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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

#171

Post by jeltz »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #161
ActorNightly wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly want to agree with HN on this, but then Im reminded of the constant support for Apple on here, despite the fact that they have violated user trust on numerous occasions, while PIA has not. So I did some checking: * Teddy Sagi is a entrepreneur. To say that he is an ex spy is a gross misstatement. Yes, he worked as a developer in Israeli SIGINT program - so do a lot of developers who work for any number of…

I make no mention of Sagi's background, just his investment choices. Those alone are enough to question the wisdom of supporting any of the businesses with my actual money. Yes, let's have some honesty. He's invested in : Founding Playtech an online gambling outfit, a credit card clearing company for online gambling, Kape, Stucco Media - Search engine marketing, and several mobile advertising companies. Not a list ma…

Online gambling is not in any way built on eroding privacy. You are free to not like how the industry knowingly makes money of off addicts (no, no matter how much they say they care about responsible gambling they will not stop problem gamblers more than necessary to comply with the law), but in my opinion that is the only ethics problem online gambling has that most other industries do not also share.

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

#173

Post by probably_wrong »

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.

Serious question: what happens if they decide to start logging anyway?

For context: Facebook told the EU Commission they wouldn't link Facebook and WhatsApp accounts. Then they did it anyway. Sure, they got fined for it, but it's hard to believe that the fine was not factored in from the beginning.

So if they break that part of the agreement with PIA, then what? Is the merger canceled?

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

#174

Post by oefrha »

rasengan wrote: post #92
_joe wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Changing of ownership fundamentally resets the trust we all had in PIA, which was due to you having proven in court you deliver on what you declare. And in the VPN world, trust is fundamental. I am still surprised you didn't see this coming.

I think an increase in ownership base fundamentally makes it easier to trust an entity, especially in a public company setting where transparency is a must. Rather than trusting 1/1 owner of a company you just need to trust 1/n with significant control. The original PIA group will maintain significant control.

The problem with trusting 1/n is that my trust in you is compromised when you choose to associate with an unscrupulous party, so even that 1/n is no longer trustworthy.

(Long time PIA subscriber who cancelled over the news of acquisition.)

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

#175

Post by afroboy »

IceWreck wrote: post #73

It's not just PIA. Nord VPN, ProtonVPN, etc all have ties to or owned by shady companies. It you want real anonymity, use tor. If you want to change your internet access location, lease a VPS, and set up OpenVPN/Wireguard on it.

ProtonVPN? i thought they are privetly owned.

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

#176

Post by NeedMoreTea »

jeltz wrote: post #171
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I make no mention of Sagi's background, just his investment choices. Those alone are enough to question the wisdom of supporting any of the businesses with my actual money. Yes, let's have some honesty. He's invested in : Founding Playtech an online gambling outfit, a credit card clearing company for online gambling, Kape, Stucco Media - Search engine marketing, and several mobile advertising companies. Not a list ma…

Online gambling is not in any way built on eroding privacy. You are free to not like how the industry knowingly makes money of off addicts (no, no matter how much they say they care about responsible gambling they will not stop problem gamblers more than necessary to comply with the law), but in my opinion that is the only ethics problem online gambling has that most other industries do not also share.

Start here (from Simon Davies, the founder of Privacy International): http://www.privacysurgeon.org/blog/incision/how-the-online-g...

They are as bad as, and often indistinguishable from, the least salubrious corners of online advertising in their tracking and data gathering. Unfortunately their determination to keep feeding off addicts and keep tracking the whales is what has driven their data abuses. Responsible gambling is 99.9% greenwashing. :)

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

#177

Post by LegitShady »

rasengan wrote: post #108
v64 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given Kape's past history, I'm skeptical that PIA will be able to maintain their current levels of privacy regarding data mining and logging. I'm willing to give PIA the benefit of the doubt and accept that they believe they'll be able to do so, but as is the case in mergers like these, sometimes you simply lose that battle with your new corporate partner. My fear is that they end up doing the same level of shady act…

> Since PIA was in debt, it doesn't sound like maintaining the current service as is would be profitable. Private Internet Access is very profitable [1] and our new partner’s action of merging with PIA speaks louder than words whether privacy is important to them. [1] https://investors.kape.com/~/media/Files/K/Kape-IR/reports-a... (Slide 5)

sorry I dont click pdfs from companies I dont trust.

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

#178

Post by chupasaurus »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #126
SXX wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be not the case in the US, but outside VPN is very often used for opposite. Half of legal video / music / etc streaming companies have content locked behind per-country limitations and licensing. So if you want to pay for content you'll often need to pretend that you're from US. For piracy it's cheaper to setup seedbox.

I believe that that is still technically piracy.

Tough question. Depends on EULA of a service and laws (both US/the target country and VPN's user) regulating the particular content type (for example the mandatory age rating for a film) and copyright.

A close counterexample: the Japanese guitar manufacturer ESP was forced to stop selling worldwide and producing MX-250/MX-2 models which exactly copied the shape of Gibson's Explorers (court decision and an agreement IIRC), but anyone can still order one in their Custom Shop with the restrictions of making an order by sending a letter with order form and paying from inside of Japan as well as picking it up from the factory (no delivery services). All of that because they can still sell them in Japan and by client's specification.

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

#179

Post by chippy »

Seems to me that the "spy" was doing mandatory military service when he was 18 in the Intelligence part of the army? It seems common for many Israeli technically minded teens to go into that or similar wings rather than the more on the ground units.

It was from 1995 to 1998 (that's 20 years ago now) before he was at University and is the first item in his work experience. And the length of the position is about the same as military service. I do not know his current age.

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

#180

Post by jrockway »

Tenoke wrote: post #133
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…

>The merger between Kape and PIA affords PIA the resources needed to bring privacy to the mainstream. You were one of the most, if not the most successful VPN provider for years. Did you really need more resources? For what? The main benefit of PIA is the expectation for extra privacy. No matter how you look at it, selling to Kape is a strong signal that's not a priority. Similar, for hiring Karpeles to do your secur…

> You were one of the most, if not the most successful VPN provider for years. Did you really need more resources? For what?

I don't know if you watch Twitch or YouTube but it seems that every streamer and video is sponsored by NordVPN. I feel like with that kind of advertising budget, it's going to be harder for companies that don't advertise as much.

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