I’ve been doing some research on VPNs for a few months, and was about to pull the trigger until I came across an article stating ExpressVPN was purchased in December by Kape Technologies. Cnet mentioned that they’ve raised concerns in the past about Kape with privacy.
What is everyone’s opinion about this acquisition, and should I still go with ExpressVPN now?
I’m a long time subscriber to Express VPN. I read several articles on its sale to Kape Tech. I was concerned at first and explored the possibility of going to Surf Shark or Nord, but I found out that Nord and Surf Shark are merging, so I’ve decided to stick with ExVPN. I haven’t noticed any change in performance, or anything else to do with the service. I am however looking at a Netgate Firewall with pfsence+ software installed with VPN included.
https://shop.netgate.com/products/2100-base-pfsense
I’m haven’t made up my mind, as these unit do not have wifi.
I’ve been with Express for 5 years till this year. Recently tried SurfShark and Proton. I’m sticking with Proton.
Could ExpressVPN continue to work independently, without influence or changes from Kape? If that’s the case, I don’t think I’d have any concern with hopping onboard.
ExpressVPN have been independently audited by Price Waterhouse Coopers, which goes into quite a bit of detail about their privacy model.
The above external report confirms ExpressVPN’s claims that their servers run in RAM, ExpressVPN never know which users are connected at a given time, and no user activity is ever logged.
Regardless of Kape’s reputation, it’d be pretty hard for them to harm users with that (lack) of data.
As long as reputable third-parties (like PwC) are continued to be allowed to audit the service, and as long as those audits show good privacy practices being followed at ExpressVPN, I wouldn’t be too concerned.