Anonymizer: Why do this internet privacy protection company have a GCHQ logo?

[Pimander]

Does anyone else know why some people might think it is strange that the first image is inspired by the second one.?   

[ArMaP]

Which one is the oldest?

[Wrabbit2000]

If you're asking in a compare/contrast way?

Well, the top company is Ntrepid. An American corp dedicated to data collection (data mining) and the tools to let the average person or business do the same. Complete with what appear to be proxy IP packages to do it in something like real anonymity. (Data mining is both a personal and professional interest of mine, so it hit a note of recognition.)

The second one is one of the best known buildings in the world, if one is familiar with national security services. They put the U in UK for how the GCHQ makes your business, their business as a full time deal. If there is a single source for running the totality concept...that would be where I'd look first.

Of course, it would be quite a coup for the watchers to start-up and own Ntrepid, wouldn't it? Watch the most paranoid private sector watchers, by giving them the sense that they can watch without BEING watched ...all the while, using the very tools made by the most powerful overseers in the world.

It just makes ya weak some days, doesn't it?

[Pimander]

Which one is the oldest?

I'm assuming it is the second one.

About Anonymizer

As the global leader in online privacy, anonymity, and identity protection solutions, Anonymizer continues to push the envelope with products that allow consumers and organizations to remain safe, secure, and anonymous each time they go online. With a pristine 18-year history of protecting customer online identities, our products and services have protected countless web searches and personal communications.

Our Mission

Anonymizer makes your online privacy our personal mission, which is why we cannot and will not correlate an individual user with any of the websites you visit. Our system is built in a way that makes us incapable of tracking your Internet activities. We believe what you do online is your business, no one else's, so the only logs maintained by Anonymizer are the time of log in and the amount of bandwidth utilized.

For more information about our logging and privacy policies, please review our EULA and privacy policy.

https://www.anonymizer.com/about.html

It just amuses me that they have modelled their logo on the building which houses the UK equivelent of NSA - GCHQ.  GCHQ are probably one of the two biggest snooping organisations on Earth and a company selling VPN solutions to protect our privacy and anonymity made their symbol a copy of GCHQ headquarters.

Perhaps it is a GCHQ front.  I emailed them to see if they wanted to explain the resemblance. 

I might email them again and send them a link to this thread.

I'm going to look at the symbols of other VPN providers to see if there are moree clues.

[Pimander]

Of course, it would be quite a coup for the watchers to start-up and own Ntrepid, wouldn't it? Watch the most paranoid private sector watchers, by giving them the sense that they can watch without BEING watched ...all the while, using the very tools made by the most powerful overseers in the world.

It makes sense to me.

Do Ntrepid own Anonymizer then?

[Wrabbit2000]

It makes sense to me.

Do Ntrepid own Anonymizer then?

I believe you are onto something there. This is a header area from the Ntrepid site:



After doing a bit more checking, I found a bit more information for what its worth. The Abraxas Corporation 'acquired' Anonymizer in 2008. Abraxas Corporation is also, for those who recognize the name, the people who brought us TrapWire. That was apparently an effort from the same company begun in 2004 and marketed in 2007. That came prior to the merger with Cubic Corp, and each can make their own determination of how tangled THAT particular web gets to being.

That leads to Ntrepid. Ntrepid merged with Cubic, from how I am reading it, in 2010, whereby it got the assets of Abraxas Corporation but not necessarily Abraxas Applications, tho they are seeminly tied together at that stage. (someone with more background in business may want to take a look at this too).

End result tho seems to be that Ntrepid owns Cubic, which owns Abraxas Corp, which in turn owns TrapWire...Formerly Abraxas Applications. That puts Anonymizer squarely in Ntrepid's ultimate basket through subsidiary ownership.

Isn't corporate backtracking fun? Err.....not.

ZDNet: Examining the ties between TrapWire, Abraxas and Anonymizer

[Pimander]

Wrabbit, they have removed the logo from the Anonymizer website mate.  I only emailed them about it an hour or two ago.

Looks like I just got moved up the GCHQ watch list.  Hello British Intelligence.

[ArMaP]

I'm assuming it is the second one.

I don't know if it is, but that site exists since the 1990s.

It just amuses me that they have modelled their logo on the building which houses the UK equivelent of NSA - GCHQ.

I don't think they did, I think I have seen other logos/drawings/signs/whatever like that, several years ago.

[ArMaP]

Wrabbit, they have removed the logo from the Anonymizer website mate.

What do you mean? I just saw it there.

[Pimander]

I can't see it on their website now.  Can anyone else in the UK see that logo using the link to their site I provided?  I'll restart my browser and try again.

ArMaP, are you saying you do not think that the logo is a stylised version of GCHQ headquarters (the doughnut)?

Built to modernise and consolidate GCHQ's multiple buildings in Cheltenham, The Doughnut was completed in 2003, and GCHQ moved into the building in 2004.[1] It is the largest building constructed for secret intelligence operations outside the United States.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doughnut

I guess we need to know when that logo first appeared?

[ArMaP]

ArMaP, are you saying you do not think that the logo is a stylised version of GCHQ headquarters (the doughnut)?

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

[Pimander]

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

I disagree.

I can see the logo on their website in the business solutions tab now I restarted my browser.  All this internet espionage is enough to make me paranoid. 

[burntheships]

  All this internet espionage is enough to make me paranoid. 

Dont worry, they know what your are doing 

[Wrabbit2000]

Looks like I just got moved up the GCHQ watch list.  Hello British Intelligence.

Sounds like clearing your browser brought the logo back and visible?

I do see what you're saying with it tho. The whole chain of companies and specifically what ION is designed to do and service runs a civilian parallel to what GCHQ does in a MUCH larger and much further reaching way. Data mining is data mining when it comes down to it with modern methods with modern transfer speeds tho... Really..scale is all that changes in dramatic ways.

The logo would be like a defense contractor making theirs to resemble our Pentagon tho? They couldn't come all that close, because I'm sure that's a protected symbol or trademark or however they'd call it when used in an identifiable way in the same context. So...It'd be stylized in a way far enough to be good on it's own, but make the same mental connection you made to anyone in the market for what they happen to do for a living. Makes sense.

As far as paranoia.. Heck... mind over matter. The watching doesn't matter if we give it no mind or time. They look for people being sneaky anyway. Just be out front and open with whatever, and these days? The idiots off hunting bogeymen will pass right by. They watch too much, is what has come to cripple them, IMO.

[Pimander]

As far as paranoia.. Heck... mind over matter. The watching doesn't matter if we give it no mind or time. They look for people being sneaky anyway. Just be out front and open with whatever, and these days? The idiots off hunting bogeymen will pass right by. They watch too much, is what has come to cripple them, IMO.

I agree that people can be too obsessed about it all.  If you are dealing with leaked government material or want to protect your sources then you can't be too careful.  Some stuff I would not discuss on the interweb without taking precautions.

Jokes aside, I started looking at the VPN providers with that in mind to see whether I thought they can be trusted as it is cheaper than setting up my own.  Well in view of the fact that these type of company are also selling information gathering services then there is no chance really.

I'm trying not to start joking again..... Now I'm beginning to doubt whether even OpenVPN will be secure if I set up my own.