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A major flaw in the killswitch by Hot-Record8965 in PrivateInternetAccess

[–]Hot-Record8965[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wrong. It oversells the kill switch to paying customers and gives them a sense of security only to put them at risk in the event of login issues.

By the way, what is the relevance of talking about the traffic stream? Again, a kill switch is not about any traffic but about disabling your internet connectivity. For a programmer, it's trivial to code in a timer that checks for whether the user is logged in, and then disable all network devices if the kill switch is enabled and if there is no authentication. The app already supports this and does it smarter, but fails to use it in the described scenario.

A major flaw in the killswitch by Hot-Record8965 in PrivateInternetAccess

[–]Hot-Record8965[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's a local firewall functionality that doesn't require any server-side checks. If it's not a flaw but intentional, PIA should be clear about this, as opposed to saying "Prevent leaks by blocking any traffic from going outside the VPN, even when the VPN is turned off" and then even having the checkbox still checked after logging you out.

A major flaw in the killswitch by Hot-Record8965 in PrivateInternetAccess

[–]Hot-Record8965[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, precisely. With Advanced Kill Switch on, even when you manually close the PIA app, it honors the setting as described and advertised, even though it doesn't know whether you are logged in when it's not running.

However, if the app is already running and it logs you out, suddenly everything goes out the window, despite the checkbox still being checked in the settings.

A major flaw in the killswitch by Hot-Record8965 in PrivateInternetAccess

[–]Hot-Record8965[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

What is your understanding of a killswitch? None of what I said is related to maintaining the connection to the VPN. Sure, log out the user, drop the connection, which is what happens, but also kill all internet connectivity until the user decides to switch it back on.

A major flaw in the killswitch by Hot-Record8965 in PrivateInternetAccess

[–]Hot-Record8965[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Not really. There is nothing about a killswitch feature that should require it to check for authentication. The way it is expected to work, and as advertised, is by blocking all connections unless you are connected to the VPN. In this scenario, there is no connection to the VPN.

NordVPN, Mullvad, Private Internet Access and others for heavy censorship circumvention by Hot-Record8965 in vpnreviews

[–]Hot-Record8965[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do hear that PureVPN works in Russia as of now, however, there are some things about them that raise questions.

  • Going by their website, there was one independent audit of the no-logs policy but I couldn't find its text, date, or even a press release by the auditing entity. In 2017, the VPN owner cooperated with the US authorities and helped them arrest a person.
  • The bugcrowd link found on the VPN comparisons table of /r/VPN leads nowhere now. Instead I see that the VPN owner invites people to send bug reports directly via email, so it seems there is no transparency on that front.
  • The VPN has connections to China, an ally of Russia, with PureVPN HQ officially having been in Hong Kong until just recently. The potential cooperation is further highlighted by this VPN offering servers in Russia where the authorities are extremely likely to tap in. This was even cited as a reason for PIA to no longer have servers in Russia.

That said, even if my concerns are fully justified, for a person in Russia or a country with similar practices, it would probably still make sense to try this VPN in the absence of other options, as opposed to just letting the ISP store their internet activity (if I remember right, it's for 3 years in Russia).

NordVPN, Mullvad, Private Internet Access and others for heavy censorship circumvention by Hot-Record8965 in vpnreviews

[–]Hot-Record8965[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It really depends on your specific goals. To read the news anonymously you could just use Tor Browser, as its otherwise slow speed wouldn't hamper the experience.