PIA (Private Internet Access) goes Open Source

[ PIA ] https://pia-foss.github.io

"Today marks the start of an exciting shift over here at Private Internet Access. As long-time supporters of the Free and Open Source Software community, we have started the process of open sourcing our software, and over the next six months we will be releasing the source code for all our client-side applications, as well as libraries and extensions.

We are extremely grateful to the Free and Open Source Software community for creating the foundations of the Internet as we know it. And while we may be late to the party, we are looking forward to furthering our work with a movement that aligns with our own passions, on both a personal and professional level.

We believe that the shift to open source is the right move for a privacy-focused business, and recognise that code transparency is key. We appreciate that our code may not be perfect, and we hope that the wider FOSS community will get involved, provide feedback, feature requests, bug fixes and generally help provide a greater service to the wider privacy movement.

Today, we are opening up the first of many repositories, the chrome extension, that allows users to access our network of proxies from their web browser. The chrome extension also boasts additional privacy and security features such as disabling the microphone and camera, blocking flash and ip discovery through WebRTC, and can also automatically block ads and tracking through PIA MACETM. Please note that the extension will protect traffic from the browser only and will NOT offer any protection when using other applications.

“Let’s continue to fight the good fight. Freedom is an earned right, and we must continue to re-earn it everyday. As the world continues to fight, Private Internet Access will be there. In crypto we trust.” — Andrew Lee, Private Internet Access Founder, and long-term FOSS contributor.

Head over to GitHub, check out the repo and get involved! You can find us in #privateinternetaccess on chat.freenode.net if you have questions, comments or simply want to find out more about what we are up to.

Our longer term goal is to release all our code into the open, and we hope that you will join us on our journey. We have some exciting things planned, and would love to hear from you if you want to get involved … and don’t forget to keep an eye on our blog and/or social media as we will be throwing some exciting launch events further down the line.

It should come as no surprise that we think that open source is awesome, and as long-term consumers of open source we are really happy to now be in a position where we can contribute back.

If you have any questions or comments, please do drop us a line to [email protected], we look forward to speaking with you and hope that our transparency will ensure that you have some peace of mind.

Chrome is a trademark of Google Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions. The Chromium logo has been used in accordance with CC By 2.5 .

About Christel Dahlskjaer

Christel is the VP of Open Source and Digital Advocacy at Private Internet Access. She is a privacy and digital rights advocate, a firm believer in software freedom and a bit of an all-round activist. She enjoys real ale, decent scotch and good conversation. She does not enjoy internet shutdowns and believes we must #KeepItOn."

SOURCE: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2018/03/private-internet-access-goes-open-source