Daily Deal: VPN Unlimited Lifetime Subscription

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from the good-deals-on-cool-stuff dept

Wed, Apr 1st 2015 12:29pm — Daily Deal

At this point you should know that surfing the web on a shared access point is not particularly safe. You're basically broadcasting out many of the details of your surfing habits. You read Techdirt, right? You know this. So you need a VPN -- and you don't have to pay a crazy amount either. Get the VPN Unlimited Lifetime Subscription for 70% off and surf more securely anywhere in the world on most of your devices (Windows phone owners are out of luck -- because, hey, you've already made that choice). For $39, you get a lifetime of secured and encrypted high-speed connections with unlimited traffic bandwidth. There's only one day left to take advantage of this deal and to help secure your data from prying eyes.

Note: We earn a portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.

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Filed Under: daily deal

39 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 12:43pm

Privacy/Security?
$39 gets you VPN for the life of VPN Unlimited. I'm interested in their privacy policy; I notice that they provide usage stats per-device. Who (inside and outside the company) has access to the data at the gateway?

VPNs provide a secure tunnel between two points. This company appears to have a collection of exit points around the world. While I would no longer have to worry as much about the privacy of my connection at a local access point, I now have to worry about it at some unknown third-party location.

I'd be interested to hear how they plan to safeguard my privacy at this point in the network chain, as this creates an excellent point to do metadata gathering, connection monitoring and man-in-the-middle attacks on both unencrypted and encrypted network connections.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 12:43pm

repost: Why is Techdirt promoting "lifetime subscription" scams?
It's very disappointing to see Techdirt promoting these "lifetime subscription" scams, which anyone gullible enough to ever fall for knows are never close to "lifetime" in duration.

Granted, $40 is not a lot of money (I've been scammed out of far more money buying a "lifetime" gym membership that only lasted several months) and might even be a fair price for a VPN *IF* the service lasts six months to a year.

But buying into any "lifetime" promise is pure gambling, and it's a sucker's bet at that. Even if the company is still around in a few years, they always seem to find a way to change the terms of the deal (whether openly or secretly) in ways that are most definitely not in the customer's benefit.

Having been hoodwinked more times than I care to admit, I now consider all of thise "lifetime" deals to be outright scams, and I think it's a disgrace that Techdirt is giving its seal of approval to this fraudulent practice.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 12:47pm

Witch burning is such a convenient method for getting rid of people who differ from the norm.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:01pm

April fools, right? Has to be... :(
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:03pm

Yes, I learned a long time ago that lifetime does not mean what it says it means.
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pixelpusher220 (profile), 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:06pm

Re: Privacy/Security?
per this reddit review from a few months ago, I wouldn't expect much of anything 'customer friendly'.

http://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/comments/2etgap/any_opinions_about_vpn_unlimited/
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:09pm

I'm guessing "lifetime" = lifetime of the devices - install on 5 and when those go, so does the lifetime.

Makes no sense otherwise from a business standpoint.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:12pm

Why bother with VPN when Puppy Simplicity Linux is free?
Of course, the "TOR" network is probably NSA.
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:14pm

Re:
Actually no, its not. While we don't know how long this service will last, the 40$ offer has been around since the store launched last week. I don't know when the offer will truly expire since when it launched it said 2 days left, and after the expired came back for another week. 40$ is low enough though that I am picking this up this evening. Even if I get just one year out of it, it will be worth it.

Two things to mention though from my questions with the company. They do not retain any logs related to specific traffic carried (or so they told me). Also, they are owned by a US based company.
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:15pm

Re:
No, I had asked them about changing devices in case a computer dies or something. You are allowed to delete a device per week. The guy who emailed me the response to my questions was Yuriy Popov (Simplex Solutions Inc.).
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:16pm

Re:
Well, offering a limited number of lifetime subscriptions can help a company raise needed capitol to expand their business or to get it off the ground. Think kick starter.

