I’ve decided to leave Proton after being a user since 2017. Today, I migrated all my services to my new domain, marking the end of my time with Proton. The recent political noise and price point were no longer justifiable for me. It was a good experience while it lasted. Thanks for the fishes 🐟 🐠
PIA has been uneventful for a couple years…
PIA is notable for still having port forwarding; Something many other VPNs have ditched. So on that one point, they’re better than others.
However, 4 or 5 years ago they were bought by a company (Kape Technology, formerly known as Crossrider) that has a history of stuffing adware into their programs. Like their business model was basically:
Since a VPN provider’s only real source of legitimacy is public trust, the Kape buyout had a lot of customers fleeing to alternatives like Proton. So far, the PIA app has been fine. But Kape could decide at any point to just pump it full of adware and run away with arms full of cash, like they have done in the past. Also, Kape is (or at least was, at the time of the buyout) headed by a known Israeli intelligence agent. So that was another big thing that sent customers scrambling to alternatives.
Thanks. That is a useful brakedown of them. Using them for the last year with zero issues but always important to evaluate.