Lots of Russian apps and services registered in Malta or Cyprus, but their devs continue to live in Russia. And naive users think they’re using a European app or service. For example Adguard.
It's not the first time I've noticed you spreading this misinformation on HN, so let me respond.
Most of AdGuard's staff relocated in 2022, and I (CTO and co-founder of AdGuard) personally live in Limassol, Cyprus. We commented on that publicly, but it seems that random forum posts often regarded as more reliable sources of information.
I am totally fine with anyone not trusting AdGuard for any reason, but please keep your statements factually correct.
PS: Sorry for sticking a small promo in the comment, but this year we're organizing the annual summit (adfilteringdevsummit.com) for ad blockers' devs on our home turf in Limassol, a perfect opportunity to meet us, other ad blockers and even browsers' devs.
If you've still got most of your devs working in Russia, and it looks like that from your github projects, I'm not sure what part of the comment you responded to is not correct or misinformation.
Most of the employees relocated including senior staff, devs and people with access. We still have some contractors working from there, mostly in support service, content and qa. Not "most" or "a lot", but nevertheless.
We encourage people to move closer to the head office, but as long as it's not required by law, we’re not going to force people to move out, as I know very well how hard it is.
> and it looks like that from your github projects
You do realize that a russian name != working in Russia, right?
> I'm not sure what part of the comment you responded to is not correct or misinformation
The parts where:
1. It's implied that the company is just "registered".
2. It's implied that the company is not European.
3. It's said that devs reside in Russia.
All three are factually incorrect.
AdGuard has been around for 16+ years, and throughout this time I've seen similar accusations many times. I am generally fine with them — that's life — but today I just wasn't in the mood, sorry for that. Anyways, this is one more reason to have more code published to open source, a win-win for all.
The AdGuards CTO and cofounder just replied to my comment, called it misinformation, but then confirmed that a large amount of their team continues to work from Russia.
If you trust Devs working in Russia with you or your companies dns security, you’re insane.
His detailed clarification came post my reply to you. Prior to that his statement was that most of their employees were no longer living in Russia. Which implied that some percentage of employees still lived in Russia. He claifies that it’s just contractors and supporter without access, which is much better that some of their employees still working from Russia.
AdGuard would still be outside my comfort margins because of exposure to the Russian government through friends and family.
Thanks for understanding and sorry if my comment sounded too harsh. Over the past few years we went through a lot and when I hear that AdGuard is just registered I may overreact.
What for your position, I respect it and as much as I’d like to say otherwise, under certain circumstances it can be reasonable.
