
Realizing this and facing backlash, Crossrider closed the platform in 2016 and rebranded as Kape Technologies.

Its development platform for browser extensions was used by independent developers to deliver malicious adware and malware to users. There have been some questions in the past about the somewhat dubious practices surrounding Crossrider. PIA has been owned and operated by Kape Technologies, a UK-based company formerly known as Crossrider, since 2019. It accepts a good range of payment options including credit card, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin-there’s also an option to use Bitpay instead of direct wallet transfers. When you sign up for PIA, it only asks for your email address.

The convenience of this all-in-one approach is appealing, but generally speaking, a standalone antivirus software, like our favorite antivirus suites, will offer you more comprehensive coverage and overall security. You can even opt-in to an antivirus tool from PIA for an additional fee when you sign-up if you so choose. This is something we’re seeing more regularly as a means to entice users with a complete online security suite rather than just a VPN service. It even allows you to designate an app-based kill switch, which will block traffic only on specific apps should the VPN connection break.Īdditionally, taking after other VPN providers such as NordVPN and Surfshark, PIA has added a handy security extra in the form of an ad- and tracker-blocker that it calls MACE.

Power users can go to town tweaking things such as which apps, IP addresses, and DNS requests are allowed to bypass the VPN. In fact, PIA has one of the most dynamic split-tunneling features we’ve ever seen. Split-tunneling allows you to pick and choose which apps you wish to run through a VPN, allowing you to optimize bandwidth for low-risk activities such as streaming or gaming. Private Internet Access also comes with a plethora of great features such as split-tunneling, multi-hop, and a kill switch.