Any business offering lifetime anything to anyone all the time, well that simply is not sustainable. Think pyramid scheme.
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Peter (profile), 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:32pm

Beware - excessive logging!
From https://www.vpnunlimitedapp.com/terms

We log only access attempts to our servers (for security and troubleshooting), user session durations and the bandwidth used (for purposes of providing detailed information intended solely for each concrete user) and user clicks made to our software (to track popularity and assist in application and service improvements). [...]

In case users are suspected of activities, which are declared illegal by the laws of countries where the local VPN Unlimited servers are hosted, we may log information,[...]
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:39pm

Re: Beware - excessive logging!
Yeah; that's the thing -- they have to abide by the laws of the countries where they host their exit gateways. This means that if you use a US or UK exit gateway, you can be guaranteed of traffic logging at a minimum, and man-in-the-middle attacks / malware injection as a distinct possibility, depending on where your browser connections terminate.
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Scote, 1 Apr 2015 @ 1:59pm

Rebranded StackSocial storefront
I want TechDirt to make money, but I can't help but feel that rebranding StackSocial deals as TechDirt deals is problematic, especially this deal. Putting TechDirt's brand on this implies endorsement, and quality. But as other point out, cheap "Lifetime" service contracts are ways for companies to raise quick, short term cash without having any long term plan for how they are going to stay in business without future income to pay for the staff and infrastructure to support the VPN for a "lifetime."

As with most "lifetime" offers, the lifetime is that of the company, not you. And this company could be rolled up in a week, and the owners can walk away from the corporate bankruptcy with their salary and bonuses intact, while you keep nothing.

Here's all you really need to know about this deal:
"Terms

All sales final"

If the company won't even give you a refund if the service doesn't work for you initially, how can you trust them to give a "lifetime" of quality service going forward? Once they have your "all sales final" money they have no financial incentive to spend money to keep you happy - they already have all the money they will ever get from you.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 2:12pm

a better (less scammy) deal
If anyone is really interested in this company, VPN Unlimited (which reportedly blocks BitTorrent) then you should know that for $19 -- half of this $39 "lifetime" price -- they also offer a three-year $19 plan:

https://stacksocial.com/sales/vpn-unlimited-premium-plan-3-years-of-hacker-protection-more

Actually getting an unlimited, unthrottled, no-shenanigans VPN for only $19 for an entire three years seems highly doubtful, but at least you'll only be losing half as much money as this $39 "Techdirt Daily Deal" -- which anyway seems to be offered in various places around the web, but always on a "today only"/"this week only"-type basis over the last month.

For Techdirt to be selling keychains or coffee mugs to make money is pretty harmless, but plugging for a "lifetime" service of anything is sure to generate plenty of ill will for Techdirt once people see that they're not getting what they were promised.
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Scote, 1 Apr 2015 @ 2:27pm

What are Techdirt's endorsement policies?
"For Techdirt to be selling keychains or coffee mugs to make money is pretty harmless, but plugging for a "lifetime" service of anything is sure to generate plenty of ill will for Techdirt once people see that they're not getting what they were promised."

I agree. "Lifetime" deals from *internet* companies are pretty much guaranteed to be BS. There could be exceptions, but odds are that the lifetime will be measured in single digit years, low single digits.

I'd think that Techdirt should have some minimal standards of what they will endorse in their native advertising/affiliate marketing plans.

I know that the disclaimer at the bottom of the post states, "The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team." But their is still an implied endorsement by Techdirt itself, if not the "editorial" team. "Techdirt deals" are not merely some 3d party ad that we can all tell is slapped on by an ad service. These are deals explicitly leveraging the Techdirt brand, branded as "Techdirt deals." And given how Techdirt has shown how important branding can be, I'd hope that Techdirt will consider making some policies to keep their brand healthy.

I can't remember if I read this on Techdirt or not, but the thing about endorsements is that they use a good reputation, Techdirt, to parasitically raise a lower reputation, VPN Unlimited. A dodgy endorsement deal can harm Techdirt more than it helps its bottom line.
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streetlight (profile), 1 Apr 2015 @ 2:30pm

Re: Lifetime does not mean what it says it means
Ya. Lifetime could mean the lifetime of the company and that's how long it takes to cash the check or claim the credit card debit
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 2:34pm

Re: Rebranded StackSocial storefront
"As with most "lifetime" offers, the lifetime is that of the company, not you."

