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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

#321

Post by magduf »

F147H34D wrote: post #230
Tenoke wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually subscribed to PIA before realising this, too. It's weird nobody else is even mentioning it in these threads - trusting a proven fraud like Karpeles for your privacy and security needs is a bit insane if you have other alternatives.

I didn't know that either. Here's a couple quotes from an article about how Mark ran MtGox: > Beneath it all, some say, Mt. Gox was a disaster in waiting. ... A Tokyo-based software developer [says it] didn’t use any type of version control software [and] he says there was only one person who could approve changes to the site’s source code: Mark Karpeles. ... “The source code was a complete mess,” says one insider. >…

>didn’t use any type of version control software

What kind of incompetent fool doesn't use version control in this day and age?

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

#322

Post by MertsA »

mirimir wrote: post #140
rasengan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Did you ask AirVPN and IVPN? https://airvpn.org/faq/logs/ https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/891-important-notice-about-s... https://www.ivpn.net/privacy

Don't forget Mullvad.

https://mullvad.net/en/help/no-logging-data-policy/

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

#323

Post by mynameisvlad »

gruez wrote: post #296
harshreality wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's an idea or two. Wireguard. Stop sitting on your hands complaining about how wireguard isn't mature, and support it with the generic native apps (now there's even a (beta) windows client). The network address selection issue requires engineering effort, but wireguard itself is most likely not going to address that soon, because it's designed to be a minimal vpn codebase, so why don't you engineer a solution you…

>Explicit stock OpenVPN support. You kind of do this, but it's still difficult or off-putting for non-technical users to figure out which config to grab and how to install the stock client. On your setup page, make sure you're providing a link to the stock (windows) openvpn client and install instructions for Mac and major linux distros, so that people who don't trust your binary blob installer can use the generic on…

> I'm going to go on a limb and say that the intersection between "people who don't trust the stock client" and "people who don't know about the stock openvpn client and how to set it up" is very small.

I would say the overlap is actually quite big between that. People who don't trust the PIA client would be the ones who know or are able to find alternatives. It's just that the former group is insanely small as is.

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

#324

Post by mynameisvlad »

magduf wrote: post #320
jeltz wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mullvad on the other hand does not log anything at all (other than their Stripe payments where they try to keep data minimal). Is that in violation of the Swedish law? Maybe, but as long as one of the medium sized ISPs, Bahnhof, is still fighting the law in court I cannot foresee any court cases against small fry like Mullvad or any of the other Swedish VPN providers.

>but as long as one of the medium sized ISPs, Bahnhof An ISP named themselves "train station"?

Sure, there's also a city in Croatia (Pula) which means "dick" in Romanian. People don't usually verify what their brand means in other countries, especially if they have no desire to expand to said country.

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

#325

Post by bluejay2387 »

Uninstalled. Sub cancelled. They had to know there would be a massive backlash from this? I can see why the PIA execs wouldn't care -- they would get their payout from the sell regardless. But Kape either is oblivious or doesn't care if a non-trivial percentage of their customer base drops them. I am not sure which option worries me more?

Now I have to spend the next week researching VPN providers.

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

#326

Post by sneak »

v64 wrote: post #104
sneak wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you have the belief that the government in the country that the VPN provider is operating is not logging everything that goes into or out of the provider (with or without the provider's knowledge)? It seems pretty plain to me; Mullvad's website even has the relevant section on Swedish legislation that requires it for national defense. I just don't see how trust in a provider has any bearing whatsoever on the p…

Using a VPN is only one piece of maintaining privacy online. It doesn't eliminate the need for end-to-end encryption when dealing with material you wouldn't want third parties to have access to.

A VPN doesn’t maintain any privacy, all it does is switch which set of snoops are monitoring your traffic.

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

#327

Post by mirimir »

MertsA wrote: post #322
mirimir wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you ask AirVPN and IVPN? https://airvpn.org/faq/logs/ https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/891-important-notice-about-s... https://www.ivpn.net/privacy

Don't forget Mullvad. https://mullvad.net/en/help/no-logging-data-policy/

Thanks, sorry.

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

#328

Post by mirimir »

mijoharas wrote: post #235
mirimir wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I actually wouldn't trust anyone with that. But Amazon, less so. Because they're totally profit driven. And wouldn't think twice before pwning me. I want to remain pseudonymous. Basically so I don't need to worry about damaging my meatspace reputation. And what would be the point of going to all that trouble, if I were going to compromise myself?

Sorry, I just realised my question was super ambiguous as to which part of your post I was asking "Why" to. I was specifically asking why you go to such large efforts to obscure your identity. You've answered that, but it definitely seems a lot of effort to go to.

It's also, frankly, a hobby.

And an expression of my commitment to privacy, freedom, etc.

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

#329

Post by mirimir »

tripzilch wrote: post #229
mirimir wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see no cryptocurrency option for renewal. https://keybase.pub/mirimir/ExpressVPN.png

I believe there's been a bit of confusion, and they were talking about Mullvad.

Ah. Thanks.

But I do recall, in the past, renewing ExpressVPN with Bitcoin.

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

#330

Post by dorkinspace »

Krasnol wrote: post #265

Is there some sticky mechanism going on here or how is that raengan comment so far on top even with all those comments disagreeing with the content of it?

I'm just a casual HN reader, but my understand is that the up vote button is not to be used as an "I agree" button but rather as a "This is relevant to the conversation" button. That being said, as the comment is by a cofounder of PIA, it is extremely relevant regardless of opinion about this situation.
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