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PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy
- Akababa 7y agoPrevious thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21612488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21612488 Edit: Sorry, I meant prequel thread as they're related but not the same.
- ArcVRArthur 7y agoA quick ctrl-f returns 0 results for "8200", "Israel" while it returns 1 result for "adware". This article centres around the details pertaining to the company's operations in and around 2016 when it launched the Crossrider malware as well as the founder's former employment with Unit 8200 (Israel's IDF Signal Intelligence operations unit).
- v64 7y agoFormer PIA user who recently just moved to Mullvad [1]. Very transparent about their operations and they don't require any information from you to open an account. You can even mail them cash or pay with cryptocurrency to avoid having your real identity financially linked to your subscription. [1] https://mullvad.net/en/ https://mullvad.net/en/
- godzillabrennus 7y agoTheir ios support isn’t great. I’m using ExpressVPN and while they cost more (as much as 3 times as these budget services) they so far seem to offer a fast product. You can also sign up with crypto currency if you want.
- mirimir 7y ago> You can also sign up with crypto currency if you want. But can you renew with Bitcoin etc?
- extesy 7y agoThere is no difference between singing up and renewing. It's just a balance on some anonymous account number.
- mirimir 7y agoHave you tried it recently?
- nshepperd 7y agoYes.
- mirimir 7y agoI see no cryptocurrency option for renewal. https://keybase.pub/mirimir/ExpressVPN.png https://keybase.pub/mirimir/ExpressVPN.png
- cbsks 7y agoMullvad accepts Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, FYI.
- cbsks 7y agoI use Mullvad with OpenVPN on iOS with no issues at all. What issues have you experienced?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- RealStickman 7y agoYou could try it with the wireguard client for ios. Just download the config files from their site.
- dorian-graph 7y agoI've used Mullvad on iOS with OpenVPN and Wireguard with no issues.
- milofeynman 7y agoMullvad is who I decided on after this story came to light. I used that one privacy guys website Excel sheet comparison thing plus personal recommendations. https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ https://thatoneprivacysite.net/
- Krasnol 7y agoSeeing Mullvad being hyped all over since the NordVPN disaster, I predict they will be next.
- rndgermandude 7y agoNext to be what? Hacked? Taken over? Become evil?
- Krasnol 7y agoYes.
- rudiv 7y agoThey also support WireGuard, which is why I use them.
- thatswrong0 7y agoWow that onboarding process was slick. Why aren't sites always this easy to sign up for?!
- sneak 7y agoWhat is it that you believe that PIA is doing or is likely to do, that you believe this service is not/will not be doing?
- v64 7y agoGiven Kape's past history, I'm skeptical that PIA will be able to maintain their current levels of privacy regarding data mining and logging. I'm willing to give PIA the benefit of the doubt and accept that they believe they'll be able to do so, but as is the case in mergers like these, sometimes you simply lose that battle with your new corporate partner. My fear is that they end up doing the same level of shady activity as NordVPN [1] [2] or worse. The fact that Kape paid off PIA's $32.1m debt as part of the deal leads me to believe they'll be looking for more creative ways to monetize the service in the future. Since PIA was in debt, it doesn't sound like maintaining the current service as is would be profitable. Mullvad's policies and account creation process demonstrate an awareness and commitment to privacy as a number one priority. Yes, at the end of the day, none of us really knows what a VPN service is doing on the back end, but the fact that they have detailed public information about their operations, as well as additional privacy options such as paying with cash/crypto, is a good sign. Other little things, such as supporting WireGuard and running their own Bitcoin nodes instead of relying on third party services for crypto payments, are also good signs that their team has above average technical chops compared to other providers. [1] https://medium.com/@derek./how-is-nordvpn-unblocking-disney-6c51045dbc30 https://medium.com/@derek./how-is-nordvpn-unblocking-disney-... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692
- sneak 7y agoWhy 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 privacy of the connection they provide; they can't do anything whatsoever to stop (or even detect) governments from logging all of the data that comes into or out of their networks.
- redsummer 7y agoMullvad is controlled by Elad Yarom - ex-IDF
- eyeball 7y agoGave them a try for a month. Very easy to set up with WireGuard. One thing I liked about PIA’s app is the kill switch function that prevents internet connection if you’re not on the vpn. Does that happen by default when I have wireguard enabled? I use this in a place I don’t trust and need to make sure it doesn’t accidentally connect “raw”. Another nice PIA feature is the ability to check server speed. Any way to know which of mullvad’s servers is the best bet?
