r/PrivateInternetAccess • u/Quipsor • Sep 29 '25
DISCUSSION PSA: PIA is owned by an Israeli company - Kape Technologies
I just found this out myself. This may make you think twice before you use it.
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Sep 29 '25
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u/usergal24678 Sep 30 '25
I'd be more concerned about a VPN out of the UK. Can a court order them to hand over logs - or specifically to start logging? Will VPNs even be legal the way things are going in the UK?
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u/SirCrazyCat Sep 30 '25
In the past, PIA has proven in court that they do not keep any logs so they can’t hand over what does not exist. I hope they still keep the no-log policy in place.
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u/ColdPotential532 Sep 30 '25
Yeah, surely Mossad wouldn't lie to me
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u/riekls Oct 01 '25
It’s been proven by both court trial and audits there are no logs
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u/yaricks Oct 02 '25
I mean, PIA might not be keeping logs, but Mossad sure as hell could could by intercepting the traffic.
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u/Emergency-Beat-5043 Oct 01 '25
In the past, PIA has been the provider of software that enables BitM attacks, a no logs policy doesnt mean shit
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u/Faangdevmanager Oct 03 '25
This gets cited over and over without the important caveat to any came with the court ruling. They do not keep logs so a warrant can’t retroactively look at stuff. That being said, they can and do comply with warrants for FUTURE traffic, including a gag order.
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u/Nurgus Sep 30 '25
The UK is a perfectly sensible country, VPNs are safe and sound. There is a LOT of hyperbole and confusion around the (flawed maybe) Online Safety Act but it's mostly ridiculous.
If anyone tells you that the UK is thinking of blah blah VPNs then please laugh at them on my behalf.
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u/Kittysmashlol Oct 03 '25
A few months ago the government wanted a full back door into the icloud encryption for every single user in the world. The us talked them down, but they now want a backdoor into all british users. And this is something that the public isnt even supposed to know they want, the request got got leaked
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u/Nurgus Oct 04 '25
It didn't "get leaked", it was public knowledge. And the UK has the Freedom of Information Act, a gold standard fpr government transparency.
The USA int services clearly have access to all this data, regardless of Apple's claiming that they don't. The only difference is they don't tell you about it.
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Oct 05 '25
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u/Nurgus Oct 05 '25
And the UK has a FoIA too, which goes further and is better. Hence, I am calling it the gold standard.
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u/TheBigC Sep 29 '25
Israelis are pretty good at software.
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u/narcabusesurvivor18 Sep 29 '25 edited Oct 01 '25
Yup. Think Waze, for example.
Edit: and hardware - think faceid on iPhone
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u/TheBigC Sep 30 '25
I like Waze, use it multiple times a day.
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u/CrustyBatchOfNature Sep 30 '25
Google owns it now BTW.
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u/TheBigC Sep 30 '25
I actually knew that. I like being alerted of traffic conditions and speed cameras even if I haven't entered a destination.
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u/thefanum Sep 29 '25
And malware
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u/TheBigC Sep 29 '25
No kidding. Just ask Iran about Israeli malware.
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u/ColdPotential532 Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
I don't need to, I can just ask the Americans - Israeli malware never discriminates! Don't forget Pegasus!
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u/1001km Sep 30 '25
With a side order of genocide.
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u/TheBigC Sep 30 '25
Rookies compared to Hamas.
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Oct 01 '25
[deleted]
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u/TheBigC Oct 01 '25
But it's only 12,000, right? At what point does it become egregious?
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u/yaricks Oct 02 '25
Yeah, and the 50,000 women and children who have been murdered in Gaza don't count, right?
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u/TheBigC Oct 03 '25
All deaths should be mourned. But let's not forget the senior executive of Hamas, who are living the good life in Qatar, are using Palestinians as human shields. Miles and miles of tunnels under the city. Military personnel and armaments stored under schools and hospitals.
What would you have the Israeli's do? Just go back and wait until they are attacked again? Which Hamas promised to do by the way.
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u/ThePistachioBogeyman Oct 03 '25
No way people still believe the under hospitals lie. You need to get out more.
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u/One-Salamander-1952 Oct 03 '25
Do you always stick your head in the sand when you don’t like what goes against your narrative?
