrossRider and provided a developer SDK that could be used to integrate with browsers. Unfortunately, CrossRider didn't do enough to prevent malware (like platforms these days and their fake news) and the platform was used by some bad people for bad purposes. When the new management team of CrossR…

I've recommended PIA for years. But no longer. I just don't trust Kape.

Thank you for your recommendations. We are working on and hope to go beyond the world of trust. We are now, the most transparent VPN as there are requirements to be transparent when you are a public company.

We don't want people to be stuck with having to blindly believe in and trust us like other VPNs.

Don't trust. Verify.

Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#18

Post by diminoten »

dvduval wrote: post #7

Just a general question about VPN services in general. When they advertise that they have hundreds of servers in a dozen or so countries, is it even possible to think that they are able to secure all of that themselves? Surely some State actor with enough know-how is going to be able to hack into some of the servers, right?

None of these 3rd party VPNs are really meant to be hardened against state sponsored attacks, at least I wouldn't think myself secure from that level of sophistication. They're basically most valuable to mess around against adversaries that have little to no access to security resources, like your average ISP or forum moderator.

Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#19

Post by hug »

dvduval wrote: post #7

Just a general question about VPN services in general. When they advertise that they have hundreds of servers in a dozen or so countries, is it even possible to think that they are able to secure all of that themselves? Surely some State actor with enough know-how is going to be able to hack into some of the servers, right?

If you're using a third-party VPN service as the single way in which you are protecting your privacy, you're already in such a sorry state that it doesn't matter whether or not your VPN provider is compromised.

If your threat model is such that you're concerned about TLAs or state-level actors targeting you, you're already in a world of hurt.

If you are under the mistaken belief that the VPN provider is anywhere near as conscious of your security as you are, you're already living a bit of a fantasy.

So the answer to your question is that it's not really possible to think that they're ultra-secure, but that ultra-security was never what they were selling.

Re: PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

#20

Post by liability »

rasengan wrote: post #15
juanbyrge wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, nothing has changed yet. That's how it goes with acquisitions. But people (including myself) are more concerned about the future. At some point in the future there will pressure from within Kape to increase revenues. And at that point I don't want my browsing data to be sold to advertisers and marketing agencies.

The merger agreement includes a written guarantee to never log. I don't think there is any other VPN that has that, and I _know_ that many other VPNs will not sign that with us.

The idea of suing a shell corp of an intelligence agency for breach of contract seems laughable.

Maybe they aren't that, but why should anybody without personal knowledge of the situation trust that they aren't? This is the sort of scenario where 'better safe than sorry' overrules giving the benifit of the doubt.

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