• LWD@lemm.ee
    0·
    9 months ago

    Sometimes, sticking to just one or two apps might be better. I was thinking of posting this 2019 article about Private Internet Access, but decided against it because it was a little outdated and somewhat well-known… But a comment can’t hurt, right?

    Kape Technologies was originally found under the name of Crossrider in 2011 developing advertising apps until they changed their name in 2018. However, their software was treated as malware by companies such as Malwarebytes and Symantec begging one to ask, how can such a company despite rebranding itself change the shoddy culture that it had?

    But the connections don’t end there. The very first CEO of Crossrider, Koby Menachemi, happened to be once a part of Unit 8200 which is an Israeli Intelligence Unit in their military and has also been dubbed as “Israel’s NSA “. Teddy Sagi, one of the company’s investors was mentioned in the Panama Papers which were leaked in 2016.

    https://www.hackread.com/private-internet-access-pia-vpn-sold-israel-privacy-concerns/

    • Fuck_u_spez_@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      9 months ago

      I agree. PIA is the only one I actually paid for and the one I’ve used the least. They’re only still on the list because I bought a 5 year block of time over 4 years ago when they had some big black Friday deal, so their app will soon be uninstalled. The rest are free or trials that I’ve been evaluating for performance. Thanks for the article, though.

      • LWD@lemm.ee
        0·
        9 months ago

        I was in the same boat as you, I bought it before they sold out… But obviously you can’t return it at that point

        • Fuck_u_spez_@lemmy.worldOP
          0·
          9 months ago

          A friend and former colleague in the IT industry recommended them to me so I gave some extra weight to his opinion. Then he lost like ten grand USD in Bitcoin because he left a (default) port forwarded to a VNC server in his house, open to the public and only protected by a known compromised password… and after that I stopped listening to anything he had to say about security.

    • Fuck_u_spez_@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      9 months ago

      Almost an oxymoron at this point but it’s free with a Pixel phone so I had to at least try it and see how bad it is. Privacy issues aside… it’s down all the damn time.

      • MagneticFusion@lemm.ee
        0·
        9 months ago

        thats hilarious. im running grapheneos and never experienced the stock pixel. didnt know it came w google vpn

          • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world
            0·
            9 months ago

            Could you explain what you didn’t like about Graphene in detail?

            Do you run Google services on Lineage? The last time I read about it, it was a massive pain with LSPosed and a bunch of modules.

            • ☭ SaltyIceteaMaker ☭@iusearchlinux.fyi
              0·
              9 months ago

              I don’t run google services but afaik there is just an extra zip called “gapps.zip” that you flash after lineage itself

              My problem was a lack of freedom: i couldn’t change some settings that i wanted and also i couldn’t give gadget bridge the necessary permissions to function properly. I need gadget bridge for my pine time smart watch

              • HumanPerson@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                0·
                9 months ago

                I use gadgetbridge on grapheneos with my pinetime. You need to enable restricted settings for gadgetbridge which is annoying but then it works.

              • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world
                0·
                9 months ago

                Are you running the version of Lineage with GMS installed, perchance? Lineage doesn’t bundle GMS by default which makes it somewhat painful to get things working (especially since SafetyNet is deprecated, that was the last technology I had read about a while back).

                Thanks for the input on Graphene

                • ☭ SaltyIceteaMaker ☭@iusearchlinux.fyi
                  0·
                  9 months ago

                  Currently im not using any google services except vanced microg i currently plan on using the proper microg to get google play working. Afaik there is a “LineageOS for MicroG” but not sure wether that’s official or even up to date.

                  Also “you can’t just say perchance!”

        • Pantherina@feddit.de
          0·
          9 months ago

          Yeah remove that Pixel bullshit and install GrapheneOS please.

          Use MullvadVPN or anything else with an actual FOSS app.

    • Fuck_u_spez_@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      9 months ago

      Just the stock Pixel 7 ROM, sadly. I’m testing Graphene on my Pixel 6 and probably installing it on the 7 soon. There’s no actual privacy in this shitpost of a screenshot.

  • Anna@lemmy.ml
    0·
    9 months ago

    You should use spottube it doesn’t require an account. Right now even if you switch VPN Spotify will know it is still you since you logged in.

    • lud@lemm.ee
      0·
      9 months ago

      I am sure OP knows what logging in means…

      Maybe they aren’t just that paranoid.

      That must be exhausting.