I was listening to the 1password podcast and they mentioned some malware company was buying up all sorts of VPN providers. Does anybody have a news story to share with info on this? I’d like to know who is buying, and who they have bought.
I found Consolidation of the VPN industry spells trouble for the consumer
That’s written by a different? vPN provider, Windscribe, and is all I could find.
Some “malware company” – does that mean a company that sells services to combat malware, or a company that creates malware. (The latter is an interesting concept … because RICO.)
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I listened to the same podcast. And I’ve found several articles that expressvpn has been sold which verifies that part of the report @Cbales posted.
Expressvpn was the only one I trusted and I’ve removed it until they can regain my trust, if that is possible. Kape Technology may be guilty of some misdeeds but it appears to be a legitimate company.
This concerns me. I have used ExpressVPN for years. Do I need to be concerned?
Just to clarify something: ExpressVPN had been a Relay FM sponsor for a long time, but we have terminated our contract with them for future spots. We have concerns over their sale and thought it best to move on.
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Good to know. I’m always cautious when a company I use is sold and doubly so when it is something as important as a VPN.
I just wish they had sold the company six months ago before I renewed my subscription.
Safe alternatives?
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I regularly check Techlore for independent reviews and updates. They also have a YouTube channel with regularly updated VPN reviews.
Another source I have used in the past is That One Privacy Guy’s VPN Chart. Often quoted, so not sure how independent this list is.
Does that include NordVPN? I’m pretty sure they’ve had a shady reputation in the past. Media outlets like Chrome Unboxed have long term sponsorship contracts with them (and they sponsor them all the time on their website and their YouTube videos).
There are so many VPN companies now. It’s hard to pick which one to choose. The ones I can think of off of the top of my head are Mozilla VPN and ProtonVPN. 
I stopped listening to the 1Password podcast some time ago, so I haven’t heard the episode, but these links might be relevant:
(they also bought Private Internet Access 
- the VPN I have been using…)
I just canceled my ExpressVPN subscription.
Just cancelled my ExpressVPN service too. Shame….really liked it.
Service cancelled…….what is the recommendation for new provider?
One alternative for those asking. Mozilla VPN.
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I haven’t done much homework yet on that.
Yeah, that’s my go-to VPN of choice. Mozilla (the creator of Firefox and Thunderbird) is an established entity when it comes to privacy. For anybody who’s reading this, I would personally recommend their VPN over anything else.
Has anyone heard anything about VyprVPN? IRRC, it was once recommended by one of the major-publication tech columnists — NYT? WSJ? BusinessWeek? Don’t remember and haven’t kept up with it, but curious.
This article suggests using Algo VPN to setup your own VPN on any cloud provider, such as Digital Ocean. I hadn’t heard of the option before, but it’s free (although you have to pay for the hosting if you don’t have your own server), open source, and supports WireGuard, which seems to be the current state of the art (WireGuard is the protocol used by Mozilla for their product). I haven’t had the time to try this yet, but it seems relatively easy to get up and going, and there are WireGuard clients available for all major platforms.
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