- MertsA 7y agoWith Mullvad there's the wireguard configuration generator that works with wg-quick and one of the options is to have it set up an iptables rule to make sure that if the wireguard tunnel goes down it won't leak untill you actually call wg-quick down mullvad-xyz.
- rasengan 7y agoThis 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 CrossRider took over, they immediately ceased to engage in the previous business and focused on the opposite due to the insights they gained watching nefarious developers abuse their platform. With the focus on security and privacy, they changed their name to Kape and further the new company will be called Private Internet as it will be purely focused on privacy. The merger between Kape and PIA affords PIA the resources needed to bring privacy to the mainstream. The company can now be decentrally owned by the people, and public reporting requirements are much stronger than those for private companies. Couple this with a new random audit program we are going to launch and its as transparent as it gets, and it's exactly the direction we at PIA want to go, where our users no longer need to just trust us, instead our actions are and will continue to be verified. Ultimately, the choice of VPN is yours, but transparency is verification and with most VPN companies being incredibly secretive about their operations, who is behind it, and where they are located, what they do with their funds, etc. I stand behind the move to bring more transparency to privacy. The company has always practiced sustainable karma - wherein we do what's best for the people/what people want, and that allows us to make a living doing what we love; that's not going to change. Sincerely, Andrew - Co Founder PIA
- juanbyrge 7y agoSure, nothing has changed yet. That's how it goes with acquisitions. But people (including myself) are more concerned about the future. At some point in the future there will pressure from within Kape to increase revenues. And at that point I don't want my browsing data to be sold to advertisers and marketing agencies.
- rasengan 7y agoThe 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.
- carty76ers 7y agoGeez... This is a worse outcome than even the cynicals predicted.
- dvduval 7y agoJust a general question about VPN services in general. When they advertise that they have hundreds of servers in a dozen or so countries, is it even possible to think that they are able to secure all of that themselves? Surely some State actor with enough know-how is going to be able to hack into some of the servers, right?
- diminoten 7y agoNone of these 3rd party VPNs are really meant to be hardened against state sponsored attacks, at least I wouldn't think myself secure from that level of sophistication. They're basically most valuable to mess around against adversaries that have little to no access to security resources, like your average ISP or forum moderator.
- hug 7y agoIf you're using a third-party VPN service as the single way in which you are protecting your privacy, you're already in such a sorry state that it doesn't matter whether or not your VPN provider is compromised. If your threat model is such that you're concerned about TLAs or state-level actors targeting you, you're already in a world of hurt. If you are under the mistaken belief that the VPN provider is anywhere near as conscious of your security as you are, you're already living a bit of a fantasy. So the answer to your question is that it's not really possible to think that they're ultra-secure, but that ultra-security was never what they were selling.
- closeparen 7y agoSecurity effort scales with number of servers only if you’re doing something deeply wrong (like not using configuration management).
- _joe 7y agoThat's only partially true. A big part of security is your relationship with the people providing you hosting. The compromises to nordvpn and others came from a rogue hosting company, for instance.
- 7y ago
- beilabs 7y agoDisappointed. 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?
- Phylter 7y agoI just did this and added the reason why. They very quickly emailed me a canned response to this issue. Apparently it's a big deal and lots of people are leaving.
- _joe 7y agoI did unsubscribe a couple weeks ago and got a canned response too, almost immediately. When your business is privacy and trust, any acquisition is problematic. Let alone an acquisition from a company with a similar track record.
- 4AoZqrH2fsk5UB 7y agoI've been using ProtonVPN for a while. Speeds are pretty solid, they have a "secure core", and they claim not to do any logging.
- arthurcolle 7y agoProtonVPN, I use them for email as well. They got in a bit of hot water for helping with the legal case for one of their users, but generally I like to think that if I'm not committing any crimes I'll be ok, come what may.
- icelancer 7y agoDo you have information on that? Quick searches didn't find much for me. Thanks.
