I did, however, manage to trace it back to an offer via the installer of the free version of Deamon Tools (DTLite1200-2126). Though I am pretty sure at the time l took extra care to decline every single offer, so it’s still a bit spooky. But I sure was relieved to discover that DT Lite definitely was the source, and it was an inside job on my part, unbeknownst to me…

That said, I generally would avoid at all cost software that tries to insidiously force itself on you. Especially the kind that make it extra hard to get rid of. I read people online complaining about having trouble uninstalling it, particularly in the Chrome extension.Such applications are usually NOT looking after your best interest, to say the least.

Besides, I’m already running Nord.

Finding out the source is a shady Israeli tech company is not reassuring at all. Much of their high tech industry is dominated by people with training and associations with the intelligence community. To say these people do not respect privacy is an understatement. Look up Pegasus on the website of Amnesty International. Some countries used it violating their own laws. It was horrendously abused, some victims lost their lives.

These infamously aggressive entities share a mentality presuming that if your going the extra mile to seek privacy it probably means your have something to hide… So the best way to get you is by offering you a free VPN. Brilliant.
Obviously non of there privacy statements are binding, simply because you have no way to know what they are up to and besides, they are probably operating outside of the jurisdiction of anyone you trust.

We’ve seen this happen over the last decade with a shady ex-intelligence-become-businessman character who first operated an obnoxious adware company distributing browser hijackers etc. If you want to know more about this look up Kape Technologies (Formerly Crossrider).

Then one day the company went legit and turned to selling a VPN. First they started buying small competitors. Then they went and bought up PIA VPN, which I loved and have been using for years. When I found out, I moved to Express VPN (which was excellent, by the way, though a bit expensive). Next thing I know they purchased Express VPN. So I escaped to Nord VPN, which is quite okay, though not without some annoying features. But I’m holding my breath, expecting it to get gobbled up too before long…