It's even worse than that. The people who buy the "cheap seats" will be de-prioritized, and can expect their internet connection to be throttled and/or disconnected during peak periods, to make room for the people who are paying full-price monthly subscriptions -- the very people that the company will try its hardest to keep. That's the way these things ALWAYS seem to work, whether it's VPNs or Usenet providers or dialup ISPs or any other kind of bandwidth-intensive service.

Hopefully it should be obvious to everyone that once a company has your money -- and has no expectation of getting any more -- then there is no longer much incentive for them to keep you happy.
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Scote, 1 Apr 2015 @ 3:00pm

Rebranded StackSocial storefront
"It's even worse than that. The people who buy the "cheap seats" will be de-prioritized, and can expect their internet connection to be throttled and/or disconnected during peak periods,"

Good point, especially given that VPN Unlimited won't even recieve even $40 to pay for this service. Perhaps half of the $40 will go to acquisition costs including transaction fees and the cut to Stack Social (including payment to Techdirt), leaving maybe $20 in capital to pay for VPN bandwidth, infrastructure and staffing to provide your lifetime of "Unlimited" VPN service - which I'd say is just not economically feasible.

As with the lifetime webhosting deals, it seems clear that VPN Unlimited is overbooking, as you suggest.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 5:06pm

TD, April fools joke ad?
When you use a vpn, you're giving an enormous amount of trust in the service provider... I've been using vpns for years, and have learned what to look for:

100% open source. everything.
100% NO logging.
Segregates payment from network login info and keeps little or even NO subscriber information.
Pay by bitcoin or other alt currency.
Will sepuku (shut down) before betraying their customers- like lavabit did.
Clear transparency about practices and tech, and good CS.
Openvpn- period; there is NO other trustworthy meathod.
Simple/clear TOS and EULA.
Active community forums.
Understands the nuances of corporate structure, jurisdiction, and relevant copyright law.

There are very very few vpn's that meet those criteria. literally less then a handful. A substantial portion of VPN's out there are honeypots, or install malware with their widgets... Offering 40$ 'lifetime' -these guys are either designed to fail, pyramid style, or they're making money elsewhere; or both...

TD. Why not make a deal- or resell for a more reputable service? This one seams like a bad joke with it's logging and 'rat you out for anything' TOS. Since you're site probably gets people on watch-lists just for reading it- shouldn't you be more cautious in recommending a security/privacy service?
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 5:38pm

wait, what?
"The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team."

Given the nature of your site- yea, they do. You should know better- it's like a healthy living site allowing advertising for cyanide pills as "healthiest thing ever"

it doesn't become ok, since you get a cut, and disclose that 'you don't endorse it'- that's some f'd up double speak.

You've got prime real estate for a vpn ad- or to resell; you should pick a good one though if you give a damn about your readers. These services are crucial to privacy, security, and avoiding mass surveillance- All of which are central themes at TD. A companies gotta profit, but surely it's not ONLY about the short term money- reputation builds income better then anything over time. Why should I want to shop at the tech dirt shop, if it's clear you don't care about what you're selling?
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 8:55pm

For those who are serious about choosing a VPN provider who takes their customer's privacy seriously. I recommend reading TorrentFreak's VPN guide.

https://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/

I can vouch for TorGuard.net VPN. I've been a customer with them for over 2 years now and they've never took my money and ran.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 10:26pm

Re: TD, April fools joke ad?
Wow, sure wish that you'd include info on the "handful" you've vetted
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patricia mubanga, 1 Apr 2015 @ 10:35pm

unlimited lifetime subscription
It maybe too good to be true i think.maybe an april fools too.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2015 @ 11:47pm

Re: unlimited lifetime subscription
It's not a "too good to be true" deal, it's more like a "you get what you pay for" deal. Bandwidth is not free, and if you pay $40 for bandwidth, don't expect to receive any more than $40 worth of bandwidth, no matter what they promise. It's simply not possible for everyone to defy the basic law of economics.