- arthurcolle 7y agoHere are some useful posts: https://www.securityweek.com/protonmail-accused-voluntarily-helping-police-spy-users https://www.securityweek.com/protonmail-accused-voluntarily-... https://www.neowin.net/news/protonmail-confirms-it-helped-in-apophis-squad-member-arrest/ https://www.neowin.net/news/protonmail-confirms-it-helped-in... "Drug dealer post" with ProtonMail response: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/dd5dkk/warning_long_time_account_disabled_protonmail/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/dd5dkk/warning_... Search for "court order" on ProtonMail subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/search/?q=court%20order&restrict_sr=1 https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/search/?q=court%20order&...
- zigzaggy 7y agoWhether this is true or not isn’t really the point. The fact that it it’s even possible is a huge red flag for my use case / threat model. It’s relatively easy, not to mention cheap (less than $10 per month) to spin up a streisand (0) instance and protect myself that way. As long as I keep my traffic encrypted, I can keep most / all of the vultures away that I’m concerned about. Happy to walk anyone through it. Takes less than 30 minutes and it just works. Edited to add link. Second edit to change reference # typo. 0. https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand
- icelancer 7y agoThese approaches work (and I use one myself in addition to a group VPN) but remember, if you roll your own, you lose any/all plausible deniability for sure.
- zigzaggy 7y agoGood point, thank you. Because of my use case, this isn’t an issue. But I understand we all have different models and should act accordingly.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 7y agoVPNs have three purposes: 1. Encapsulate traffic on the way from your machine through the first few hops of your Internet connection. 2. Shield your identity from third parties trying to discover it, through technical or legal means. 3. Provide a bottomless pit for disposal of DMCA complaints and other nastygrams. Your solution covers only purpose 1, which is becoming increasingly irrelevant as almost everything uses HTTPS, and DNS-over-HTTPS and Encrypted SNI is coming.
- zigzaggy 7y agoI disagree with a couple of things. First of all, you missed one thing that is really one of my primary concerns. I hate the idea of my ISP working with other ad surveillance companies to track and sell MY data about mine and my family’s and friends’ online activities. Having a VPN stops that part of the surveillance machinery from working as intended. Combining that with pihole and other tools allows me to disrupt (at least a little bit) the business of the internet that I hate so much. Also, Tor and other tools (all part of the same solution above) address #2 to the degree I need it addressed. And I am currently not worried about #3, but with the decentralization of streaming services, it won’t be long now.
- dx87 7y agoThis could do without the clickbait title. "former Israeli spy" is obviously trying to make you think of something nefarious, even though there are no details besides where they worked. I was in an intel unit when I was in the military, and there's a lot of general IT people, managers, etc. It's deliberately deceptive to label anyone who has ever worked at an intel agency as a "spy".
- closeparen 7y agoYeah the whole corporate security community is full of ex spooks. Look at the backgrounds of the Fortune 500’s CISOs.
- mikeyouse 7y agoHis LinkedIn indicates that he was a developer in the unit that created the Student Virus... Spy has a broad definition but it probably fits for a SigInt developer in the Israeli military.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_8200 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_8200
- GuthL 7y agoThis Unit is litterally 10000 people, is the largest in the Israeli army and handles the vast majority of computer security things. So still does not say much.
- ronreiter 7y agoStuxnet was created by the NSA in a joint operation with 8200. And yes there are 50,000 ex-8200 alumni, so calling all of them spies is kind of absurd
- kuschku 7y agoCalling them spy may be wrong, but I certainly won't ever work with, or use technology made by people who worked for an intelligence agency. That's something over which I'd also terminate friendships. And many people have a similar mindset, so it's understandable to report this information, and make consumer choices based on it. That said, Israel should probably consider solutions like other countries with mandatory military service have, e.g. in Germany (until it stopped being mandatory) it was possible to avoid military service by spending the exact same time instead working in social services, e.g. hospitals, daycares, retirement homes, etc.
- rootw0rm 7y agohttps://riseup.net https://riseup.net please donate if you use it
- milofeynman 7y agoThis kind of seems like a national security concern, which the US government would want to block the acquisition. Given it's US company that has access to a ton on US traffic it's certainly reasonable that a state actor would want all that data.
- markdown 7y agoI'm not sure there's such a thing as a former Israeli spy. That being so, this may be a Mossad operation, in which case the US is powerless to do anything about it.
- epse 7y agoThat unit is part of the Israeli army, and Israel has conscription so inevitably a lot of people will end up there. Should none of them be trustworthy?
- skibop 7y agoAre israelis trustworthy?
