Another VPN in trouble:
Hope no one in here used it! Unknown to me.
I am using Surfshark for a little while now. I am quite happy with it. I don’t mind there is no gui for linux yet. (openvpn configs) There are some github scripts with gui, but not satisfying. Though it would be nice to have more options like on mobile or osx/win.
The speed with tcp is very good and stable. And enough services for me.
I added a service on surfshark to check for credit cards and emails for malicious use. Don’t know if this is worth the money for me, but wanted to check this service. So far it has found some email issues. Not drastic though.
There i had some good laughs 
TL;DR
Cause for concern?
The lucrative VPN industry is in a phase of consolidation. Kape acquired its fourth VPN provider making it one of the largest, if not the largest, VPN provider with a subscription-based model.
The company has a checkered past. Previously named Crossrider, it had a bad reputation for benefitting from potentially unwanted software offers, with security companies such as Malwarebytes classifying Crossrider products as adware. Founder of the company was a former Israeli agent according to reports.
It is unclear how much influence Kape Technologies has over ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access, or its other acquisitions. All state that they are acting largely independent from the parent company.
The companies past activities are cause for concern. If you ignore that for a moment, there is still the question of whether consolidation is good for the industry and users worldwide. Larger companies have more resources and these could be used to improve standards and functionality, but they may also be used to increase pricing and dominate niches.
also https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/06/protonmail-logged-ip-address-of-french-activist-after-order-by-swiss-authorities/ 7 person got arrested after they logged IP addresses on the behalf of french police.
Read this when news first broke and whilst it is indeed a bit saddening, I don’t see what Proton could have done here. It seems Swiss laws were followed, and other than having a canary for each user - what more can providers do? I don’t think there is, nor will ever be, a provider able and willing to take on euro/interpol and similar authorities, and even less so when these authorities have the law on their side.
If you’re looking to hide from government agencies who have next to infinite resources, I would not trust a VPN provider to keep you safe, no matter how reputable it has been in the past. If your concern is privacy, which is what Proton advertises I believe, I would still recommend them over all other providers except Mullvad, who I think offer a superior service.
Well there’s countries outside of Europe to base your VPN company into 
And Proton is far from being a reputable company, it’s not the first serious issue from them.
But indeed, any VPN provider -free or paid- can eventually be compromised, even the most reputable, either by law or by some hack. If you wanna hide your communications/IP to state actors, you’ll need at least something like Tor.
On the other hand if your threat model is lighter, a VPN is often fine. I personally use Riseup VPN : it’s free, reliable, works with donations, and it just works. They have a warrant canary (that works, they successfully used it once). It’s obviously not above law enforcement, but for common use cases it’s very good.
IVPN here (sometimes by terminal or Gui)
But i always use wireguard-protocol
Gibraltar Based, no log, nothing, not in 14, 9 and 5 eyes conspiracy
Tips : When enabled, obviously all VPN providers are able to mask/change your real IP, but some are unable to set right DNS for beeing completly untracable (means conserve your ISP DNS, so when you set your VPN On, be sure that the etc/resolv.conf is correctly modified by your VPN provider.
badplugin
Gibraltar, isn’t that UK?
Yes it is, so maybe i am wrong, it could be parts of EYES, anyway it work solid and never failed me, good bandwith, support are fast.
Off Topic : 
Just one thing is the total mess with nftables and most VPN
I use iptables rules without problem (automatically writing when you install IVPN or a other one), but iptables- translate provide me bad outpout, and i can’t managed to set the right nftables rules.
badplugin
According to this article, Gibratar is not technically part of these eyes.
However:
Serious privacy advocates should know that Gibraltar isn’t completely independent from Britain, however. They rely on the parent country for defense and security matters, giving the UK the right to assume power and make decisions when it comes to issues like online surveillance. This hasn’t happened yet, but it’s a potential mark against the country as a VPN jurisdiction.
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Ok@pebcak, however, i think what you said about (giving the UK the right to assume power) is legitimate for horribleVPN suspicious usage (terrorism, pedophile…)
badplugin
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Yes but in an ideal world you would want the nation to have laws protecting you from law enforcement being able to request your data, and there does not seem to be a lot of countries better placed than Switzerland for this, at least not in Europe - and other continents often fare far worse. In the end I suppose it comes down to your threat model and who you want protection from. If you’re looking to avoid a European authority, perhaps you’d be better off with a provider located in Asia.
The Chief Information Officer for ExpressVPN, Daniel Gericke, has entered into a plea deal with the US government for his role in facilitating the United Arab Emirates in hacking and surveilling state dissidents. Gericke, who was formerly employed by the US military, has admitted to violating US hacking laws and facilitating the UAE in a covert cyber espionage operation called Project Raven. These activities transpired before Gericke was employed by ExpressVPN.
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On a positive note, he seems to have some real-world credentials from a security perspective…
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There is always a “bright side of life” 
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Time to strike that one off the list of potential replacements.
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Looks like VPN industry is getting more spooky as companies like Kape Technologies ( formerly Crossrider ) with glowing individuals behind them are buying up some of the major players on the field.
Mental Outlaw's take on EVPN's "affair"
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Of course - it is also possible that it will be operated as one SHOULD be operated - past behaviour doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll kill the golden goose for chump change (compared to staying in business as they spent the big $$$ to acquire).
I am pretty sure that any questionable behaviour will be ‘outed’ very quickly if it occurs! So far no-one has found anything ‘off’ on PIA either…
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Just wanted to post that, my God it’s so funny 
I mean that they still double-down on that spy…insane
Virtual Glow In The Dark Totally Private Network 
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