PIA Acquisition by Kape Technologies

[kn1ghtnsh1narmr]

7 minutes ago, amdorintel said:

well you either do the research or you pick another vpn

you dont have to explain anything to no one

 

be interesting to hear about what the problems with tb and nord were.

 

TunnelBear got bought by McAfee which no one trusts. 

 

Nord has had countless problems over a small period of time.

Nov 2019

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/11/nordvpn-users-passwords-exposed-in-mass-credential-stuffing-attacks/

Sept 2018

https://www.extremetech.com/internet/276717-security-holes-discovered-in-two-popular-vpn-services

and there have been others.  

[amdorintel]

i bet a lot moved over to pia when linus endorsed pia to make more money for his channels

it would be interesting to see how many actually moved over to pia

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

Damn, and my sticking to ProtonVPN seems to be a smarter and smarter decision.

 

A great rule to follow; unless it is 100% FOSS, and has been reviewed and audited, you should view advertised services with extreme skepticism.

[Tonks]

I am SO glad I paid montly!

I only found out about this because I was looking into why I couldn't access bbc.co.uk with PIA, and was considering quiting over them, allegedly *ding*, giving up on BBC & Netflix access, then I noticed this slow-motion car crash of a fiasco!

I really hope LTT gets on top of this!

PS. Less well known is that PIA also sponsors an alt-right Mastodon fork called Gab, and it's been bugging me that they do...

[novideo]

crap

[Rob Rhubarb]

It gets even worse. The founder of Kape Technologies, Koby Menachemi, is a former member of Unit 8200 (an Israeli Intelligence Corps unit). And Kape's majority shareholder, Teddy Sagi, is among the 50 wealthiest people in Britain.

 

So we have here...
- A company which became infamous for malware
- A founder from a military secret service
- A financier from the money aristocracy

 

PIA was one of the best renowned VPN provider, but now it turns into a privacy nightmare. The people to whom we should now entrust our data are actually the very people we use VPN for.

 

Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/06/09/from-israel-unit-8200-to-ad-men/
https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2019/05/13/sunday-times-israelis-idan-ofer-teddy-sagi-among-britains-50-richest-people/

[Cerberus044]

Started getting shady after they hired Mark Karpeles the ex-CEO of Mt Gox, who was convicted of data manipulation.  This sale to malware pushing assholes is enough to get me to cancel my sub.  Oh well, on to the next vpn for a year or two until they too turn to the darkside.

[msknight]

One of the questions that Linus asked of us, was whether the community is OK with LMG continuing with adds from PIA.

 

I think that with the way Linus called Intel out on its embargo... he might have answered his own question.

[Tonks]

1 hour ago, msknight said:

One of the questions that Linus asked of us, was whether the community is OK with LMG continuing with adds from PIA.

 

I think that with the way Linus called Intel out on its embargo... he might have answered his own question.

I'm firmly against LTT supporting PIA now. Also, I think they should now do a video detailing the strengths and weaknesses of different VPNs. Plenty of lists I've found have Cyberghost on there, which makes me wary of them as CG is owned by the exact company who is causing the exodus from PIA!

[xAcid9]

News: *VPN A got caught with security breached*
User: VPN B is the only wae

News: *VPN B got purchased by shady af company*

User: No worries VPN C is the only trustable left

News: *VPN C got caught selling user data*
User: Nvm we still got VPN D
News: *VPN D went to the moon*
User: This time VPN E is my wae or the hi wae
News: *VPN E got hit by 18 wheeler*
User: For sure VPN F is the most reliable and unbreakable

News: *VPN F went F*

 

shit goes on till you realized you pay to give your personal information to all these companies and they're selling them to shady ads company for more money while the reason you use VPN in the 1st place is to not have your data get leak. 

[mcbaes72]

17 hours ago, Tonks said:

I'm firmly against LTT supporting PIA now. Also, I think they should now do a video detailing the strengths and weaknesses of different VPNs. Plenty of lists I've found have Cyberghost on there, which makes me wary of them as CG is owned by the exact company who is causing the exodus from PIA!

