PIA to be acquired by Kape Technologies

KeithP

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Jun 15, 2000
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I try not be alarmist about things like this but I don't think I will be renewing my PIA subscription. I might reconsider 2-3 years down the road but, in the short term, there are other providers out there.

Some have pointed at Kape’s history. The company had previously operated under the name Crossrider and was active in the advertising space. Among other things, it installed toolbars with ‘potentially unwanted software.’ While the company has since switched to a focus on cybersecurity, this past has made some people suspicious.

-KeithP
 
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daveybrat

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Appreciate the heads up Keith. I too have PIA for maybe 6 more months. I too will have to look into this further before i renew my subscription.
 

KeithP

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I found this post over on ycombinator from a PIA "co founder"…

This 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

At face value that is certainly encouraging. However, I will still seek another VPN provider until PIA has been operating under their new ownership and has had a chance to prove themselves.

-KeithP
 
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daveybrat

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Keith, what's a good alternative to PIA? Nord?, ExpressVPN? or others?
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
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I found this post over on ycombinator from a PIA "co founder"…



At face value that is certainly encouraging. However, I will still seek another VPN provider until PIA has been operating under their new ownership and has had a chance to prove themselves.

-KeithP

I have a subscription for another year. I'll be more tentative next time around. We'll see how it plays out.
 

Muadib

Lifer
May 30, 2000
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I still have 18 months with PIA, but will follow this thread for a replacement. Thanks Keith!
 

KeithP

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So there is an update…PIA is going to make their clients open source (among other things)…

We encourage everyone NOT to trust, but instead, to verify. In order to deliver a verifiably secure infrastructure and ecosystem, we are embarking on a journey which will lead us to a fully verifiable infrastructure to our community; this will require a number of steps which we will share with you as we progress starting with the following:

  1. Open Sourcing the PIA Clients, Starting with the Desktop Client – Your machine is your private space. You deserve to know what you’re putting on it, and what it’s doing. With the open sourcing of our clients, you can now verify what you’re installing. Please check it out!
  2. Verifiable Zero Access: Start! – We’re building an internal roadmap to create a transparent and verifiable infrastructure, in which no one, including ourselves, is permitted access to the servers through which VPN traffic flows. We will keep you abreast of all progress, and moreover, this will be a community-led effort. Verifiable Zero Access proves that we cannot log or monitor your traffic.
  3. Random Audited Truths (I smell a rat!) – We have begun reaching out to external auditors and, in tandem, are opening up our operations to review by our users. This allows you to verify with your own eyes, whenever you want. WYSIWYG.
Follow this space for continuing updates on our progress; we believe it is a revolutionary change in the making.

We don’t want you to blindly trust us, so now you can verify.
 
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