It's no April Fool's joke, this exact same offer has been posted on numerous different sites all across the internet over the last month -- as well as the $19-for-3-years deal going back for several months.

Being that this is Techdirt, why doesn't this site offer a lifetime plus 70 years VPN for the same price?
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Name, 1 Apr 2015 @ 11:50pm

VPN Advetising
EPIC FAIL HERE.
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 2 Apr 2015 @ 6:16am

After a bunch of the points raised here, I don't think I will be getting this offer. While it seemed great at first, it definitely comes across as a too good to be true. I really want to sign up for a solid personal VPN, but have a hard time making sure that what I am signing up for is great.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2015 @ 7:25am

Re:
For any kind of online service, it's always best to try it out for a month (many VPNs offer free/reduced price trial periods) before committing to any kind of long term deal (if at all). And remember, just because someone else you know has a great, fast connection to the service does not necessarily mean that you will. Much depends on your routing to the server.

Torrentfreak offers an honest, annual review of privacy/logging/P2P issues of many VPNs:
https://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/

Also keep in mind that many (if not most) VPN "review" sites are neither neutral nor knowledgable, but in it mainly for the sales commission.

There is also your particular use of a VPN: do you need it for Netflix, BBC, or other nation-dependent streaming service, or for safe torrenting? And of course all the particulars and preferences, like PPTP, OpenVPN, proprietary software, etc.

There are also other VPN alternatives, like "Smart" DNS and SOCKS/HTTP proxy. Depending on your exact needs and preferences, it can be a complicated decision that should not be rushed in order to latch onto a "one day only" sales gimmick that is in any case probably likely to be repeated.

I would also like to thank Mike Masnick for being so kind to allow us to make all these critical comments, uncensored, and understanding that we're not here trying to sabotage Techdirt's income, but rather just trying to protect people from jumping into something they might later regret.
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onyxmicro (profile), 2 Apr 2015 @ 9:40am

Re: Re:
+1
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2015 @ 10:48am

Re: Beware - excessive logging!
In other words - they don't log - except when they do...
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2015 @ 2:22pm

Re: repost: Why is Techdirt promoting "lifetime subscription" scams?
Profit!
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2015 @ 4:26pm

Re:Re: TD, April fools joke ad?
"Wow, sure wish that you'd include info on the "handful" you've vetted"

I've formerly used goldens (defunct), mullvad, proxy.sh, and cryptocloud (defucnt/sepuku'd for preemptive ground-up redesign- they honored agreements with all customers when they rolled out cryptostorm). I was more or less satisfied with all of them. I did many hours of research to find, and in-between using those services.

I currently use cryptostorm- they set the bar for me, the only service I know currently that meets all those criteria. They're a team of crypto-geeks who genuinely care about security/privacy. Their forums are thorough and uncensored though messy. They own all their servers which run minimal striped down and custom compiled linux and openvpn. I usually get 85%+ native throughput, with added latentcy about what you'd expect for the connection distance. They're unlimited/unthrottled and support very high speed connections. As a security measure, they don't forward ports- maybe they would on request, I don't know, but their generally very responsive to customers via irc/forums/email. If not, I'd recommend mullvad if you absolutely need ports forwarded; or proxy.sh if you don't mind that they use VM cloud style infrastructure (you should mind-IMO post-snowden, this is a very inappropriate setup). Airvpn may also be worthy of consideration (haven't really checked them out, but I recently read they are 100% opensource).
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Apr 2015 @ 9:11am

Re: Re:Re: TD, April fools joke ad?
Thanks for the recommendation. The cryptostorm.is website describes a company, culture, and service that should be very appealing to most Techdirt readers. It has just about everything that anyone could possibly ask for in a VPN service. I especially liked their response to TorrentFreak:

"We own no intellectual property, patents, trademarks, or other such things that would require a corporate entity in which ownership could be enforced by the implied threat of State-backed violence; all our code is published and licensed opensource."

