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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)

#61

Post by sporkxrocket »

gruez wrote: post #56
octo888 wrote: 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…

>Teddy Sagi had connections with the Israeli military intelligence sphere Does this mean much given that israel has mandatory military service? Unlike in the US where you have to make a conscious choice (eg. patriotism or desperation) to join the CIA/NSA/military, that's not really the case in israel. "has ties to unit 8200" might as well mean "has ties to stanford/MIT/caltech" or "has ties to big tech".

Unit 8200 is a cyberwarfare and spy unit. They were responsible for the Lebanon pager supply chain terror attack. I definitely want to know if they are involved with any tech I'm using so I can avoid it.

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

#62

Post by tredre3 »

mr_mitm wrote: post #31
VonGuard wrote: post #6

Been saying it for YEARS: 95% of VPNs sell your data. It's where they make their money. It's absolutely insane the push-back I get when I say this online. I get downvoted to hell and back. Source: I bought this data from VPN companies... Hell, you can inject ads and surveys if you want!

How does that work with HTTPS being practically ubiquitous?

I reckon that if HTTPS was sufficient to hide your online activity, then you wouldn't need a VPN to hide it in the first place.

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

#64

Post by IggleSniggle »

octo888 wrote: post #27
justapassenger wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With TLS being everywhere, and just few clicks away from having DNS over TLS, I really don't get eavesdropping on public wifi prop value.

TLS doesn't hide which websites (hostnames) you visit

It does if you do DNS over TLS or HTTPS, although I guess that information would still be knowable to your DNS provider if they terminate your TLS behind the scenes

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

#65

Post by pfexec »

octo888 wrote: 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…

[flagged]

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

#66

Post by pfexec »

sporkxrocket wrote: post #61
gruez wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Teddy Sagi had connections with the Israeli military intelligence sphere Does this mean much given that israel has mandatory military service? Unlike in the US where you have to make a conscious choice (eg. patriotism or desperation) to join the CIA/NSA/military, that's not really the case in israel. "has ties to unit 8200" might as well mean "has ties to stanford/MIT/caltech" or "has ties to big tech".

Unit 8200 is a cyberwarfare and spy unit. They were responsible for the Lebanon pager supply chain terror attack. I definitely want to know if they are involved with any tech I'm using so I can avoid it.

> I definitely want to know if they are involved with any tech I'm using so I can avoid it

Are you going to stop using Linux because the NSA is a major code contributor?

Huawei is too, and they were founded by a guy from the PLA.

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

#68

Post by anonym29 »

retube wrote: post #58
gambiting wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3. Avoiding government-mandated record keeping by ISPs in a country like the UK, where all ISPs have to keep a year of your browsing history and it can be accessed warrant free by 17 different agencies(including DEFRA, the agriculture agency). And yes, I'm aware that you're most likely trading one surveilence for another - but honestly at this point I'd much rather trust my paid VPN provider with my browsing data tha…

> but honestly at this point I'd much rather trust my paid VPN provider with my browsing data than my ISP and ultimately the government. Your ISP will need to comply with local laws and regulations, and you'll have some recourse if broken. A third-party VPN operating in an overseas jurisdiction could be doing anything with your data.

Unless it's selling the data back to my own government, I'd rather a foreign commercial VPN provider have that information rather than my own domestic ISP or my own domestic government.

My government can do parallel construction, can send teams of armed gunmen to my house, and otherwise find far more methods to persecute me than the intelligence services of Russia or China can.

Being innocent of any kind of crime does not necessarily remove one from the crosshairs of law enforcement organizations, particularly the FBI, who have an extensive, well-documented history of violating citizens' constitutional rights, conducting partisan witch hunts against political opponents, being a lawless menace to civil rights activists, anti-war activists, gay rights activists, both pro-abortion and anti-abortion activists, and is probably busy right now planning on being a menace to trans inclusivity activists.

There is no such thing as a friendly government, but I'd much rather have my data in the hands of a government 10,000 miles away than in the hands of my own government. My own government hunts, injures, stalks, harasses, socially ostracizes, and even kills my fellow citizens far more than any foreign government ever has.

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

#69

Post by jasonvorhe »

pfexec wrote: post #66
sporkxrocket wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unit 8200 is a cyberwarfare and spy unit. They were responsible for the Lebanon pager supply chain terror attack. I definitely want to know if they are involved with any tech I'm using so I can avoid it.

> I definitely want to know if they are involved with any tech I'm using so I can avoid it Are you going to stop using Linux because the NSA is a major code contributor? Huawei is too, and they were founded by a guy from the PLA.

this is not a helpful argument. this isn't about not using Israeli OSS software but services that feed data into the surveillance grid of quasi rogue state.

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

#70

Post by sobelabwhaman »

pfexec wrote: post #66
sporkxrocket wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unit 8200 is a cyberwarfare and spy unit. They were responsible for the Lebanon pager supply chain terror attack. I definitely want to know if they are involved with any tech I'm using so I can avoid it.

> I definitely want to know if they are involved with any tech I'm using so I can avoid it Are you going to stop using Linux because the NSA is a major code contributor? Huawei is too, and they were founded by a guy from the PLA.

Linux is not operated by NSA and is open for inspection. Can you say the same about VPN services in question?

It would be naive to think Huawei is isn’t influenced by CCP, specially if it is found, by presumably someone from PLA intelligence unit by your suggestion.

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