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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

#161

Post by NeedMoreTea »

ActorNightly wrote: post #129
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trust and ethics are important. A company that is identified as using questionable ethics in business, for an extended period, is not automatically "reset to neutral" by airdropping in a new management team and a rebrand. Honestly? That sounds more like a move to bury the bad news, which has a long and effective history, just as the day a story goes public does - The Friday News Dump, Thanksgiving News Dump, etc. So,…

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 many would associate with either ethics or privacy. Not a list I want to give money to or see succeed. All businesses built on erosion of privacy. Colour me unconvinced seeing a privacy oriented company joining that particular stable.

CrossRider was nothing like you imply. It was a BHO platform that injected a dll into the browser to allow easier peddling of malware and adware. Why not mention adware? Let's ignore the malware smokescreen you're trying to launch, with them as innocent victim. A platform putting injected adware on my fucking computer is more than enough. Every anti virus and anti malware platform I'm aware of identified CrossRider as a problem, or flagged its shite as "unwanted program".

Not liking that they now have a plan b that is not in an injected adware platform is not "a conspiracy theory". It's simple track record. Given what their first plan did, and how, it'll take considerable effort over considerable time for me to even consider them neutral. They may never reach neutral or "trustworthy" again.

No all his other ventures aren't in advertising. They are in advertising and gambling - funny you don't mention gambling - that, for me, is more than enough for choosing a business to rely on for trust and privacy. I don't want to support those sectors. I don't actually want them to exist. I don't actually trust anyone in the SEO, advertising or gambling industries at all, from Google and Ladbrokes down. As they keep doing the opposite of the ethical thing, consistently and repeatedly.

If PIA, who have built a decent and (as far as I can see) well deserved reputation, want to hitch their future to that. Well it's their disappointing free choice. My money goes elsewhere.

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

#162

Post by Tenoke »

rasengan wrote: post #154
Tenoke wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

> Did you really need more resources? For what? Yes, to bring freedom thru privacy to people, The coming battle against privacy and free speech is by far the strongest and worst yet; the narrative and our voices are quickly getting quashed. Without the ability to communicate privately and speak freely, at best democracy is at risk; and at worst, humanity, or what it has meant to be human until now, itself may be at r…

>Yes, to bring freedom thru privacy to people, The coming battle against privacy and free speech is by far the strongest and worst yet; the narrative and our voices are quickly getting quashed.

>Without the ability to communicate privately and speak freely, at best democracy is at risk; and at worst, humanity, or what it has meant to be human until now, itself may be at risk.

>Divided we are not stronger

I was hoping for a real response, rather than the same empty marketing speak.

Of course, the real response is likely 'I wanted to cash out', so I understand why you can't deliver something more convincing.

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

#163

Post by nvarsj »

beilabs wrote: post #14

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?

Ugh, this sucks. I've used PIA for ages as well. Their infrastructure is really great too - I get better latency on PIA than my own ISP sometimes!

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

#164

Post by richardARPANET »

NickHoff wrote: post #64
beilabs wrote: post #14

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?

Me too. I cancelled my subscription about a week ago when I first heard of it (and I explained why on their cancellation form). I'm looking at Mullvad and NordVPN. I know Nord had a MITM attack on a Finnish datacenter a few months ago and didn't immediately notify affected users. I'm having trouble understanding what it says about Nord's culture and likely behavior in the future. On a technical level, it's pretty bad…

Using NordVPN is never a smart idea. Same goes for using a VPN linked to a US company, unfortunately. Use Mullvad or https://www.ipredator.se/

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

#165

Post by sumedh »

rasengan wrote: post #154
Tenoke wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

> Did you really need more resources? For what? Yes, to bring freedom thru privacy to people, The coming battle against privacy and free speech is by far the strongest and worst yet; the narrative and our voices are quickly getting quashed. Without the ability to communicate privately and speak freely, at best democracy is at risk; and at worst, humanity, or what it has meant to be human until now, itself may be at r…

So what exactly is the gameplan, how are you going to change the world by selling your stake?

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

#166

Post by wiether »

beilabs wrote: post #14

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?

Since the previous HN post last weekend I cancelled my PIA subscription and went to Mullvad. So far so good.

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

#167

Post by LegitShady »

vorticalbox wrote: post #102
beilabs wrote: post #14

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?

Recently started using windscribe and found it extremely good. https://windscribe.com/?friend=qoeb14pf

I bet there are rules against referral links

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

#168

Post by tcd »

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…

Yet PIA has LIED about making their desktop source code public.

Where's the link to the GitHub repo?

You are proven liars.

(Thanks for the flag, doesn't change the facts, prove me wrong ;) )

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

#170

Post by newman314 »

rasengan wrote: post #46
mirimir wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I do my best to hedge relying on trust. But Kape is just way too beyond the pale. Perhaps it's unfair, but the association with Israeli intelligence, and so indirectly with NGO Group and the NSA, is just too much.

In the security and cryptography community I think you'd be hard pressed to find people without similar backgrounds. I think being exposed to how insecure the world is and to what levels drives people to secure the world and empowers people to provide privacy and security to people. Some people whistleblow, while others develop software, and many lecture and teach people.

What I'd like to know is why for the L2TP setup with PIA, the PSK is the same for all customers.
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