Gabe Turner: Hi, folks.
This is Gabe at Security Baron.
Maybe you feel a little bit of anxiety whenever you have to jump on to a public WiFi network.
Well, let's see if we can ease a bit of that anxiety as we check out the Private Internet
Access, VPN.
[music]
Gabe: In today's review of Private Internet Access, I'm going to look at the pros and
cons, features, conduct some speed and leak tests, review the subscription details, customer
support, and finally, that mobile application so that you have all the information you need
to know if Private Internet Access is right for you.
I feel like to see a list of our favorite VPNs, Google Security Baron best VPN.
If you have a question about today's review, leave us a comment and I'll get back to you.
The first thing I want to go over in our review of Private Internet Access are the pros and
cons beginning with the pros.
Private Internet Access logs hardly any of your data.
We're quite impressed with the way in which they protect what you're doing on your computer.
Another element that was really impressive were the high ratings in both the Apple App
Store and Google Play Store.
Both iPhone and Android users are enjoying their experience with the PIA, Private Internet
Access mobile application.
When it comes to cons, they're located in Denver, Colorado, which is a part of the United
States, which is a signatory to a host of international surveillance programs.
One could theoretically think about a situation in which they're legally forced to hand over
your data that of course they don't actually keep.
The final thing that we will note is that the reviews that we saw regarding customer
support were rather mixed.
It doesn't seem to have the best customer support experience.
Now that we've gone over the pros and cons of Private Internet Access, let's check out
its features beginning with data logging.
Data logging is something you don't want at all with your VPN.
To a certain extent, you don't want to even with the VPN company itself.
This is where Private Internet Access does better than most because not only do they
not log the IP addresses you use, the sites you visited, but they also don't even log
that you log into the VPN, or how long you used it.
They do a really great job of protecting your data in that sense, and it does make me feel
a little bit better about them being located right here in the good old USA.
The next feature that we'll talk about with Private Internet Access is the kill switch
feature.
I know that name is a little bit aggressive, but it does mean something positive.
It means that if your VPN goes out for any reason, it will automatically disconnect everything
so you don't have to worry about being exposed with whatever you are doing on your private
network.
It's also referred to as a network lock feature.
It's just something to protect you and whatever software and websites you are using on your
VPN.
If you're someone who wants to be both on a public and private network at the same time,
something referred to as split tunneling, you will not be able to do that with Private
Internet Access.
It's all or nothing with Private Internet Access and no split tunneling.
The final feature that we'll discuss today with Private Internet Access is Netflix.
Whether or not you can use it?
The answer is maybe.
There's a constant battle between Netflix VPNs and with Private Internet Access.
They do not seem to have found the key to have it, be a constant thing that you can
do.
Maybe you'll be able to use Netflix, but we can't say that you'll generally be able to
torrent.
To summarize the features for Private Internet Access, you've got logging data?
No, doesn't happen.
When it comes to the kill switch feature, they do have one fortunately, but you will
not be able to split tunnel.
When it comes to Netflix, just maybe, luck of the draw.
When it comes to torrenting, yes, you will be able to torrent using Private Internet
Access.
Let's do some testing of the Private Internet Access, VPN.
There are a lot of factors that go into affecting the speed of any particular Internet service.
Just to provide some transparency, I used an Asus VivoBook and a MacBook Air in Brooklyn
on the optimum network.
That's what I was using in order to conduct these speed tests.
Looking at the speed tests, Private Internet Access performed better on my Windows computer
than it did on my MacBook.
While I was super pleased that Private Internet Access didn't create any latency at all on
my Mac, it did slow down download speeds by about 65 percent, which is a bit higher than
average, while upload speed was slowed down by 30 percent, which is pretty middle of the
road.
On the Windows computer however, the download speed only slowed by less than 15 percent
and the upload speed by a little over 5 percent.
If I had to choose, I'd recommend Private Internet Access to a Windows user over a Mac
user, if you're looking for a super speedy connection.