- RealStickman 7y agoIs anybody trustworthy? Hell, that's why I avoid any five eyes vpns.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Jamwinner 7y agoI would like to rephrase a greyed out comment in a less inflamatory language: Is the current and recent government of Israel known for highly funded hacking operations (stuxnet), misinformation (palastine), or general shadyness (Bibi)? (Previous comment generalized to all isralis, presumably due to their military service requirement, but that does not honestly reflect on the individual citizen or resident. )
- voltagex_ 7y agoHow does this affect Freenode?
- joecool1029 7y agoLooks like they issued a statement: https://freenode.net/news/freenode-pia-changes https://freenode.net/news/freenode-pia-changes
- LaSombra 7y agoI've been very happy with Azire VPN.
- bransonf 7y agoFor anyone displaced from their VPN by this... Not mine, but another HN user made a tool to automatically create a VPN instance on your choice of cloud provider. https://github.com/trailofbits/algo https://github.com/trailofbits/algo
- codethief 7y agoAnd what good does setting up your own VPN instance do? Now people will be able to trace every single bit of your traffic back to your cloud instance and thus to you. The idea of signing up for a VPN provider like PIA or Mullvad is precisely that it's not a personal VPN and you get to hide among the masses / their other customers.
- SahAssar 7y agoThere are many different reasons to use a VPN. Some are legal, some are privacy-related and some are just getting access to sites that are otherwise blocked. I think your most common reason for using a VPN would be very different based on living in Russia, Sweden, USA and China.
- IceWreck 7y agoIt's not just PIA. Nord VPN, ProtonVPN, etc all have ties to or owned by shady companies. It you want real anonymity, use tor. If you want to change your internet access location, lease a VPS, and set up OpenVPN/Wireguard on it.
- Tenoke 7y agoWhy would you think your VPS provider is less likely to save network logs than e.g. Mullvad?
- jeltz 7y agoThere are also plenty of VPN companies not owned by shady companies, e.g. Mullvad and OVPN. Should you blindly trust them? No, but you can probably trust them much more than your VPS provider.
- afroboy 7y agoProtonVPN? i thought they are privetly owned.
- protonmail 7y agoThat's correct, ProtonVPN is not affiliated or related to any other company. ProtonVPN AG (Switzerland) is a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of Proton Technologies AG (Switzerland), which also develops ProtonMail. All of this is in public record at the Swiss commercial register: http://ge.ch/hrcintapp/externalCompanyReport.action?companyOfrcId13=CH-660-1995014-1&ofrcLanguage=4 http://ge.ch/hrcintapp/externalCompanyReport.action?companyO...
- commandersaki 7y agoOr if you need a quick solution: dsvpn.
- protonmail 7y agoThis is not correct as far as Proton is concerned and easily verifiable. ProtonVPN is 100% owned by Proton Technologies AG (Switzerland) which also develops ProtonMail and is not affiliated or owned by any other company. Information about Proton is all public and visible on the Swiss commercial register: http://ge.ch/hrcintapp/externalCompanyReport.action?companyOfrcId13=CH-660-1995014-1&ofrcLanguage=4 http://ge.ch/hrcintapp/externalCompanyReport.action?companyO... The investors of Proton Technologies AG are also public information, and they include FONGIT (a Swiss non-profit foundation supported by the Swiss government), CRV (private investment firm best known for their investments in Twitter, Zendesk, etc) and the European Union, who collectively have a minority interest. Actually, the European Commission doesn't have a financial stake as their funding is non-dilutive. Whether or not these entities are shady is a matter of opinion of course, but these are all well-known public entities. ProtonVPN was also extensively checked by Mozilla before they partnered with us last year, and they also checked into this, details here: https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2018/10/22/testing-new-ways-to-keep-you-safe-online/ https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2018/10/22/testing-n...
- guelo 7y agoWhat do people use these VPN services for? Is it mostly for pirating, or public wifi users, or people that don't want their ISPs to know what they're doing? It all seems like niche use cases.
- SXX 7y agoThis might be not the case in the US, but outside VPN is very often used for opposite. Half of legal video / music / etc streaming companies have content locked behind per-country limitations and licensing. So if you want to pay for content you'll often need to pretend that you're from US. For piracy it's cheaper to setup seedbox.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 7y agoI believe that that is still technically piracy.
