LMG Sponsor Suggestions

saintlouisbagels · March 7

On 2/27/2024 at 10:24 AM, GoStormPlays said:

Would be sick if Raspberry Pi sponsored a video.

I don't think they need to advertise when they constantly sell out lol.

GoStormPlays · March 7

4 hours ago, saintlouisbagels said:

I don't think they need to advertise when they constantly sell out lol.

Thats fair

still tho- been a while since we’ve seen a good video from LTT about the pi

Brandon17 · April 14

I don't normally put too much thought into making note of Customer Service interactions if they go alright, but I have one for PIA. (I work in Customer Support, so I appreciate this even more!)

I created a ticket last night (Saturday at about midnight, PDT) and I got a reply back this morning at 4:30 AM. I had renewed a subscription on an old account so I wanted to get a refund. They offered me two options, one was a refund and another was to merge my two account's 3 year sub into 6 years. At 11:20, I opted for the refund and within 4 minutes they said they they would process my refund. 5 minutes later after my email (11:25) I got an email from Paypal that my $79 was refunded and is available to spend on the 17th of April.

Fantastic response time, plus its on a weekend, and the resolution is exactly what I wanted. I should note that my mistake purchase occurred only a few days ago, which is well within their 30 day refund.

I have to give credit when credit is due... Great job PIA! (I can post screenshots if anyone cares )

MikeWithAMic · April 16

Hello everyone!

Linus recently mentioned on WAN that he is considering working with a VPN company again, but also outlined his concerns regarding deceptive talking points and other issues often encountered when working with VPNs. Thinking about potential partners, one came to mind that I thought could be of interest: Proton VPN.

I don't know that they would be interested / have the funds / do sponsorships at all, but here's my case for them:

Proton began as a privacy focused Email provider. Since then they have received EU and Swiss innovation grants to expand to other privacy focused services, such as encrypted Drive, Calendar, Password management etc. All of this is done with open source protocols and 0-knowledge end-to-end encryption. Unlike most VPN providers, this means that Proton's VPN is not their core product, but a part of a wider privacy package which Proton is actively expanding (eg. acquisition of SimpleLogin, StandardNotes) . The nature of their organization means they are unlikely to be bought out anytime soon, a major concern for most other VPNs (and to my knowledge the reason that TunnelBear and PIA were dropped)
Proton's talking points, to my knowledge, avoid most of the more problematic/sensationalist arguments for VPNs, and focus instead on ensuring traffic is encrypted and the benefits this has, such as avoiding snooping from ISPs and governments, particularly in authoritarian States. They have also committed to providing their VPN service for free during election times this year across the world to ensure that people no matter their country have access to free information regarding the candidates.
Proton's emphasis on legitimate privacy concerns also means that their VPN service goes beyond most others, allowing "double routing" through additional countries to prevent governments from accessing encrypted data anyway by compelling the server owners to share their data, and to access Tor through their VPN for additional layers. What I have appreciated throughout is that they acknowledge that each of these steps are not perfect solutions, but rather additional layers that each serve as additional protection (cue Luke's cheese example). Overall their messaging appears to me more nuanced/"honest" compared to more sensationalizing competitors, something I greatly appreciate.

Overall, they appear to me as a dedicated team that wants to make the internet more private in a way that is more accessible to the average user, and along the way they have made many steps which do not have a clear and direct financial incentive, but are "the right thing to do", as Linus would say (eg. providing funding to civil society and privacy oriented NGOs such as Tor and Privacy International). They actively promote efforts that strengthen the public sphere and continuously provide resources on how to improve one's privacy that do not directly benefit them (such as their take on the best private messaging service, of which they do not have one).

To be clear, I have no affiliation with Proton, just a happy customer and LTT enthusiast who would like to see a partnership between these two awesome organizations .