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Comment by Kuraj | Hacker News Reader

Is it possible that they could in fact produce this data but were prevented from publicly saying so due to a gag order?

I'm asking specifically because I remember Private Internet Access, a VPN provider, also being tested in court in the past [1], and because of this I've chosen to trust them despite them falling under Five Eyes jurisdiction.

[1] https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-...

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Signal has blogged all the answers to these questions.

https://signal.org/bigbrother/eastern-virginia-grand-jury/

In short, the ACLU helped them to lift the gag order, and the blog itself shows the legal documents. The documents show exactly the data returned (Account creation and last access in Unix millis). Only the phone numbers are still redacted.

PIA used to be my go-to, but I immediately ceased using PIA after the 2019 acquisition by Kape Technologies, which has a rather foul track record.

What did you switch to?

not the GP but I switched from PIA to Mullvad

I’ve been using Mullvad since the past few years and I’ve no complaints. The fact that the recent Mozilla VPN is based on Mullvad makes me more confident in my decision.

I switched from PIA to Mullvad too for that reason and have absolutely no complaints. Wish I had done them first!

Did you consider NordVPN? I like the fact that I get to login from anywhere in the world.

My default choice is Sweden since they have the most lax copyright laws in the world, so subpoenaing any Swedish server gonna be tough.

They also offered me unavoidable discount.

> I like the fact that I get to login from anywhere in the world.

This is a fairly common practice and my understanding is that every major and most minor VPN services offer this.

I never knew. Is it available on PIA and Mullvad?

Yes. It is available on both.

Source: Another convert from PIA to Mullvad post Kape.

It was on PIA, when I used them (stopped when I heard about the sale to Kape), so I'd assume it still is.

Mullvad also does this. Here's their server status page, so you can see your options: https://mullvad.net/en/servers/

NordVPN may have good intentions but they were hacked.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/21/nordvpn-confirms-it-was-ha...

Honestly, hack is a big word for what it really was... no user data stolen and they closed the server. I still use it and would recommend it, just for the speeds and the easy interface.

Do you get decent speeds from Mullvad? Friends were reporting that they moved back to PIA due to worse speeds on Mullvad. That and the lack of a chrome extension (which is occasionally useful) has prevented me from switching away from PIA even if I'm unhappy about being in business with Karpeles and Kape.

I just fired it up and connected to an endpoint in my city, I have a 600mps download pipe and hit 150mbps with default settings and about 275mbps with wireguard selected in the mullvad app. Switching to TCP in the mullvad app didn't change my result enough to notice.

I didn't try other servers/cities to get more information.

I am getting great speed out of Mullvad, usable for everything, except frame critical gaming. Even video streaming usually works fine. I would say I get approximately 3/4 of my normal speed when using VPN.

Any thoughts on airvpn.org?

Mullvad has contributed to Wireguard that secures me the confidence in their service. Also the experience of creating an account without my name and email address is the best. Theh only thing left is the billing message (I use credit card) has prefix: VPN*

AlgoVPN is really so easy that it's hard for me to justify using anything else.

I can recommend protonVPN

Like many others here, Mullvad. I've also been experimenting with ProtonVPN because it was offered as part of a bundle with ProtonMail.

Thanks for the heads up. Really excited to see a lot of folks here agree on Mullvad as a good alternative.

> Is it possible that they could in fact produce this data but were prevented from publicly saying so due to a gag order?

Unlikely. Signal and the ACLU were the ones who filed suit to allow them to disclose the terms of the warrant the first place.

It would be an incredibly expensive and risky move for them to do so if they knew that the judge could force them to reveal that they've been turning over more detailed user data in secret.

Not to mention that it would have amounted to perjury.

They were bought by an adware tech company last year AFTER the events of the article you linked. I would suggest mullvad as a good alternative. I've had better speed and as good ease of use.

That’s one point in favor of PIA.

I chose NordVPN coz we can access from any server in the world and they have offered me good discount

Are you aware of the controversies around NordVPN?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NordVPN#Security_issues_and_co...

Thanks for highlighting this.

I also read somewhere their CEO did something comprising to churn in more profits.

Maybe I will think about buying Mullvad subscription.

>I chose NordVPN coz we can access from any server in the world and they have offered me good discount

That describes literally most of the VPN service offerings out there.

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