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Comment by rasengan | Hacker News Reader

[Comment retracted and removed by author's request.]

In addition to the redacting the above comment, we deleted several comments below by request of their authors. My understanding is that the dispute has been resolved and that the allegations are retracted.

You aren't doing much in terms of brand ambassadorship for PIA by muck raking and bickering with a competitor. It's quite petty. The comment about PIA wasn't put forth by ProtonVPN. They clarified the discrepancy you raised and did so in a civil manner.

I wasn't that familiar with your company before today but I can tell you that I won't be a customer at any time in the future based on your comments.

I feel like the PIA guy is providing a lot of sources for his position. I feel like the counter arguments aren't providing anything, but words.

I checked out the provided links. It is weird. Even if it were a wrong conclusion, it seems fishy.

What PIA co-founder proofed in this thread so far:

- ProtonVPN UAB lists Tesonet's CEO as a director

- ProtonVPN UAB is operated from Tesonet HQ in Vilnius, Lithuania

- ProtonVPN UAB uses previous Tesonet's technical employees

- ProtonVPN uses IP address blocks that belong to Tesonet

- ProtonVPN mobile app is signed by Tesonet

It seems, that ProtonVPN is a free VPN service by a data mining company from Lithuania.

That is what I mean. It looks like these things are facts and combined it doesn't look good.

ProtonMail team here. None of the above is correct. ProtonVPN is developed, operated and 100% owned by Proton Technologies AG, the Swiss company that also operates ProtonMail. This can be verified in the Swiss commercial registry, which also lists all our directors: http://ge.ch/hrcintapp/externalCompanyReport.action?companyO...

Proton has also been thoroughly audited/vetted by third parties, including Mozilla: https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2018/10/22/testing-n... and also the European Commission which partially funds Proton: https://protonmail.com/blog/eu-funding/

Any data mining claims are categorically false, and doing data mining would also subject us to fines of 20 million Euros as discussed here: https://protonvpn.com/blog/is-protonvpn-trustworthy/

I wasn't aware that ProtonVPN was not run by ProtonMail, even though I happen to be from Vilnius, Lithuania myself and even have a close friend working at Tesonet. If this is true, that makes me question how much anything branded Proton* can be trusted in general.

ProtonMail team here. The above is not correct. ProtonVPN is developed and operated by ProtonMail. However, it exists as a separate legal entity for security reasons. This is to avoid ProtonMail getting banned in jurisdictions where VPNs are illegal. An example is China where ProtonVPN is banned, but ProtonMail is permitted. Had they been the same company, both would have been banned together. So from the legal standpoint, we put as much separation as possible between ProtonMail and ProtonVPN.

Like ProtonMail, the ProtonVPN team is distributed, split between Geneva, Skopje, Vilnius, and San Francisco. Tesonet (one of the biggest IT firms in Vilnius) was previously used as outsourced HR before we incorporated our own entity in Vilnius. We have similar arrangements for our staff in San Francisco, Prague, and Skopje. The above poster's intentions are a bit suspect, given that he's the co-founder of PIA...

> Tesonet was previously used as outsourced HR before we incorporated our own entity in Vilnius

But your entity's business address in Lithuania is still Tesonet's HQ. And Tesonet runs the entire technical infrastructure needed for a VPN service. So, are you partners or competitors?

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