Conversely, Lantern [0], one of the most popular VPNs in China is funded by the CIA. Their privacy policy makes for a very eerie read [1].
Snippets:
> Personalize and improve the Services, including to provide or recommend features, content, social connections, referrals, and advertisements.
> (We may share information...) With vendors, consultants, marketing partners, and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work on our behalf
> When you use our Services, we collect information sent to us by your computer, mobile phone or other access device. The information sent to us includes, but is not limited to, the following: data about the pages you access, computer IP address, device ID or unique identifier, device type, geo-location information, computer and connection information, mobile network information, statistics on page views, traffic to and from the sites, referral URL, ad data, and standard web log data and other information. We also collect information through our use of cookies and web beacons.
> Device Information: We may collect information about your mobile device, including, for example, the hardware model, operating system and version, software and file names and versions, preferred language, unique device identifier, advertising identifiers, serial number, device motion information, and mobile network information.
> Log Information: When you interact with the Services, we collect server logs, which may include information like device IP address, access dates and times, app features or pages viewed, app crashes and other system activity, type of browser, and the third-party site or service you were using before interacting with our Services.
> We may transfer the information described in this Statement to, and process and store it in, the United States and other countries, some of which may have less protective data protection laws than the region in which you reside
I occasionally think about subscribing to a vpn to protect my behavior information from my isp (Spectrum). But, everytime I get to considering it, I get sketched out that the low cost vpn providers will sell my data just as indiscriminately as my ISP.
This article suggests trust is hard to come by. Who can recommend a quality and secure vpn?
The #2 company on the Fortune 500 is Exxon-Mobil. Who owns it? There are some limited disclosures in various places, but this is the same as Chinese firms. Exxon-Mobil is "secretly owned". What hypocrisy these western magazines have. Computer Weekly, owned by Reed Elsevier RELX makes a small fortune privatizing publication of publicly funded research. Who is behind that? Who knows? It is as much "secretly owned" as any Chinese company.
As I said, there are limited disclosures, just like the Chinese. In this case meaningless - I ask who owns this and you say "Blackrock" and "Northern Trust" as if you've answered the question. "Northern Trust" is not a who, it is just another layer of "secret ownership" to use the magazine's phraseology. I still have no idea who owns Exxon-Mobil - it is a secret, to use their phrase.