- chupasaurus 7y agoTough question. Depends on EULA of a service and laws (both US/the target country and VPN's user) regulating the particular content type (for example the mandatory age rating for a film) and copyright. A close counterexample: the Japanese guitar manufacturer ESP was forced to stop selling worldwide and producing MX-250/MX-2 models which exactly copied the shape of Gibson's Explorers (court decision and an agreement IIRC), but anyone can still order one in their Custom Shop with the restrictions of making an order by sending a letter with order form and paying from inside of Japan as well as picking it up from the factory (no delivery services). All of that because they can still sell them in Japan and by client's specification.
- jonathanstrange 7y agoUnlocking geolocation-locked content.
- afroboy 7y agoIn third world countries it used by locals to bypass the ban on many websites.
- daenz 7y agoFWIW, if you want a VPN for protecting your traffic while you're out in the world, get a nice home router that provides VPN and dynamic dns support.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- czechdeveloper 7y agoI recently extended my subscription by 2 years, now I guess I can just toss it.
- BatZzZz 7y agoThis is such nonsense... The author ought to be sued for slandering. Crossrider/Kape acquired quite a few companies over the years. In fact, it went public in 2015 when it was profitable, and the money was going to be used for M&As. I know, because my own company was acquired by them. I know Koby, the first CEO. He is no more of a "spy" than any other Israeli who served in the army (now is the cue for anyone with a hidden racist agenda to respond). Army service in Israel is mandatory, and Koby did serve in the army intelligence about 20 years earlier. The majority of software companies in Israel have people who served in army intelligence when they were 19. They're not spies, they were teens, and by the time they were 21, they moved on with their lives. Not to mention the fact that Koby left his seat as ceo in 2016, along with many of the original team (myself included), and the company turned its business around and killed the developer platform that it created because it turned out other companies were using it sometimes to create malware. I really do hope someone gets the author of this piece for slandering. (Full disclosure: I haven't worked in the company since 2016, I havent owned any shares for a few years now, I hardly know anyone who works there anymore, and I have no inside knowledge of the company)
- jeltz 7y agoDid CrossRider have any other users than companies wishing to install adware, changing browser start pages and similar shady shit? Sure, it could theoretically be used for other things but had it any significant number of honest users? When I google CrossRider I virtually only get hits from various anti-malware companies, including Microsoft.
- inglor 7y agoI used crossrider at an earlier startup and migrated from it when I could stop supporting IE. It worked pretty well when it worked for cross browser extensions. Our product (TipRanks) brought financial accountability to the market and it was a paid product. Our business model was just plain SaaS. While I am no longer there I think it's a decent and mostly honest company
- jeltz 7y ago
- Tenoke 7y agoI've been trying to cancel/shorten my year subscription since this came out. This + hiring Mark Karpeles as CTO are a solid guarantee that my data isn't safe. Sadly, they just have a stock response to everyone emailing which is grating.
- godelski 7y agoI'd just like to quote the stock response that we are getting, because it is fairly ridiculous. > Thank you for contacting PIA Customer Support. > I would like to start off by stating that there are no changes to the service, policies or principles you have always loved, this includes our very strict no-logging policy. > The decision to join forces with Kape Technologies was not one that was taken lightly, and it was a decision that came on the back of extensive dialogue and due diligence by both the parties in the transaction, and I’d like to touch on some of that. > Private Internet Access always has, and always will, put privacy first. Privacy is a fundamental human right as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and one that our entire business has been built around. Our commitment to the privacy of our users, and the global population at large, is one thing we would never compromise on. Privacy is bigger than you and I, privacy is bigger than PIA and Kape. Privacy is an absolute necessity to protect and safeguard life for a substantial proportion of the world population. > At Private Internet Access, we want to continue fighting for privacy, against censorship and oppression and for human rights in general. We want to protect the next three billion people connected to the internet. We want to see world economies improve in line with people receiving unfettered access to information. We want to contribute to ensuring that people can engage, become empowered and educate those in their communities for a better global society for all. We believe in the power of people and we have hope, hope for the future. A global future in which we all have the same access, the same rights and the same opportunities. > And, in partnering with Kape Technologies, we believe that we will be better equipped to continue fighting for the digital liberties of today and tomorrow. Through lengthy conversation and mutual commitment, Kape Technologies and Private Internet Access have agreed to codify some guiding principles going forward. > These guiding principles can be found at http://investors.kape.com/about-us http://investors.kape.com/about-us and I also include an excerpt here: > 1. Zero Secrecy – openness as a guiding force – we believe that an organization cannot ensure privacy for others without being open and transparent itself. > 2. Zero Reliance – we remove the need for you to trust anyone with your personal data by ensuring no one has it, including ourselves. > 3. Zero Data – sanctity of personal data – we believe each individual owns his own data therefore we will never store or attempt to sell what does not belong to us. > 4. 