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Regardless of how you feel about _why_ PIA sponsor the organisations they do, it is surprising to see someone claiming they "perhaps put [their money] to better
by abstractbeliefs 9y ago
Regardless of how you feel about _why_ PIA sponsor the organisations they do, it is surprising to see someone claiming they "perhaps put [their money] to better use" given their record of supporting foss and digital/online rights [1].
Additionally, the characterization as being extremely focused on the tech illiterate I feel isn't really the case either, they have lots of docs about how to use OpenVPN [2].
Thirdly, while there's no online free trial, at DEFCON and other events they do liberally hand out free trial cards.
The above points, as well as reading the commentary, leads me to believe that the author hasn't spent much time at all using or understanding the various product offerings, and the written review and star-score seem to clash with the high feature based score listed above. I can't speak at all for the other providers, but I don't feel like PIA at least has been well researched.
[1] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/companies-we-sponsor https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/companies-we-spo...
[2] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/client-support/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/client-support/
As full disclosure, I'm a unpaid volunteer for a non-profit PIA has contributed to.
I have used in the past, but do not currently use, PIA VPN.
- mbrookes 9y ago"As a disclaimer" (disclosure).
- abstractbeliefs 9y agoThanks, I've updated accordingly. It's getting late here in the UK!
- mobitar 9y agoPIA actually scores as one of the highest on the objective measures. The star count is just a subjective impression and experience with getting it set up. They connect over HTTP on startup instead of HTTPS (which is unacceptable for a privacy company). They then ping almost a hundred servers on startup (no other app does this, at least not to this extent).
- dawnerd 9y agoDon't use their app then. In fact, I can't think of a reason why I'd install any vpns app if they support openvpn.
- wlesieutre 9y agoIt gets you an "automatic" option for which endpoint to use, other than that I can't think of anything.
- rovr138 9y agoSome people like the kill switch. I just think remote port is easier to setup. I sometimes use the app. Mainly use the builtin client of the OS.
- closeparen 9y agoBecause Tunnelblick isn't the greatest UX?
- hendersoon 9y agoTheir app has all of their various points of presence pre-populated. If you use your favorite OpenVPN program to connect you would need to get a couple dozen configs imported. It also tries to find the fastest connection for you, which is useful when traveling.
- bpicolo 9y agoThat stock photo of kids on bikes on their homepage feels so out of place hah
- mirimir 9y agoThey're going for Mom, apple pie and so on :)
- sp00ls 9y agoWhich is so strange because in in the technical category they're one of the best. Shopping for a VPN provider 2 years ago I almost passed them right by due to how the site looks. So glad I dug a little deeper and eventually chose them because the service 'just works' and 2 years later I don't have a single complaint.
- laumars 9y agoThere was one VPN provider he just rated 1 star and refused to use because the home page didn't feel modern enough. At that point I mentally rated the article 1 star and refused to take its contents seriously.
- JohnStrange 9y agoI don't know, the criticism in the list is certainly irrelevant, but as far as I can see PIA is a US company and I believe it is kind of absurd to nowadays trust any US or UK company about privacy-related matters. The UK has become one of the worst countries in the world regarding privacy due to the Investigatory Powers Act, but the US also doesn't have a good reputation in this regard. A simple Google search also reveals various user complaints that PIA apparently uses a Ruby (!) script to constantly write an extensive local log of all web activities, and the option is switched on by default. That's not inspiring my confidence. Their pricing is great, though. The problem I have with VPNs in general is that quite a sizable number of them look as if they had been set up by dubious entities solely to collect data on their customers. Especially the ones with competitive pricing. I would rather trust some of the more expensive ones from e.g. Sweden.
- bogomipz 9y agoI agree, I am not sure why you would use PIA. From their TOS: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/terms-of-service/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/terms-of-service... "Failure to comply with the present Terms of Service constitutes a material breach of the Agreement, and may result in one or more of these following actions: ... Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as deemed reasonably necessary.[1] [1] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/terms-of-service/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/terms-of-service...
- BrandoElFollito 9y agoPossibly because PIA is a US company and therefore someone in Europe does not care? For someone in, say, Germany a German VPN would be way more worrisome because of the same jurisdiction.