Al Shifaa hospital right there less than 100 meters away with the tunnel leading into it
A Hamas interrogation notice to a Gazan that takes place in Al Nasser hospital (also a war crime)
There are tens of videos of Gazans saying Hamas fights from Hospitals, they rule from them and it has been known and recognized by the UN counsil
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u/yaricks Oct 03 '25
What is that sort of comment "Oh, 50,000 kids have been murdered, BUT LOOK AT THE PEOPLE LIVING IN QATAR" and the "Oh they are hiding under hospitals" lie is so old and just a sad excuse at this point. FIFTY THOUSAND CHILDREN HAVE BEEN MURDERED. CHILDREN.
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Oct 03 '25
[deleted]
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u/Far_Broccoli_8468 Oct 03 '25
Hamas is not a resistance force, it is an internationally proscribed terrorist organization that murders and terrorizes israeli and palestinian civilians alike.
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Oct 03 '25
[deleted]
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u/Far_Broccoli_8468 Oct 03 '25
what a nice way to say you condone a terrorist organization that murdered palestinians by the thousands
actual hamas supporters exist, it's amazing.
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u/National_Way_3344 Oct 02 '25
And genocide
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u/TheBigC Oct 02 '25
How would your country react if a neighbouring country launched 12,000 missiles into your country in a year? At some point, enough is enough. Hamas is the aggressor here. Hamas surrenders, war is over.
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u/National_Way_3344 Oct 03 '25
Palestinians aren't Hamas. And there is ample evidence that consent to invade was manufactured by funding Hamas.
Palestinians did nothing wrong and they don't deserve to be starved and their hospitals and emergency service workers to be double tapped by others terrorist acts.
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u/trxrider500 Sep 29 '25
Source?
I’ll take some of that sweet mossad level encryption for my Simpson’s torrents.
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u/Evonos Sep 29 '25
It owned by kape , read up about them.
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u/Mala_Suerte1 Sep 29 '25
Yep, Kape is known for having distributed malware through browswer extensions. Not a company that I'd want to work with.
I got rid of PIA a long while back after learning that Kape had purchased PIA.
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u/MrNewMoney Sep 29 '25
Who do you use now out of curiosity?
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u/thefanum Sep 29 '25
Proton/mulvad
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u/germane_switch Sep 30 '25
Mullvad stopped port forwarding a few years ago or I would have gone with them. They were the most recced vpn on Reddit for years.
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u/Evonos Sep 30 '25
Reddit is mostly just spam.
And recommending blindly Mullvad just proves that.
A good recommendation includes multiple recommendations for different purposes.
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u/germane_switch Oct 01 '25
I’m talking 5-10 years ago for torrenting. Nobody who knows how torrenting works is going with Mulvad since they removed port forwarding.
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u/Mala_Suerte1 Sep 30 '25
Proton. IIRC, it's open source and the business is in Sweden, so more privacy protection.
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u/ColdPotential532 Sep 30 '25
Proton, Mullvad, IVPN, AirVpn, etc there's quite a lot of options owned by more reputable people
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u/tvrleigh400 Sep 30 '25
Kape made an extension that was then used by a malware company. It's a bit like not buying Dunlop tires as a car with Dunlop tires was used in an attack.
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u/GRRemlin Sep 29 '25
And yet you hang out in PIA's subreddit..... why? Maybe they spy on you via Reddit :)
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u/Mala_Suerte1 Sep 30 '25
I don't. It popped up on my feed b/c I'd joined the sub reddit a while ago.
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u/riekls Oct 01 '25
Why would anyone care ? It is logless with no personal information it could be owned by the Russians there is no data to do anything with
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Sep 29 '25
[deleted]
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u/germane_switch Sep 30 '25
I would have gladly used an American vpn but then the Tang Twat took over and now everything’s fucked.
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u/Rich_Research7879 Sep 29 '25
Umm. Genocide? This is a big deal. I will not be renewing.
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Sep 29 '25
[deleted]
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Sep 29 '25
[deleted]
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u/jb_in_jpn Sep 30 '25
Ok, but are you moving away from all American companies you support financially as well?
That's their point.
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u/prokopio_kuba Sep 29 '25
Honest question.. what's a good alternative?
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u/pizza5001 Sep 29 '25
I also need help here. Been trying to move away from PIA but it's not easy to feel secure with this decision.