100% Customer first – we believe that all decisions should be made with the end user in mind, while maintaining profit as well as building a sustainable balance between social, environmental and economic profit. > 5. Zero Theater – what you see is what you get, we tell it as it is and deliver on what we promise to achieve. > 6. Zero Tier – net neutrality – we believe that all connections and data should be treated equally and without manipulation. > 7. 100% Honesty – we will say it as we see it, straightforward and direct. > 8. Zero Sidelining – life purpose – this is not a passing phase, this is our mission and we are determined to stick to it and overcome any obstacles which comes our way. > Going forward, Private Internet Access and Kape Technologies will be bound by these eight guiding principles in absolutely everything that we do. We are not selling out, we have not come to a crossroads and decided to take an entirely different direction. We are growing. We are becoming stronger, and together we will continue fighting for a just world for you and I, and for those who come after us. > What we will do is use this opportunity to further our work to develop and promote better privacy and security tools, and further our commitment to and involvement in human rights and digital liberties as we continue to empower each other and those around us. > Our founder, Andrew Lee, has written a blog post explaining his decision to sell the company and how it impacts our mission going forward: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/11/bellum-omnium-contra-omnes-the-war-of-all-against-all/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/11/bellum-om... > Give us the time to prove to you that we remain as serious and committed to the cause now as we were before, and join us as we break down barriers and unite across borders. We have your back today as we have for every day since our inception and are confident that We will not let you down!! I'd also like to point out that in PIA's TOS they have no obligation to attempt to tell users of changes to the TOS or privacy. They expect us to watch for changes.
- sub7 7y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/PrivateInternetAccess/comments/dhha6o/piaservice/f8oabnl?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x https://www.reddit.com/r/PrivateInternetAccess/comments/dhha... Ha! After discovering that PIA runs a background process I posted that they were one evil change of ownership transaction away from fucking everyone. Looks like they were way ahead of me.
- RealStickman 7y agoI'd suggest anyone looking fo a new vpn to have a look at this site: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/#detailed-vpn-comparison https://thatoneprivacysite.net/#detailed-vpn-comparison It was recommended by privacytools.io in an article a few weeks ago as being one of the few sites that don't take money from vpn providers to list them.
- sytelus 7y agoIt occurs to me that you can buyout major top 20 productivity apps, browser plugins with just couple billion dollars, silently change Eula and have field day with personal data of large chunk of population. This is not a huge amount for governments.
- tcd 7y agoPIA also claimed they were going to release the code of their new Windows desktop client. They did not. They have not. They lied. They cannot be trusted.
- chippy 7y agoSeems to me that the "spy" was doing mandatory military service when he was 18 in the Intelligence part of the army? It seems common for many Israeli technically minded teens to go into that or similar wings rather than the more on the ground units. It was from 1995 to 1998 (that's 20 years ago now) before he was at University and is the first item in his work experience. And the length of the position is about the same as military service. I do not know his current age.
- inglor 7y agoYes, and CrossRider mostly did an SDK for cross-browser extensions. I used their product before they did ads and it worked pretty well. I stopped using them because I could stop supporting IE but they had a real product back then. Teddy Sagi is bad for other (gambling related) reasons - but he is just an investor...
- dlgtho 7y agoTeddy has sold most if not all of his shares in Playtech and other gambling related businesses[1]. Also calling every one who ever served in 8200 an Israeli spy is ridiculous. Military service is mandatory in Israel. Lots of kids serve in 8200 because they get assigned there for their affinity for math and computers. Most of them do menial Ops tasks, I interview them occasionally for junior positions. Here are some Israel startups founded by "spies": ICQ, CheckPoint, Wix ... [1] https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-sagi-bows-out-of-playtech-sells-remaining-shares-1001261885 https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-sagi-bows-out-of-playtech...