The next test that we're going to do for Private Internet Access is the domain name server
leak test or DNS leak test, for short.
That's what you do a thousand times a day when you type in google.com, wikipedia.com,
is the actual IP address underneath that search.
Fortunately, there were no leaks when we tested Private Internet Access and all my web traffic
is data encrypted.
The final test that we run on Private Internet Access is the WebRTC leak test.
WebRTC means Web Real Time Communications.
That is basically when two computers connect directly to one another without going through
a server, something you do for something like video chatting, transferring large files.
Honestly, it's the default for a lot of programs that you used to use in browsers like Chrome,
Firefox, Opera.
You want to make sure that your private IP address remains just that private when you're
doing any of those functions.
Fortunately, with Private Internet Access, there were no WebRTC leaks.
That private IP address that is on my site, when I connect directly with someone else,
remain private.
Let's check out the subscription options with the Private Internet Access.
There are three.
You do monthly $695, yearly $3,995 and two-year contract $6,995.
You're looking at some pretty steep discounts if we're willing to lock yourself in with
Private Internet Access.
Don't worry, you got a seven-day money-back-guarantee if you don't like the service that you get
with them as a VPN provider.
What do they provide?
Well, they provide switching between unlimited numbers of servers.
You can use an unlimited number of devices and you get 10 simultaneous connections.
Not only that, but you have a host of manual configurations in supported browsers to use
with Private Internet Access.
Let's look at the customer support for Private Internet Access.
You only have a couple of ways to get in touch with the company.
You can either check out their online Help Center, which actually isn't the way getting
in touch, rather, just getting maybe some answers to your questions.
You can fill out an online form, but I would love to see something like a live chat feature,
something that gives you a little bit more of a sense of urgency or immediacy with whatever
concerns you might have.
Looking at the Amazon reviews, it gets a 3.6 out of 5-star rating, which is pretty decent,
and of the reviews that mentioned customer support specifically, a little bit over 60
percent of those are positive.
With most people saying, "OK, yeah, they got in touch with us relatively quickly," but
then you have a not insignificant percentage of people saying, "Hey, we didn't really get
the information we needed or took a long time to get back to us."
That's something you don't want to see with your VPN provider.
When it comes to customer support, it seems to be a bit of a mixed bag.
The final thing we'll go over today looking at Private Internet Access is the application
which can be found Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome, a host of places, but what we'll specifically
talk now about the mobile application, which fortunately for us has tremendous reviews,
getting a 4.6 in the Apple App Store and a 4 in the Google Play Store.
People love it on mobile, which is pretty great because a lot of the browsing that we
do these days happens to be on our mobile phones.
You just want that experience across platforms to be intuitive and smooth and you're clearly
getting that with it on iPhone and Android.
Now I want to recap my experience with Private Internet Access, beginning with some of the
things that I like.
It starts with the data logging policy.
They really are ahead of many of the other companies when it comes to data logging, and
the fact that they don't really do any of it.
You can feel pretty safe with them having your data.
Another thing I love is the seamless, smooth, intuitive process of going between platforms
with their application.
You know that if you're on Linux, or Chromebook, or your iPhone, you're going to have a pretty
solid experience with their application.
When it comes to things I didn't like so much, that really begins with the customer support.
You don't really have a timetable for when you're going to get a response.
There's really only one way to contact them.
When you're looking at VPNs, there can be times in which you need urgency, you have
some immediacy with your issues and you definitely want a customer support team which is going
to get back to you immediately.
When it comes to Netflix, the fact that you can sometimes get it is not really enough.
I really didn't like that you don't have a split tunneling option.
Those are some things to be aware of in regards to Private Internet Access.
[background music]
Gabe: That concludes our review of Private Internet Access, VPN.
If you appreciate today's video, give us a like and hit that subscribe button.
As always, this is Gabe at Security Baron.
Be secure.