Great idea, I added this to the LTT Video Suggestions thread. It's an important topic to discuss. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

20 hours ago, Cerberus044 said:

 Oh well, on to the next vpn for a year or two until they too turn to the darkside.

I've been with the same VPN for almost 7 years now, but it isn't as big as PIA, which probably deters the threat of change of ownership.

 

 

Or we could all save ourselves time and jump straight into "Facebook VPN" or "Equifax VPN" and call it a day (I thought of including "Google VPN" too, but then I realized that's called "the Internet").

[Kroon]

On 11/23/2019 at 9:25 PM, acbluflame said:

Consider the following options for alternative VPNs: https://www.privacytools.io/providers/vpn/

A I would not trust a site that recommend a VPN based in Sweden!!  ANY service provider here (In Sweden) must by law keep logs over all their traffic. 

[amdorintel]

34 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I've been with the same VPN for almost 7 years now, but it isn't as big as PIA, which probably deters the threat of change of ownership.

 

 

Or we could all save ourselves time and jump straight into "Facebook VPN" or "Equifax VPN" and call it a day (I thought of including "Google VPN" too, but then I realized that's called "the Internet").

 

yea but the funny thing is people still use google and other companies selling your info

people know that google and the like do it, but they continue to use those services

 

[acbluflame]

On 11/26/2019 at 6:25 PM, Kroon said:

A I would not trust a site that recommend a VPN based in Sweden!!  ANY service provider here (In Sweden) must by law keep logs over all their traffic. 

https://mullvad.net/en/help/swedish-legislation/

Time to back up your armchair legalese.  Which bit of their article is incorrect or missing information?

 

If you know something, then please help the community and submit it to:  https://github.com/privacytoolsIO/privacytools.io/issues

[Kroon]

21 hours ago, acbluflame said:

Time to back up your armchair legalese.  Which bit of their article is incorrect or missing information?

 

Quite clever of Mullvad not to mention IPRED nor the changes in LEK that was applied the 1 of October 2019 (LEK was mentioned on the Mullvad page).  Noteworthy that even PRIVATE company's can go to court and demand to get customer information, this have happened several times.

 

You must remember that Sweden are the country that are working a new law that would ban the use of VPN.  If the politicians get their will VPN will be illegal in Sweden July next year.

 

Once I get home I can dig up proper sources,  tried to do some quick google but only get information in Swedish from pts.se.  PTS (Post- och telestyrelsen) or The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority is the ones that have all the information.

 

Edit:  Spelling!  And sorry for poor English!

[acbluflame]

3 hours ago, Kroon said:

 

Quite clever of Mullvad not to mention IPRED nor the changes in LEK that was applied the 1 of October 2019 (LEK was mentioned on the Mullvad page).  Noteworthy that even PRIVATE company's can go to court and demand to get customer information, this have happened several times.

 

You must remember that Sweden are the country that are working a new law that would ban the use of VPN.  If the politicians get their will VPN will be illegal in Sweden July next year.

 

Once I get home I can dig up proper sources,  tried to do some quick google but only get information in Swedish from pts.se.  PTS (Post- och telestyrelsen) or The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority is the ones that have all the information.

 

Edit:  Spelling!  And sorry for poor English!

I would be highly interested if you are able to find sources. 

 

The best, recent article related to this that google english returns is: https://www.bahnhof.se/press/press-releases/2019/10/08/bahnhof-avslojar-operatorerna-som-lamnar-ut-dina-uppgifter-till-utpressare-2019

which links to: https://www.regeringen.se/pressmeddelanden/2019/10/nu-trader-de-nya-datalagringsreglerna-i-kraft/

 

Looking through a google translation, it looks like IPRED still only targets "operators" (I assume this translates as an ISP) which aligns with Mullvad's articles where they "are not regarded as an electronic communications network nor an electronic communications service".  Additionally, it seems that IPRED is only useful if the operator has data stored on their customers.  Mullvad maintains that they store very limited information, so any request or extortion would reveal very little.