- cik 7y agoCan confirm. Israelis (for the most part) have mandatory service after high school. Joining the Modiin (Intelligence Unit) is great, it's akin to other high value units like Golani and 8888, but it's just a unit. My friend in Modiin is literally a report editor - not everyone in every unit does every thing. To answer your other question - Sagi is 48, and one of Israel's most successful technology investors.
- iddan 7y agoIt is worth mentioning a large portion of Israel talented IT youth is enlisted to intelligence technological units in IDF. So, every cyber company founded / hiring in Israel will almost always have people from those units. But, this is not such a big deal and definitely doesn't make them spies.
- rchaud 7y agoCorrect. It just makes them people that happen to have contacts with an especially competent spy agency.
- hellofunk 7y agoThis is the most disappointing news that affects me personally that I've received this week. It's getting harder and harder to find tech companies you can trust, it seems. Just when things seem good, there's always a surprise waiting eventually.
- sudoaza 7y agoIt was time to change VPNs anyway...
- harel 7y agoAs a side note, calling someone who served in 8200 a "Spy" is a bit of a stretch... Story might be legit, but the title is a bit baity.
- isuckatcoding 7y agoThank you for posting this. I just cancelled my subscription (didn’t really use it that often anyway tbh)
- aezakmi 7y ago>isreali spy dropped.
- dd36 7y agoDoes a spy ever really become a former spy? From the outside, this reads as destroying PIA by providing user data to intelligence community, at a minimum. Perhaps even a play to get historical data.
- golergka 7y ago> If that wasn’t enough, Crossrider’s Founder and first CEO Koby Menachemi, was part of Unit 8200 – something that can be called Israel’s NSA. About half of my coworkers in Israeli game development companies have served there. Some wrote custom linux kernel modules, most did very low-level QA work, and in general had more or less the same skillset and level as any other coworker. Of course, they probably worked close to Stuxnet developers, but calling a typical kid, just out of his mandatory military service, a "spy" paints this in a completely different light.
- Triiglav 7y agohttps://www.privacytools.io/providers/vpn/ https://www.privacytools.io/providers/vpn/ Looks like I'll be switching to Mullvad.
- Alfie81 7y agoPureVPN Sensational Cyber Monday Deal is here! Get a 5 years subscription to the world's most trusted VPN service. PureVPN: - 5 Devices - 5 Years USD $1.32/mo True peace of mind for at USD $1.32 a month. Source: https://www.purevpn.com/order https://www.purevpn.com/order Note: After you purchase, all needed information will be sent via email.
- iongoatb 7y agoI've relied on PIA for years and I'm 100% dropping them for good. They promise to never log, but that's clearly an empty promise. Their TOS says that they can change the terms at any time without notifying anyone. This new partnership with Kape is an intelligence operation with the 14 eyes. A spy never becomes a "former" spy. I love my country, but I love my rights as well, and I refuse to be surveilled illegally.
- Krasnol 7y agoIs 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?
- dorkinspace 7y agoI'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.
- Krasnol 7y agoI'm a regular reader of HN and Reddit and this is not working on Reddit and this would be the first time I see it working anywhere with such a voting system. You see it often enough here on topics where the overall "circlejerk" is strong and see relevant comments disappear at the bottom. If you consider how posts are being kept up on the frontpage here, I rather go for the sticky/mod action theory.
- rb666 7y agoJust stick with AirVPN, they rock!
- api 7y agoThe name of this VPN is now very appropriate... see Urban Dictionary.
- akayoshi1 7y agoSo it's pretty much the story of the first Iron Man movie, but with malware instead of weapons.
- jokowueu 7y ago300
- bluejay2387 7y agoUninstalled. 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.
- mygo 7y agoI’ve been using PIA for years. Chose them over others because they were more well known and larger, which to me meant they’d be less susceptible to having to enter into shady activity. I’m trusting them with my traffic, after all. This one doesn’t sit well with me, it feels like a betrayal of trust. They have to know that people who signed up to use their service wouldn’t be okay with something like this if it’s as shady as it sounds. Good thing it’s still cyber Monday, I think there might be a few VPN deals going around. Maybe it won’t hurt to to try my luck with one of those.
- yodono 7y agoAs a general rule I have trusted PIA for years and I now trust your judgement in choosing a partner. Seriously I've considered all alternatives, other companies don't say anything about themselves; who owns the other VPN companies? couldn't find any info. Service has been great, price has been right. and I appreciate the honesty. The fact that you are here responding means a lot; and more than I can say for other companies.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]