1PW once suggested Cloak VPN. Now called Encrypt.me. And is now J2 Global...

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chumtarou
chumtarou
Community Member

Years ago, 1Password suggested Cloak VPN service. There was a bundle and since then, I have been using this.

However, today they announced it is bought out by J2 Global. (I believe now it has changed hands twice?)

Not sure if they are as good as before...

Is there a new VPN service 1Password team would recommend for best security and privacy?


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Referrer: forum-search:cloak

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  • XIII
    XIII
    Community Member
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    Where/how did they announce that?

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni
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    @chumtarou - I don't know that we ever formally recommended Cloak for VPN use, though many of us here use it and may have made personal recommendations (as opposed to speaking on behalf of 1Password). But a couple of years ago, Cloak changed the name of their company and products to EncryptMe. Their new website is https://encrypt.me - it's the same people with essentially the same service/quality, just new name/branding. I think there may be some newer, less-well-known organization squatting on the old Cloak name, but it is most definitely not the same people. And from what I can tell, EncryptMe hasn't been acquired, by J2 or anyone else.

    There are a lot of good VPN providers out there these days (and at least as many not-so-good ones, in my personal opinion), but it's really beyond the scope of what we do here to really formally recommend one as a "1Password-approved/recommended solution." I personally still use EncryptMe, and would recommend it to anyone (especially Apple device users) looking for a well-designed and secured, easy-to-use VPN -- but they're far from the only good VPN provider out there.

  • XIII
    XIII
    Community Member
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    This article seems to suggest that this happened more than a month ago:

    https://www.top10vpn.com/news/vpn/tech-giant-j2-global-acquires-stackpaths-vpn-brands/

  • chumtarou
    chumtarou
    Community Member
    edited June 2019
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    @Lars thanks for your reply - I don't mean a formal recommendation but back in 2012 or so, there was a promotion only for 1password customers - I can't remember how I got the promo but since then, I've been using it and very happy with it so far.

    When it became Encrypt.me, I felt okay and have continued to use it.

    However, I received an email this morning about J2 Global. Appears they also own Ziff Davis, PC Mag, etc. which makes me a bit more worried about the parent company's intentions as opposed to the independent company Cloak used to be.

    So this got me thinking maybe I should consider a different company. Perhaps TunnelBear which is also Canadian. With so many choices, it's harder to decide who to trust. Thought I'd ask the 1 company I do trust.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    @chumtarou: For what it's worth, I wasn't able to find a press release or something on their website, but I like what I see in this 9to5mac news article:

    https://9to5mac.com/2019/06/06/encrypt-me-vpn-service-acquired/

    Especially this part:

    A clear no logging policy. We will retain only the data we absolutely have to and we will clearly communicate what we store and for how long

    Interested to watch how this develops though. :)

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni
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    @chumtarou - wow, thanks for the tip! I'm a little surprised I didn't get that email (or perhaps it was caught by a spam filter, will have to go back and check).

    Again, it's a bit beyond the scope of what we do here to formally recommend a VPN to 1Password users, but I definitely appreciate you bringing this to our attention. I can say we've had no internal messages to discontinue using Encrypt.me for those of us who do use it, but we're just learning about this via email as well, so I don't have any idea if that will change in the future (though if I had to guess, I'd say that's not a likely thing).

  • chumtarou
    chumtarou
    Community Member
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    Thanks guys - good to know @Lars you use and continue to use Encrypt.me as well - if your team does decide to change, would be awesome if the 1Pasword team could share that with us - Privacy/security with VPN is really hard for me to judge who to trust. Aside from features, speed, etc. I'd much rather use a company vetted by someone like 1password. Thanks again for all your responses. Very helpful.

  • thightower
    thightower
    Community Member
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    Woop's removed my post as details were included above. Carry on nothing to see here. lol

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni
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    @thightower - heh. I've done that before. No worries. :) 👍

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    @chumtarou: This is just personal commentary. As Lars mentioned above,

    it's really beyond the scope of what we do here to really formally recommend one as a "1Password-approved/recommended solution." I personally still use EncryptMe

  • XIII
    XIII
    Community Member
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    I'm a little surprised I didn't get that email

    Same here (and it's not in the spam folder).

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    I meant to say that too. Maybe they're staggering sending those out. I believe we do that too in order to avoid being misconstrued as spammers.

  • Manaburner
    Manaburner
    Community Member
    edited June 2019
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    I guess this list is pretty good when you are concerned about your privacy: https://www.privacytools.io/providers/vpn/

    You can find even more info on VPNs etc. here. https://thatoneprivacysite.net/

    I'm using NordVPN for a while now and I quite like it. Especially the auto-connect feature, which means that it automatically establishes a VPN connection when you are not in a trusted WiFi network.

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni
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    @Manaburner - I quite like the wealth of resources available at thatoneprivacysite. Have found them useful over the years, for sure. Thanks for the tip! :) :+1:

This discussion has been closed.