Why I’ll be Taking VPN Sponsorships Again… and Why I Stopped
I think PIA is pretty good from my experience too, but didn’t they have that one controversy?
Also where’s Mullvad?
Mullvad is great. I’m using mozilla VPN which uses Mullvad and I really like them.
It’s not an advertisement… except it is exactly that, an advertisement and endorsement of one of their advertisers who doesn’t happen to be sponsoring this specific video… but will be sponsoring other LTT videos.
Still I agree with the information in the video and use PIA 
Anything wrong with Proton?
I use Proton… a bit expensive, but I trust them more than other providers.
When you read the comments of this video you slowly realise why it doesn’t pay for LTT to be open about things, people hold them to such a ridiculously high standard that I won’t be surprised if they slowly become more closed off. Can’t be much fun to be Linus anymore when you try to do the best and everyone always does the worst.
Pia is owned by a company called kape, which also owns other vpn services and review sites.
Kape Technologies (Formerly Crossrider) Now Owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, Zenmate, and a Collection of VPN “Review” Websites
I mean they’ve done ads for other products in the last couple years that included VPN as a perk while he ‘stopped’, so there really is no difference now.
Honestly been using PIA for even before LTT from the concensus and research before and I never had an issue with LTT working with VPNs as long as they were good and did not advertise bs like “WATCH WHAT YOU WANT AVOID GEO BLOCKING!!” like that was bs and I see it as misleading since as Linus put it, the providers aren’t stupid.
They said on wan show recently that VPNs just offer a fuck tonne of money, its really that simple
I will only ever use mullvad
That was a pretty long sponsored video about why they feel it is OK to take on this new sponsor.
I wonder why they didn’t talk about Nord VPN? It’s by far the most popular and mainstream one.
I use Windscribe and love it. Never had any issues and they give you a lot for the price.
Isn’t PIA based in the United States? Why would anyone use a VPN that’s based in the US?
Private Internet Access is owned by Kape Technologies, formerly known as Crossrider, an infamous company known for “making a software development kit (SDK) for the deployment of browser extensions to a variety of platforms with support for monetizing extensions. The monetization options were used by major ad injectors which used man-in-the-browser to change or add advertisements to what users saw. Over time, Crossrider’s services became increasingly utilized by malware and adware developers and the company was unable to combat misuse.”.
The fact that Linus didn’t disclose is scummy and should be called out. Please don’t let your parasocial biases cloud your judgement when it comes to protecting your privacy.
“Depending on who is doing the spinning of the facts, the same developer could be a nefarious former hacker with ties to the middle eastern intelligence community, or could be a computer nerd that served the mandatory time in the countries armed forces when they were a teenager.”
Linus never gets political, so that struck me strange, especially in this climate. As a middle easterner I wanted to get some context. I post the following knowing and understanding the risk of breaking rule 8. The following information may not be the entire reason for the controversy back then, but should be a controversy now.
Kape Technologies, which acquired PIA, was formerly known as Crossrider. The name “Crossrider” has been linked to malware and adware in the past. Strange Ties: Private Internet Access, Kape, and Crossrider
Koby Menachemi Israeli co-founder of Kape Technologies, also founded Hola’s VPN service which has been criticized for effectively turning its users into exit nodes for its commercial network, profiting from their bandwidth without transparent disclosure. This lead to users’ IP addresses being used for potentially malicious activities without their knowledge, as their connection could be routed for purposes like data scraping or botnets. That’s just at the tip of the iceberg. Go look him up.
Kape acquired both ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN.
Daniel Gericke, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of ExpressVPN, was hired by Kape knowing full well that was one of the three former U.S. intelligence operatives involved in Project Raven. Project Raven was a covert initiative involving former U.S. intelligence operatives who worked as mercenary hackers for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Kape hired a Chief Information Officer for ExpressVPN who is known for doing the exact thing that Linus is cautioning us of when going with VPN services. W.T.F. Additionally, Kape has links to Israel’s military and its top signals intelligence agency, Unit 8200, which operates within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Linus is trying to spin this as a positive with that quote from earlier. I knew that was strange.
TLDR
Linus will have to forgive me if I’m not going to go trust my data with a sketchy Israeli spyware/malware company founded by untrustworthy billionaire who hires CIO known for violating privacy laws colluding with Foreign Intelligence Agencies and has broken customer trust in the past.
Edit:The parent company of the company that is soo not sponsoring in this video has done everything negative that Linus himself warns us about when shopping for VPNs.
I’m genuinely curious. Is this how we people bypass the advertising bans for stuff like crypto? By dedicating a video to said crypto company, painting them in a mostly positive light and mentioning that you have an affiliate link but that they’re not a sponsor over and over?
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1373552-express-vpn-sells-for-1-billion-24hrs-after-the-cio-is-forced-to-pay-335k-for-hacking/ Kape Technologies (Formerly Crossrider) Now Owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, Zenmate, and a Collection of VPN “Review” Websites
83% off a 2 year subscription is such a deal! Thanks uncle Linus…
Why did they change the thumbnail? It was originally a different mask in another pose.