 

As for LEK, I'm sure it's quite a vast and nuanced law covering many aspects, but not sure where to find a good translation for this.  Presuming this is a typical electronic communications law which governs privacy, data retention length, and exceptions (law enforcement)?  There seems to be contention between national law and EU law on data retention, so assuming that this applies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primacy_of_European_Union_law

 

However, I'm a little concerned of the following from the governing press release:

Quote

En annan kraftfull förbättring träder i kraft den 1 april 2020 då operatörerna blir skyldiga att lagra uppgifter som är nödvändiga för att identifiera gärningsmannen oavsett vilken teknik för internetåtkomst som används. På så sätt upphör de identifieringsproblemen som finns i dag om operatören använder sig av så kallad NAT-teknik, där upp till 60 000 användare kan dela på samma ip-adress och som gör det näst intill omöjligt att spåra gärningsmän som begår brott via internet om denna teknik används.

Roughly translated as:

Quote

Another powerful improvement comes into force on April 1, 2020, when operators are required to store information necessary to identify the perpetrator regardless of the Internet access technology used. In this way, the identification problems that exist today if the operator uses so-called NAT technology, where up to 60,000 users can share the same IP address and which makes it almost impossible to trace perpetrators who commit crimes via the Internet if this technique is used.

 

Don't think the translation is nuanced enough to know if this would start to apply to VPN service providers, or to close loop-holes exploited by Swedish ISPs.

 

Further articles of interest:

https://torrentfreak.com/isp-bahnhof-must-log-subscriber-data-but-copyright-mafia-wont-get-any-191001/

[GazCBG]

Did I miss a part of the WAN show, I did jump a few bits or did they not talk about PIA or VPN?

[Arika]

51 minutes ago, GazCBG said:

Did I miss a part of the WAN show, I did jump a few bits or did they not talk about PIA or VPN?

they spoke about it last week. they were putting the sponsorship on hold until they can get everything straightened out and are going to give PIA the opportunity to clarify/justify their decision

[Arika]

6 minutes ago, Tony Tony Chopper said:

 

I guess they haven't responded yet then.

Takes a long tome to write a PR response that says "don't worry, we still care about privacy and our customers. We just care about money more and don't give a shit about our reputation"

[gwt10]

On 11/21/2019 at 8:44 PM, YamiYukiSenpai said:

For the time being, I'm gonna trust PIA.  It'd be a bad move on Kape's part if they betray us because PIA has a reputation for being pro-privacy.

 

And besides, I still got 3 years.

 

I'm doing the same thing.  If Kape ever decided to turn PIA into a privacy shitshow, that would be the end of PIA and people will flee en-mass.

 

Doesn't mean I won't change in the future, but for the time being, I'll wait and see.

[Meptalon]

On 11/26/2019 at 12:14 AM, Tonks said:

I'm firmly against LTT supporting PIA now. Also, I think they should now do a video detailing the strengths and weaknesses of different VPNs. Plenty of lists I've found have Cyberghost on there, which makes me wary of them as CG is owned by the exact company who is causing the exodus from PIA!

Most of the "best VPN" lists are just fake sites published by the most shady VPN providers

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

i'm guessing Linus wont address this until scrapyard wars is over as they are sponsoring the show ?
 

 

[Jisagi]

Kinda sad to see all this happen. I really liked PIA so far, but I had to make a decision. My subscription was due to renewal tomorrow, so I canceled it. Nothing stops me to renew the sub in the future if this ends well or at least better than we right now expect.

[Cyberspirit]

1 hour ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

i'm guessing Linus wont address this until scrapyard wars is over as they are sponsoring the show ?

He talked about it on WAN show. Here's the timestamp:

Spoiler

 

TL;DW: They suspended their deal with PIA but they've given them a chance to respond.