- Joined
- Nov 14, 2012
I've been running a PIA affiliate banner for probably 3 years now and a lot of you have it so I feel sort of obligated to talk about why I swapped them out. PIA has a very, very generous commission rate of 33% and I've been using them myself for as long as I've advertised them. I also use NordVPN, a more recent banner I've put up, specifically for mobile devices. I give my friends who cannot afford these things access to my accounts so they can have some more privacy online. I have never advocated using a service I do not use and if I stop using something I stop advertising it.
Two big things happened lately that were brought to my attention and I can't ignore them.
Nord got hacked - then didn't tell anyone
I was initially unconcerned with the NordVPN hack because of how unimportant the leaked data was. Someone gained access to one of the hundreds of VPN servers that Nord owns and managed to do nothing with it. What I dwelled on in the weeks after was how they tried to cover it up. The Kiwi Farms was hacked and it likely would not have had such a significant and immediate impact on the site's userbase if I didn't say anything about it. However, over time, the obfuscation of such a thing would have inevitably eaten its way out into the light and done more significant damage to the overall trust of the site and people's confidence in my ability to communicate important things to them honestly.
The fact that my shitty little forum had a higher standard for communicating potential problems than an actual privacy service whose entire business revolves around trust and security is something I can't tolerate.
techcrunch.com
PrivateInternetAccess got bought
PIA is good and has only gotten better over time but in the last month they were purchased by a conglomerate.
www.techradar.com
This is a $127 million dollar deal, and I don't believe such deals are made just to help make existing services better. The acquiring company has a poorer reputation than London Trust Media does by itself and will almost certainly consolidate its hardware, internet assets, and datacenters together to make the PrivateInternetAccess network a less atomized and private network altogether.
I do not believe that PIA or Nord are at immediate risk of anything. To existing customers, what I would advocate is continuing to use your subscription and then consider new VPNs when they come up for renewal.
One thing worth mentioning with Proton is that they've not published an independent security audit, though they've claimed for an extended period of time that they are working on getting those results out as soon as possible. If this happens I will promote the news visibly.
Two big things happened lately that were brought to my attention and I can't ignore them.
Nord got hacked - then didn't tell anyone
I was initially unconcerned with the NordVPN hack because of how unimportant the leaked data was. Someone gained access to one of the hundreds of VPN servers that Nord owns and managed to do nothing with it. What I dwelled on in the weeks after was how they tried to cover it up. The Kiwi Farms was hacked and it likely would not have had such a significant and immediate impact on the site's userbase if I didn't say anything about it. However, over time, the obfuscation of such a thing would have inevitably eaten its way out into the light and done more significant damage to the overall trust of the site and people's confidence in my ability to communicate important things to them honestly.
The fact that my shitty little forum had a higher standard for communicating potential problems than an actual privacy service whose entire business revolves around trust and security is something I can't tolerate.
NordVPN confirms it was hacked – TechCrunch
NordVPN, a virtual private network provider that promises to “protect your privacy online,” has confirmed it was hacked. The admission comes following rumors that the company had been breached. It first emerged that NordVPN had an expired internal private key exposed, potentially allowi…
techcrunch.com
PrivateInternetAccess got bought
PIA is good and has only gotten better over time but in the last month they were purchased by a conglomerate.
CyberGhost owner buys PIA for $95.5m to create VPN giant
Private Internet Access will become part of a huge global VPN operation
www.techradar.com
This is a $127 million dollar deal, and I don't believe such deals are made just to help make existing services better. The acquiring company has a poorer reputation than London Trust Media does by itself and will almost certainly consolidate its hardware, internet assets, and datacenters together to make the PrivateInternetAccess network a less atomized and private network altogether.
I do not believe that PIA or Nord are at immediate risk of anything. To existing customers, what I would advocate is continuing to use your subscription and then consider new VPNs when they come up for renewal.
One thing worth mentioning with Proton is that they've not published an independent security audit, though they've claimed for an extended period of time that they are working on getting those results out as soon as possible. If this happens I will promote the news visibly.
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