Private Internet Access VPN response to Investigatory Powers Act

Posted on Dec 6, 2016 by Caleb Chen

The United Kingdom has passed a draconian mass surveillance law, the Investigatory Powers Act (IP Act), which will force the collection of UK internet connection records for a whole year. We want to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Private Internet Access doesn’t store traffic logs or connection records of any kind.

We are the premier no log Virtual Private Network (VPN). What this means is that even when we are served with government requests, warrants, or subpoenas, we respond with the truth: We keep no logs.

Private Internet Access has been following the progression of the Investigatory Powers Bill with a keen eye over the last year. We have planned out several possible solutions to maintain our users’ security and privacy no matter what ends up happening. Exactly how the IP Act will be enforced remains to be seen.

Upon confirming that the Investigatory Powers Act had received Royal Assent on November 30th, we temporarily pointed all UK traffic at NL servers as a precautionary measure. As of December 1st, UK London and UK Southampton exit nodes will connect and provide a UK IP address as normal. Our datacenter partners have advised us that the Investigatory Powers Act is not yet being enforced and the specifics of how and when it will be enforced, and who will pay for it, is still to be determined.

Private Internet Access is confident that both UK customers and non-UK customers can connect to our UK London and UK Southampton servers without worrying about internet connection records. We are closely monitoring this law and are prepared to take action should this change.

Compensating for an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that logs your activity is one of the primary uses of a VPN privacy service. All VPN traffic is encrypted so your ISP’s logs are useless. Therefore whether UK ISPs start logging due to this law or have been logging the entire time, Private Internet Access has protected your privacy throughout.

We will be working with the top tech lawyers and our datacenter partners in the UK to stay on top of the IP Bill as it starts being enforced. If things change for the worse, we are prepared to leave the UK as we did for Russia when similar draconian laws were passed and enforced.

Thank you for your continued support and helping us fight the good fight.

Sincerely,
The Private Internet Access Team

5 Comments

1. Miro Avramoff

   After being for an year and a half a PIA always-on PIA VPN – on all of my devices, and while I first started with the PIA, because of their donation support those so many Open Source projects, including entire Linux Distributions, I had tried the new calling themselves “the best” commercial VPN providers like ExpressVPN, based offshore in Isle Of Man (1/10th of the quality of PIA), NordVPN, based offshore in Panama (1/20the of the quality of PIA, VyprVPN (1/5th of the quality of PIA), not offshore based, but that is a plus, because you never know did the Russian FSB<KGB has it done offshore to snuff all the users, I just got back in Private Internet Access for one more year – and believe me, you all concerning your privacy: PIA is currently THE BEST – You Should Have No Doubt. (dot)

   P.S. Don't trust offshore based VPN providers! You will never know HOW is standing behind and sniffing your life! Just think about these two: 1.) It's a brutal Cold War times. Eduard Snowden is protected by the Russian FSB<KGB, hidden in Russia. Do we have to trust him? Do we have to trust the KGB in times of a brutal Cold War – take a look at Europe and the European Union – they have been destroyed just after taking economical sanctions against Russia, after the Russian Rape of Ukraine had started… 2.) Whom is the most powerful and active protector of the Western Civilization, including the European Union and UK? United States Intelligence Community (USIC) that unites all the 16 Intelligence and other Secret Services of the U.S., including NSA! Should we let ourselves to be influenced by a KGB asset like Eduard Snowden, and to be afraid by our protectors, just because the KGB's Propaganda through the mouth of Eduard Snowden had made such a suggestions within our consciousness by subconscious implanted fear from the U.S.A.???

   8 years ago
2. Imam Soomro

   I’d rather trust PureVPN with the no logs policy. And yes, I have full access to Netflix.

   8 years ago
3. winkythesock

   Thanks! Keep fighting!

   8 years ago
4. Scooterch

   But access to the UK is one reason to use PIA. If you run away (as PIA did with Netflix) there is less reason to use PIA. Rather than shut down, your task is to find a way to make it work.

   8 years ago
5. Leif

   Thank you Mr.Chen!

   8 years ago