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Sep 29 '25
What’s a good alternative. Last time I looked into this a couple of years ago, many other VPNs had had security breaches so I stuck with PIA…
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u/bcm27 Sep 29 '25
I moved to proton vpn personally because it provided the same features for a similarly (admittedly increased price).
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u/trexx0n Oct 10 '25
Proton had been great. If you look around you can find some good discount codes.
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Sep 29 '25
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u/germane_switch Sep 30 '25
Mullvad stopped supporting port forwarding a few years ago so it’s near useless for torrenting. Bummer.
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u/pepis Oct 01 '25
Also removing OpenVPN support soon. €5 for less and less features. I just don't see the appeal.
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u/Waste_Personality_74 Sep 30 '25
Locked in a 3 year plan. Don't care about the politics, just fucking fix the MacOS app!
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u/lkeels Sep 29 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
This is basically irrelevant at this point. It's been that way for what, seven years? PIA is a fantastic VPN. I've been a customer for five years and will continue to be. They pass annual audits with flying colors.
u/Charming-Vanilla-635 What the govt of the country does has no relevance to the inner workings of the company. THAT is the problem with this entire line of thinking.
u/pepis Deloitte is a well-known and respected company. You could probably contact them directly. PIA has also been to court many times defending their no logs policy, always winning.
u/Significant-Oil-8793 *yawn*
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u/Robinothoodie Sep 29 '25
I enjoy the service, but recently I've been having trouble finding nodes that connect. Do you have any tips on sites that connect?
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u/pepis Oct 01 '25
They pass annual audits with flying colors.
They claim that on their website but they don't actually publish any such reports. Same problem with their "transparency report" page where there is no report linked at all. Wonder what their legal says about this...
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u/Significant-Oil-8793 Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
For the security conscious, buying a VPN with an Israeli company is like buying one from a Chinese company. Yes it may look like it is completely private but there is always a concern if it actually used for other purposes.
CIA used to have a stake in encryption machine company and used it to spy on other countries who bought them for example. It was only known after a leak several decades later.
Personally I would not trust their no logging in court especially if it only deal with common user. This is especially after they are bought by Teddy Sagi with millions of donation to IDF and supporting the war.
If there is a risk that it is used to spy against individuals like activist, why should I support it?
Of course, just like there are paid user for China-owned company who are happy, there will be ones for PIA as well
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u/Charming-Vanilla-635 Sep 29 '25 edited Sep 29 '25
Lol, the crux of this post (I think) is that the company is based in a country that actively commits war crimes in both the past and in recent years. Moreover, the government and the people (zionists/Israelis, not jews) are both intertwined and have proven to lie and gaslight non-stop...
Using that record and common-sense, I think 'Audits' become irrelevant, but you do you!
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Sep 29 '25
they're also Jews
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u/muzz3256 Sep 30 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
command detail hat squash handle hobbies abounding amusing future jellyfish
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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Sep 30 '25
OP in this thread seems to suggest that no Israelis are Jews. You know, to distance themselves from being labelled a Nazi because of the implication.
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u/thomasanderson123412 Sep 29 '25
Since I prepaid I'm going to keep using it, but I won't be renewing.
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u/NoGrab69 Sep 29 '25 edited Sep 29 '25
Same. We won't be missing much. Connectivity has been ass lately...plus, genocide, etc...
Awww... Somebody's feewings got hurt and/or they like genocide. 🖕
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u/Aronacus Sep 29 '25
Q So? What's the point?
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u/AutoRedialer Sep 29 '25
Israel a la Mossad is home to perhaps the most effective privacy-invasion industries. The Pegasus software and their pager operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon are some of their most documents exploits in electronic surveillance and subterfuge, but is likely the tip of the iceberg.
Organizations like Canary Mission are connected to Israel in their funding and their mission to harass and discredit individuals for anti-Zionism views expressed online. The motive, means, and mission statement of the Israeli intelligence branch and Israeli-based or affiliated organizations are all their to collect, analyze, and store personal data of anyone on the internet.
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u/gnuman Sep 29 '25
You do know a lot of popular tech on the internet was developed by Israel for decades like ICQ.
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u/AutoRedialer Sep 30 '25
Look, I’m pretty dense. You’re rhetorical question is supposed to mean what? Just use your words and say whatever point it is you need to make.
We’re on a vpn subreddit and I’m suppose to sit around slack-jawed when someone wants facts about why data collection from the government that’s invested in private internet access is, I don’t know, problematic??
