Interview with Private Internet Access

PIA has open-sourced all of its desktop clients and mobile apps, and has had its no-log policy verified in open court multiple times.

Private Internet Access

We’re continuing with our interview series, and this time ’round – our “target” is Private Internet Access, aka PIA. As usual, we’ve sent them our batch of questions and they provided us with answers. Here’s what they had to say…

Can you shortly introduce your company? When it was founded and why? Who are the founders?

Private Internet Access was founded in 2010 by Andrew Lee of London Trust Media to provide privacy for internet users. Having had insight into the anti-privacy practices used by marketing and advertising firms, not to mention the government, Private Internet Access was founded to provide a no-log VPN service for the masses — to give power to the people. Since 2010, PIA has stuck to its well-known no-log policy and has grown to over a million users.

What makes you different than competing VPN services?

Private Internet Access has a proven track record commitment to transparency and its privacy policy. We have open-sourced all of our desktop clients and mobile apps. Additionally, PIA has had its no-log policy verified in open court multiple times. To support the privacy community, PIA has also donated millions of dollars to organizations supporting civil liberties, privacy, and open-source software.

What do you see as the main trends for the VPN industry?

The VPN industry will continue with its current growth trend. Slowly but surely, the world is becoming interconnected as more and more people start using the internet. Simultaneously, policy changes around the world, as well as personal experiences, continue to drive users towards using the internet privately — and VPNs are a key component in staying private online.

What about challenges? Which do you see coming down the road?

The VPN industry sees challenges from governments and politicians that do not understand that encryption is a function of mathematics and is fundamentally unblockable. Despite this mathematical truth, governments still try to legislate against the use of end to end encryption or force. Governments will continue to seek to undermine the privacy of its citizens in favor of more surveillance and it is up to tools like VPN to be available as a solution.

Where do you see the VPN industry in the next 5 years?

The VPN industry is a fast-changing animal. In five years, we will likely see a shakeup in VPN usage levels across different VPN protocols. The VPN industry will continue strong despite challenges from governments, because every human has a fundamental right to privacy and that applies on the internet, too.

What are your company’s plans for the future? (those you can reveal)

Private Internet Access has many features and improvements in the works. We are currently in the middle of a network expansion plan and will be adding more dedicated VPN servers in countries around the world. Additionally, Private Internet Access is going to be moving to 24/7 live chat customer support available in the coming months.

Private Internet Access
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Pros

Cons

  • Fast, reliable download and upload speeds
  • Works great for Netflix and torrenting
  • Dedicated Chrome and Firefox extensions
  • Connect 10 devices simultaneously
  • Doesn't work well in China