Exposed: How Israeli Spies Control Your VPN (www.mintpressnews.com)
from d4rko@beehaw.org to privacy@lemmy.ml on 12 Sep 2024 06:22
https://beehaw.org/post/16010347

“Kape Technologies is a major player in the online privacy world, one of the three giants that collectively control the market. It owns many of the world’s top VPNs, including ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, ZenMate, Intego Antivirus, and a host of tech websites that promote its products. Kape brands can be seen sponsoring a wide array of public figures, such as Tucker Carlson, Angry Video Game Nerd, Drew Gooden, Lex Fridman, Cody Ko, Uncle Roger, and Ben Shapiro.”

“(Kape Technologies) It also bought a host of VPN review sites, such as vpnMentor and Wizcase – platforms that purport to supply readers with expert information about which VPN would be best for them. vpnMentor insists that this considerable conflict of interest does not affect their ratings.”

What do you think of all this?

#privacy

threaded - newest

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 12 Sep 2024 07:32 next collapse

What do you think of all this?

Is it a rhetorical question?

[deleted] on 12 Sep 2024 07:54 next collapse

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d4rko@beehaw.org on 12 Sep 2024 13:42 collapse

Good to know, thanks for sharing. I didn’t know about this,. It shows that is really hard to be correctly informed without dedicating an extra effort on many steps of the privacy way.

Caliper@beehaw.org on 12 Sep 2024 16:24 next collapse

I looked at the other articles on the site and that already caused some red flags. Then looked at the wiki and saw the same thing.

0xD@infosec.pub on 12 Sep 2024 20:14 collapse

What was the comment? That the source is untrustworthy? Why was it removed?

bloodfart@lemmy.ml on 12 Sep 2024 23:52 collapse

Says rule 1 in the modlog.

Didn’t seem like it was bigoted, but the comment claimed the news source was pro-Iran and pro Syria or something with a Wikipedia link as evidence.

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 14 Sep 2024 16:52 collapse

My comment was just advising people to be media-literate and consider the source, though I also said that this in itself doesn’t make the article questionable (I actually think it’s quite credible). And I linked to Wikipedia’s article about this news website. I wasn’t trying to defend Israel or be controversial, and it was a bit of a surprise to see this get deleted.

bloodfart@lemmy.ml on 14 Sep 2024 17:49 collapse

All mods are cops

ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org on 12 Sep 2024 08:41 next collapse

What do you think of all this?

I expected this from ExpressVPN and PIA, and I think Kappe was already known doing very shady things, but it’s a good reminder, and also there are most probably people who didn’t know yet

[deleted] on 12 Sep 2024 09:05 next collapse

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tkw8@lemm.ee on 12 Sep 2024 13:36 next collapse

If you aren’t using either proton vpn, Mullvad or ivpn, you’re asking for trouble imo.

refalo@programming.dev on 12 Sep 2024 15:00 next collapse

I don’t trust any VPN service I don’t personally control myself.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 12 Sep 2024 15:54 next collapse

I would pay for a i2p exit proxy

unrushed233@lemmings.world on 12 Sep 2024 18:24 collapse

You don’t control any VPN services hosted on someone else’s (e.g. a cloud provider’s) infrastructure. They have full access and can technically do anything. And they see your incoming and outgoing connections. This is stupid, and doesn’t give you any privacy benefit. There are good and trustworthy VPN providers like Mullvad, IVPN and Proton. Just acknowledge that.

refalo@programming.dev on 12 Sep 2024 19:17 collapse

You don’t control any VPN services hosted on someone else’s (e.g. a cloud provider’s) infrastructure

We must have very different definitions of “control”.

They have full access and can technically do anything.

You could say the same for anyone with physical access to a machine. But the people who have to worry about that likely aren’t reading this.

And they see your incoming and outgoing connections.

So does any bandwidth provider you pay money to.

This is stupid, and doesn’t give you any privacy benefit.

Highly debatable and subjective IMO

There are good and trustworthy VPN providers

Depends on your definition of trustworthy… some say it’s impossible to trust any company.

muix@lemmy.sdf.org on 12 Sep 2024 19:45 next collapse

Add Njalla to that list

Mwa@lemm.ee on 15 Sep 2024 15:52 collapse

i use windscribe is that good?

tkw8@lemm.ee on 15 Sep 2024 18:31 collapse

I’m not a fan of any but those I mentioned.

Mwa@lemm.ee on 15 Sep 2024 19:38 collapse

oh

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 12 Sep 2024 13:59 next collapse

No, they don’t. Because I don’t use a shitty VPN provider.

Also the article doesn’t load

terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 2024 14:16 collapse

Is your Nord VPN on? /S

Forgot this was sarcasm

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 12 Sep 2024 14:45 collapse

I don’t use JavaScript or Nord VPN

refalo@programming.dev on 12 Sep 2024 15:02 next collapse

Not using javascript is like a huge beacon of light screaming just how unique you really are. There are several methods for fingerprinting you without JS, or even without CSS/HTML.

And the number of people not using JS being very small, it doesn’t take as many bits of information to uniquely identify you.

unrushed233@lemmings.world on 12 Sep 2024 18:26 next collapse

And basically 99% of the modern web doesn’t work without JS. I don’t know why there are still so many people running around and saying “disAblE jAvAscrIpT!!!”, yeah like how the fuck am I supposed to use the web??? At that point, I could also just delete my web browser, it would literally have the exact same effect.

refalo@programming.dev on 12 Sep 2024 19:10 collapse

I think there’s mainly two usecases:

  • the “weird” people who don’t visit any mainstream sites and live under a rock

  • people who disable JS by default but are always adding exceptions for sites that need it

unrushed233@lemmings.world on 12 Sep 2024 23:39 collapse

I tried the second approach for some time, but using NoScript became really annoying, since I never knew which scripts are necessary, and which are used for tracking or some other bullshit. It was always trial and error, and just felt tedious and unnecessary. I wish NoScript would have a built in whitelist of scripts that are known to be necessary for websites to function, this would avoid breakages and make it much more comfortable to use.

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 12 Sep 2024 21:55 collapse

You assume I’m just worried about privacy?

terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 2024 15:13 collapse

Was being sarcastic 🤣

chottomatte@lemdro.id on 12 Sep 2024 15:47 next collapse

The fact that all of these softwares are owned by one company is creepy , regardless of Israel

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 12 Sep 2024 16:06 next collapse

I use Njalla, which is part of Pirate Bay. Problem solved.

Itsreaver_@lemmy.ml on 12 Sep 2024 18:35 next collapse

I only use Ivpn and its pretty great

sploodged@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 2024 22:57 collapse

do not the vpn