There was one VPN provider he just rated 1 star and refused to use because the home page didn't feel modern enough. At that point I mentally rated the article 1 star and refused to take its contents seriously.

PIA actually scores as one of the highest on the objective measures. The star count is just a subjective impression and experience with getting it set up. They connect over HTTP on startup instead of HTTPS (which is unacceptable for a privacy company). They then ping almost a hundred servers on startup (no other app does this, at least not to this extent).

Hi mobitar. Thanks for the highest score in regard to the objective measures. Regarding the subjective impression and experience, I'd like to let you know what's going on. If you feel that this changes your impression, it would be great to update accordingly!

The HTTP connection upon startup is for the region data request which is signed and verified upon receipt. It's tamper proof, but you can read it. It's something that anyone with the client can read, and the client is free to download.

Arguably, it's more secure to entrust the communication from PIA to the client software itself than to blindly entrust it to HTTPS which has provably been compromised due to bad actors in the past.

We're in #privateinternetaccess on irc.freenode.net to discuss anytime as well!

Thanks for everything mobitar and for taking the time to produce this report.

Sorry mobitar, I forgot to address the pings. This is to find the best (closest by network latency) path to you. We're really focused on providing the best possible experience, and that experience is simply providing what we do best, in the most unobtrusive way possible.

And to that extent, when it comes to your privacy and fighting for your internet civil liberties, we'll be second to none.

Cheers,

Andrew

I've seen PIA being very active and friendly, along with supporting FOSS which I love, so I say good work.

That said, a question: is there a way for a power user to control this startup ping mechanism in favor of using a single server they have selected as the best? The only reason I see to not do this would be if your IP ranges are volatile time-wise for some reason. Or perhaps I'm missing another factor?

If you're using the app, I know you can choose a server instead of "Auto". Not sure if it does the pings.

You can bypass the app. I've identified some servers that work good and are close to me and just use a separate app with the profiles/configuration I need. (You can use the built in VPN on your OS or use the OpenVPN app directly for example if you want).

There are options.

Well, you can use stock OpenVPN, with firewall rules to prevent leaks. Or you can use pfSense as a VPN gateway VM.

Hi Andrew! I've used PIA for a few years now. I'm very happy with it.

There's just one thing that's kind of a deal breaker. I recently switched to Mac and the Mac PIA Client is quite far behind the Windows, Android and iOS versions.

I'll list all my issues together here:

Major issues

- slow to start

- slow to connect (often tries forever). This is my biggest issue. On other platforms (or connecting directly with the built in Mac vpn function) it takes like 2-3 seconds. With the Mac client it takes many times longer. There's also no feedback about what stage the connection is in, unlike on every other OS.

- doesn't reconnect if network changes, so internet just stops working

Minor issues

- can't see pings for servers

- not as sexy as Windows client

I switched to using the built in Mac VPN feature to connect which is much faster, but occasionally stops working altogether for 20-30 minutes. So right now I don't have a good reliable VPN solution.

Hope this feedback helps!

Thanks again, andai

Hi,

Can you please fix the mac client so that when I wake up my macbook after couple days of sleep I don't have HUNDREDS of "disconnected" messages from PIA to dismiss? I understand it connects and then disconnects every time the computer wakes up briefly during sleep, but the onslaught of notifications is.....A lot.

It's unfortunate that it's reached the front page given the quality but you don't need to thank him for a poorly written review.

Considering your claim to be interested in producing a quality analysis of the various services and clients, and in other reviews you took pains to point out that connections were made to Google analytics servers, I found it pretty disappointing that you didn't explain what the servers that PIA were pinging actually are.

Are they, as I suspect (as a PIA user), pinging their own servers worldwide, to find the fastest options available? Are they pinging third parties?

Your review basically says "pings are bad m'kay" without demonstrating any understanding of what the client is doing.

Furthermore, your questioning of the use of port 80 makes me wonder about your own security knowledge. You really don't understand why a commercial VPN product designed to be used by portable devices in unexpected environments might commence a connection on port 80?

These 'objections' you have make me sceptical of your attention to detail in general.

Don't use their app then. In fact, I can't think of a reason why I'd install any vpns app if they support openvpn.

Their app has all of their various points of presence pre-populated. If you use your favorite OpenVPN program to connect you would need to get a couple dozen configs imported.

It also tries to find the fastest connection for you, which is useful when traveling.

Because Tunnelblick isn't the greatest UX?

Viscosity is great on macOS. (http://www.sparklabs.com/viscosity/) never tried it on Windows.

I recommend Viscosity.

NetworkManager is OK.

It gets you an "automatic" option for which endpoint to use, other than that I can't think of anything.

Some people like the kill switch. I just think remote port is easier to setup.

I sometimes use the app. Mainly use the builtin client of the OS.

I have happily used PIA for years on Ubuntu and macOS and Android, but I never, ever use their clients. Just download the ovpn files[1] and set them up with the native support built into your OS (or use something like Viscosity for more functionality). On an unrelated note, I'm happy to know that my (reasonable) annual subscription allows them to support FOSS projects, they should really publicize that more!

1: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/openvpn/openvpn.zip 2: https://www.sparklabs.com/viscosity/

They support OpenVPN.

I don't know, the criticism in the list is certainly irrelevant, but as far as I can see PIA is a US company and I believe it is kind of absurd to nowadays trust any US or UK company about privacy-related matters. The UK has become one of the worst countries in the world regarding privacy due to the Investigatory Powers Act, but the US also doesn't have a good reputation in this regard.

A simple Google search also reveals various user complaints that PIA apparently uses a Ruby (!) script to constantly write an extensive local log of all web activities, and the option is switched on by default. That's not inspiring my confidence. Their pricing is great, though.

The problem I have with VPNs in general is that quite a sizable number of them look as if they had been set up by dubious entities solely to collect data on their customers. Especially the ones with competitive pricing.

I would rather trust some of the more expensive ones from e.g. Sweden.

I agree, I am not sure why you would use PIA. From their TOS:

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/terms-of-service...

"Failure to comply with the present Terms of Service constitutes a material breach of the Agreement, and may result in one or more of these following actions:

...

Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as deemed reasonably necessary.[1]

[1] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/terms-of-service...

Possibly because PIA is a US company and therefore someone in Europe does not care?

For someone in, say, Germany a German VPN would be way more worrisome because of the same jurisdiction.

That stock photo of kids on bikes on their homepage feels so out of place hah

They're going for Mom, apple pie and so on :)

Which is so strange because in in the technical category they're one of the best. Shopping for a VPN provider 2 years ago I almost passed them right by due to how the site looks. So glad I dug a little deeper and eventually chose them because the service 'just works' and 2 years later I don't have a single complaint.

"As a disclaimer" (disclosure).

Thanks, I've updated accordingly. It's getting late here in the UK!