Cryptostorm is exactly the sort of customer-focused service that Techdirt should be promoting, instead of some sleazy company that makes promises they'll obviously never keep.

I don't currently use a VPN, but I'll certainly be putting Cryptostorm at the top of my list for when I do.
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 21 Apr 2015 @ 1:51pm

Well, I did take a chance on this deal. Here's what I found:

- Takes forever to connect. Once connected, the bandwidth seemed reasonable, but get used to watching a spinning ball or the equivalent. (Windows 7 Pro x64)

- As mentioned, I didn't have any problems with bandwidth.

- Seems like I've had a lot of trouble connecting to certain sites. I can't say for sure whether it was a problem with VPN Unlimited per se. I was using it at work, and at the moment work has a temporary cellular connection while the local robber barons -- er, I mean, Internet companies -- figure out which way is up and actually manage to get us some service. (We have so many choices: AT&T, Comcast... so many.) It seems like AT&T is doing some kind of filtering or bandwidth prioritization or something, because sites I can't load bareback seem to load smoothly via VPN. Except a few, in VPN Unlimited's case. But I haven't done enough testing to verify this, so this is all arm-waving. Still, it doesn't matter.

- After 20 days of service VPN Unlimited has told me that it's time for a monthly renewal of my lifetime unlimited account.

I mean, it's like they're not even TRYING to disguise the fraud.

Tempted to get this? Don't. I personally recommend Private Internet Access. I have my issues with them, but those mostly have to do with their subscription model not allowing in-place upgrades.

I do not care to try to take legal action against VPN Unlimited over a mere $40, but I will not be renewing my account and I will also do not plan to take advantage of any further Techdirt Daily Deals.
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Kevin, 13 Jul 2015 @ 10:58am

VPN Unlimited
I have been using their services for the past 6 months. I am not a shill and I have no interest other than to say it's not a bad service. It does reduce my speed by about 50% but it allows me to have 5 devices running so I have it on my phone, tablet and 3 pcs.

I live in Vancouver, BC and mostly used the service to get US netflix (as most Canadians do!)
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Bill, 3 Sep 2015 @ 3:31pm

VPN Unlimited
Unhappy with this company. I paid for the software but was unable to log in to 'redeem' it (after creating an account with 'keepsolid', whoever they are) by clicking their email link, nor was I able to log into their site.

I tried using my normal Firefox browser with NoScript and AdBlock, then Explorer with no add-ons. Neither one worked.

When I asked for a refund I was refused. Now I figure that a contract entails an exchange, whereas in my case (since I never received the opportunity to use their product) their no refund policy does not apply.

But they have my money and I do not have a product from them. Disappointed that Techdirt would do business with such a company, given their aggressive editorial stand(s) against companies with poor and misleading customer relations.
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Bill, 4 Sep 2015 @ 10:54am

VPN Unlimited refund
My faith is restored in Techdirt. Today I received a refund for VPN Unlimited. Good to know that they took the time to review this and recognize that I never had the chance to have beneficial use of this product.

I believe now that it was Stackcommerce that initially refused the refund, not keepsolid (the VPN Unlimited page says something like 'VPN Unlimited by keepsolid').
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wildpetals, 8 Jan 2016 @ 3:14pm

Re: Re: Privacy/Security?
my experience with vpn unlimited, excellent support.. a quick call back.. and the product has worked beautifully for a year. i never used vpn before... but i have had a great experience. not sure about lifetime. i will get lifetime though... and would be happy with whatever that gives me.
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wildpetals, 8 Jan 2016 @ 3:18pm

Re: Rebranded StackSocial storefront
bought the cheap 3 year last year... and i have not been receiving anything less than great service. no throttling down, no nothing. seriously.. i was shocked.. i've been in tech 30+ years... not a n00b.. it has been a great investment. and NO disconnecting, throttling, etc. i don't comment much anywhere... but i have been really happy and feel much saver surfing... i don't know anyone at the company and they have not asked me to comment.. i was just looking into the comopany when i found this forum.

@wildpetals twitter
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