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Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

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Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you control the geography of the exit node? I really like Private Relay but it doesn't get around geo restrictions because the IP is still in the same country you are.

Yes, you can with Obscura. That limitation of Private Relay is just an arbitrary limitation made by Apple.

And so by design.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSL certificates have a centralized hierarchy. Many browsers trust a long list of root certificate authorities from multiple countries. https://cyberscoop.com/russia-tls-security-certificate-autho... https://jpgamboa.com/china-ssl-authority-revoked-by-browsers...

Do some countries force the browser companies to add their root cert, despite abuse?

There are always rumours. And some countries simply openly require computers sold in their country to have their root cert.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget ProtonVPN links to Tesonet, which they're trying hard to "debunk" (though no clue why, I have nothing against Tesonet). They only shared employees and accidentally signed apps with the same certificates, but are "totally unrelated". Their PR people are already on this thread. If they didn't try so hard to fight it, people might care less.

Back when I was running PIA, they threatened me a significant amount just for pointing these facts out. Now that I launched a verifiable VPN, they are once again sending legal threats [1]. [1] https://vp.net/l/en-US/blog/Verified-Privacy-vs-Trust

Freenode, never forget.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#274

If you’re worried about your VPN provider but you can trust your VPS provider, try an SSH Tunnel. https://joeldare.com/ssh-tunnels-my-vpn-alternative-for-priv...

I like to use dsvpn: https://github.com/jedisct1/dsvpn

Seems to have triggered the netsec community on reddit though.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#275

We should really be moving towards a world of Multi-Party Relays rather than Single-Party VPN operators: https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2024/11/17/where-are-... With Multi-Party Relays you no longer have a trust a single entity not being malicious or compromised. Disclaimer: I run obscura.net, which does exactly this with Mullvad (our partner) as the Exit Hop.

Hey Carl! This is the first I'm hearing of Obscura. After doing a deep dive into your product, it looks to be a very fascinating privacy tool. However, I'm concerned with your operating under US jurisdiction, as detailed by others here:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/20059-obscura-vpn-and-mullv...

While I understand potentially not wanting to incorporate in the EU (with Chat Control on the horizon) nor Switzerland (due to their own non-EU-related privacy backslide), why still select the US, which historically other privacy tools have largely avoided? It feels like you're already shooting yourself in the foot, whereas you'd be good in the EU should Chat Control not pass. While it's great that you verifiably can't see a user's internet traffic, you're one US court order away from a forced compromising of the service for a user (or at least, giving up the connecting IP). Historically, EU court orders have been easier and more transparently fought by privacy tools.

Non sequitur, it would be great if you prioritized accepting Monero as payment, like your exit hop Mullvad. Also, how much control do we have over the features Mullvad offers (e.g. DAITA, quantum resistance, DNS filters, IPv6, integration with Mullvad Browser)?

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes perfect cover though? "He was only a conscript changing printer cartridges"

People who don't live in countries with mandatory conscription for all don't really understand: everyone is connected to the military but it means nothing. Judging an Israeli citizen on their IDF ties is like judging a US citizen on the fact that they went to public school.

It doesn't matter if it's accurate or not, such judgements are made by most people every day. Someone who was professionally formed somewhere has a higher probability of ties to them later on. Being intelligence services this might be even more true.

In today's political climate where people around the world see Israel judging (and sentencing, and carrying out the punishment) every Palestinian as terrorists, I think this wide brush of judging Israelis on their ties with the IDF is probably widely accepted as "only fair". When it comes to Unit 8200 the implications are even stronger.

But I don't get the US public school system reference. You have to start with a baseline and if you see a private Ivy League school on someone's CV and a random public school on someone else's I'm sure you'll probably make the obvious assumption about which one is better, even if sometimes the obvious is wrong.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#277
post #19

Are we allowed to discuss (edit: if it's not too political?) if Kape Technologies has any connections to Israeli security services, given the nature of VPNs and given the amount of data that can be trivially collected, and: "Being from Israel, Teddy Sagi had connections with the Israeli military intelligence sphere and was able to procure himself a real-life cyber spy [his co-founder] from the famed Unit 8200 (kinda…

Just cancelled my Cyberghost subscription for exactly this reason.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget ProtonVPN links to Tesonet, which they're trying hard to "debunk" (though no clue why, I have nothing against Tesonet). They only shared employees and accidentally signed apps with the same certificates, but are "totally unrelated". Their PR people are already on this thread. If they didn't try so hard to fight it, people might care less.

Back when I was running PIA, they threatened me a significant amount just for pointing these facts out. Now that I launched a verifiable VPN, they are once again sending legal threats [1]. [1] https://vp.net/l/en-US/blog/Verified-Privacy-vs-Trust

what makes your vpn verifiable? can i verify you run specific oss on your servers? secure enclave is just management's idea of implementing crypto. everyone out here knows that it is highly flawed and intel with their management engine bullshit can't be trusted at all.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tesonet initially assisted Proton with HR, payroll, and local regulation Entirely normal behaviour for a competitor to provide “HR assistance”.

I've been part of a European startup that added offices in Asia and the US, and we initially always partnered with local companies to do this. It's mutually beneficial. It allowed us to grow more quickly, and it allowed them to make relatively easy money (and, in our case, to dump some of their shittier employees on us without us knowing). In Proton's case, they already knew each other because Tesonet had previously…

You know an awful lot of detail about the inner workings of two separate private companies though.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#280
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany (and probably in the UK too), you now have to be very careful about what you write online. There is actually a section 188 that makes insulting, defaming, or slandering people in political life a criminal offense. You can now face heavy fines for minor insults (“idiot”) or even have your home searched. A VPN can be useful here.

If anyone wants some background info on the "idiot" comment: A Bavarian man captioned an image of Robert Habeck (the vice chancellor of Germany at the time) with "Schwachkopf Professional" - "Professional Idiot". It was styled after the Schwarzkopf ad campaign. For this, Habeck filed a criminal complaint "to stop hate crime" against the man and the man's apartment was searched by the police and a tablet confiscated.…

> Imagine if you could be arrested for calling your (vice) president an idiot.

You must not set foot in the USA, India, China, et cetera, then.

Imagine you say? Getting arrested might be the least of your worries in today's world if you decide to call a president (or the immediate underling) an idiot in many countries :D

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