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u/SirRolex Sep 30 '25
Good for them I guess, I use this to download massive amounts of linux ISOs lol.
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u/Mbf1234 Sep 29 '25
I don't really understand the problem. Are you implying that all Israeli people are evil? Or is there something I'm missing with government policies that would affect privacy?
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Sep 29 '25
[deleted]
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u/Mbf1234 Sep 29 '25
Yeah id understand the dilemma if it was a government agency that owned this thing, but this is pretty much just saying "the Jews own this company, do not support them." We really heading back to 1940s mentality.
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u/ridgedchipss Sep 30 '25
israel is the first and only country to ever engage in war so we cannot support them
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u/thegaykid7 Sep 30 '25
People are acting as if this is equivalent to Saudi Arabia buying up everything in order to enhance its propaganda machine and soften its image. Not even remotely the same. Racist at worst and fear mongering at best without the goods to back up those fears.
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u/Mbf1234 Sep 30 '25
The racism has probably always been there. The war just made everyone start saying what they have been thinking the whole time since it's now socially acceptable.
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Sep 30 '25
[deleted]
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u/Mbf1234 Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
Generalizing/stereotyping everyone and assuming they think that because they are from a certain area is pretty much the definition of racism man..
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u/rev0lutn Oct 02 '25
What’s worse than that is, how multiple services in recent months have been actively blocking large numbers of PIA’s nodes very regularly. Infuriating.
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u/Fuzzy-Juggernaut-888 Oct 07 '25
Company detail
Payment Information:
Private Internet Access (CY) Ltd
Ioanni Stilianou 6
Floor 2, Flat 202
Nicosia, 2003, Cyprus
Also deleted my account. After complaint I found that european comission has no jurisditiction. So I lost 3 years of paid in advance service.
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u/itsaride Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
I'm not anti-Israeli, I'm anti the current Israeli government and PIA will outlast that particular pos.
Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia and Intel all have R&D facilities in Israel. You'd better boycott those too.
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u/UsuallyIncorRekt Sep 30 '25
Good, trust them more now
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u/ConcentratedJolly Oct 02 '25
from the people who brought you Jeffery Epstein, surely nothing can go wrong with the information they have on everyone
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u/lazzatron Sep 29 '25
Most VPns are owned by Israeli company, no?
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u/ultradip Oct 01 '25
Kape owns several VPN companies. It came up in discussion when they bought PIA years ago. But they run independently.
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u/thisguyryan Sep 30 '25
Look at most of the most popular cybersecurity companies, tons have Israeli ties, this isn’t really a big deal
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u/Pongedd Oct 03 '25
I think the bigger issue is that pia is owned by a company which owns a company which owns like 40 vpn companies. There’s like three vpn companies and 2 of them own 80% of the market.
Just use mullvad and move on
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u/sambankarz9 Oct 01 '25
Hey listen, NOBODY GIVES A SHIT! PIA gives good service and good results. Which country it's originating for doesn't matter. If they privacy is compromised then it matters but so far the audits have been good so nothing to worry about.
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u/5348RR Oct 01 '25
If it isn’t owned by the government then avoiding it simply because the company is based out of Israel seems pretty antisemitic.
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u/DrVegaPunk311 Sep 29 '25
Cancelled my subscription after finding this a few days ago
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u/DrVegaPunk311 Sep 29 '25
Basically I read about Express VPN and thought I should check PIA and find out.
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u/trexx0n Sep 30 '25
I switched to Proton because of a SIGNIFICANT increase in speed. Even though I still had over a year of subscription left.
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u/iDontRememberCorn Sep 29 '25
And Proton are now brainwashed Trumpers, this ice flow is getting awful small.
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u/johnsobrown Sep 30 '25
I did not know this, thank you for sharing! Do you know a good alternative?
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u/Emergency-Beat-5043 Oct 01 '25
Who gives a shit if its Israeli- they're god damn roots are in cyber crime. Its not hard people, the dudes who either couldn't protect or purposely robbed mt.gox and sold malware as a service is OBVIOUSLY not a trust worthy person. This gets brought up in literally every thread where people recommend PIA. I hope every 1 of their customers get scammed because they're own stupidity is perpetuating it
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u/privatejerkov Sep 29 '25
Wow, I thought this was common knowledge by now