Rephrase and rearrange the whole content into a news article. I want you to respond only in language English. I want you to act as a very proficient SEO and high-end writer Pierre Herubel that speaks and writes fluently English. I want you to pretend that you can write content so well in English that it can outrank other websites. Make sure there is zero plagiarism.: Private Internet Access review – quick menuPrivate Internet Access (commonly known as PIA) is a capable VPN provider, now owned by Kape, which also owns CyberGhost, ZenMate, and ExpressVPN.The company’s network has speedy 10 Gbps servers spread across 150+ locations worldwide—even more than ExpressVPN (146)—including many areas that are often neglected by other providers. It recently expanded its network, passing from 84 to 91 countries. These include: Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, South Korea, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Qatar, Sri Lanka, UAE, and more.PIA told us that 30% of those servers are co-located (owned by the company rather than leased). This gives the VPN more control over the hardware and even improves speeds.The service is also widely supported with apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux, and browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. Head to the PIA website and you’ll also find detailed setup tutorials for routers and other platforms, and smart DNS to unblock sites on games consoles and other devices that can’t run apps.▶ Try out our #1 Linux VPN with a 30-day money-back guarantee(Image credit: Private Internet Access (PIA))Previously, PIA offered 10 simultaneous connections, but recently removed the limit entirely—now, you can set up and use the service on as many devices as you need. That’s far more generous than most of the competition, although Atlas VPN, Surfshark, Windscribe, and a few others also support unlimited connections.Extras range from the straightforward (built-in blocking of ads, trackers, and known malicious websites) to the more low-level and technical: a SOCKS5 proxy for extra speed, port forwarding support, the ability to select your preferred encryption, authentication, and handshaking methods, and more.If that sounds a little complicated, don’t worry—there’s 24/7 live chat support to talk you through the tricky bits.Private Internet Access: what’s new?There’s good news on the mobile front, with PIA’s Android app gaining Google’s MASA (Mobile Application Security Assessment) certification.The MASA checks see an app independently verified by a third-party lab to be following best practice in some aspects of data storage, privacy, cryptography, network communications, code quality and more.This isn’t quite as comprehensive as it sounds, and MASA certification in itself doesn’t guarantee that an app is safe or that the VPN isn’t logging your data. But it’s still a useful extra indicator, and we’re glad to see PIA add this to its other audits and certifications.PIA has made quite a few app updates recently, but they’re very small. The most significant is that you can now opt to use your system DNS, rather than PIA’s own. That could be handy if you’re already using a third-party DNS such as Control D and would like to use it with the VPN, too.Private Internet Access provides a range of payment methods (Image credit: Private Internet Access)Private Internet Access pricingThe Private Internet Access monthly plan is fair value at $11.99. It ditched it’s annual and three-year plans, offering now a shorter six-month subscription for the equivalent of $7.50 a month alongside its cheaper option: a two-year plan for a tiny $2.19 per month and two months extra for free. Putting that into perspective, Hotspot Shield’s Premium plan costs $95.99 for one year of protection; PIA only asks $56.94 for your first 26 months.PIA offers dedicated IPs in Australia, Canada, Germany, Singapore, the UK, and the US, and recently added Japan and Switzerland to the list. These give you the same IP address every time you log on and, because no one else shares it, you’re less likely to find yourself on a block list due to someone else’s dodgy activities. However, using the same IP also means there’s more chance of being recognized by websites, so it’s not an ideal option for everyone.Pricing for a dedicated IP is reasonable at $5 a month, $4.25 on the six-month plan, and $2.50 over two years. NordVPN is significantly more expensive at $8.99 billed monthly, $5.89 or $4.19 on its annual and two-year plans respectively. Ivacy undercuts everyone at just $2.41 a month billed annually, $1.99 over two years.You can pay for PIA via Bitcoin if you’re looking for extra privacy, by card or PayPal, or take your pick of another method depending on your region (Amazon Pay is supported in the US, for instance).There’s a free 7-day trial for mobile users and you’re also covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee—so, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to try the service for yourself, in your own time, without risking a penny.PIA’s Terms and Services has another surprise (and unusually for small print, it’s a good one). Many VPNs say customers are only allowed one refund, ever. Private Internet Access says that as long as you purchased your new account more than three months after the last refund, you’re always eligible for another. Works for us.PIA offers AES-128 or AES-256 CBC or GCM encryption (Image credit: Private Internet Access)Privacy and securityGood VPN privacy starts with a strong set of core features, and Private Internet Access delivers more than most.PIA’s apps only use the latest and most secure protocols—like WireGuard and OpenVPN. There’s also DNS leak protection and a kill switch that’ll disable your internet access if the connection drops. PIA’s MACE feature blocks ads, trackers, malware, and more, and its Chrome extension adds a bunch of bonus privacy features (like block location access, third-party cookies, and website referrers).Private Internet Access managed to protect all of our data from DNS leakage in the tests we performed (Image credit: Private Internet Access)The best providers also prove that they respect your privacy, and plenty of VPNs have the option to send anonymous troubleshooting data back to the company. Some turn this on by default, with the VPN presumably hoping users never realize what’s happening. With PIA, however, nothing gets sent unless you head into the settings panel and enable the feature yourself (it’s the ‘Help improve PIA’ option in the Help area, if you’re curious).It’s important for a VPN to show transparency—to offer real evidence that it’s living up to its promises. Again, PIA has way more to boast about than most of its rivals.The company’s apps are open source, allowing users to examine the source code, look for bugs, and see whether it’s doing anything that might compromise their privacy.Recently, PIA introduced a new incentive for experts to check its code with the announcement of a Bug Bounty program. If a researcher finds and reports a genuine vulnerability, they could receive up to $1,250. Some providers offer considerably more (ExpressVPN has a $100,000 bounty for critical flaws in its TrustedServer technology), but I’m glad to see the incentive take off: anything that encourages more experts to check the code is pretty awesome.PIA’s Android app is certified by the ioXt Alliance, verifying that it complies with standards in areas like cryptography, software verification, and updates.The company has a very clear logging policy, and states that the service does not ‘store or share… incoming and outgoing traffic information, including user and destination IP addresses, browsing history/ websites visited, amount of data transferred, the VPN servers used, DNS queries or files downloaded… [as well as] VPN session information, software used, connection date, and duration.’Private Internet Access keeps no logs on its users (Image credit: Private Internet Access)There’s no need to take PIA’s words on trust, either, because the company has now had its no-logs policy independently audited. The company invited Deloitte to interview staff, inspect its VPN and other servers, evaluate its policies, procedures, and more. Deloitte’s report found no evidence of privacy issues and concluded that the policy was a fair description of how PIA sets up and manages its systems to prevent any logging.That’s great news, and gives potential customers genuine reassurance that PIA really is looking after their privacy. There’s scope to go further, though. TunnelBear has its apps, servers, website, and backend systems audited every year—but this is an excellent start and I’ll be interested to see what PIA does next.▶ Get a great deal on Private Internet Access with our exclusive offerWe test the speed of every VPN we review (Image credit: Speedtest.net)Private Internet Access performanceEvery VPN promises a high-speed, ultra-reliable network,…
