We should note these are not even slightly legitimate hosting companies, lest anyone worry too much about their non-KYC offshore servers. These aren't hosting companies that ask little, they are just directly front companies for Russian intelligence, owned by members of Russian intelligence, they don't do anything else, they don't provide hosting service to regular people even if you want it (I have tried).
Unlike in Germany where I lost several social media accounts because my email service provider (pissmail) went to jail because someone signed up for his service and sent spam.
>they don't provide hosting service to regular people even if you want it (I have tried)
That doesn't sound right. I used PQ.Hosting once when I needed a quick temporary VPS, just like many other legitimate users. Yes they never asked much, but they also used to ban users left and right even for torrenting, so it wasn't bulletproof in any meaningful sense. I'm sure they were into shady stuff though, since their IP quality used to be absolute crap, but they did provide legitimate services as well.
German authorities arrest people for running email services and then they are confused about why doesn't Germany have a Silicon-Valley-style tech industry.
After reviewing your updated customer information, we have decided to deactivate your account because of some concerns we have regarding this information. Therefore, we have cancelled all your existing products and orders with us.
Best regards
Your Hetzner Online Team
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This is the email that I received, after I mistyped my credit card data, when creating an account on Hetzner Cloud. You don't have to be a big cloud company to enforce the KYC rules to defend against fraud.
I wonder how big/small wa pissmail? Would be good to know where is the threshold of sanity:
1. staying with smaller providers is cheaper (and you usually get non-AI customer support)
2. at the risk of stepping into something that makes you lose your data (like you did)
Maybe don't use any German service you can't afford to lose. Their government hates the tech industry, no matter how much it sings its praises. Same government just labeled watermelons as illegal antisemitism, btw.
The company inherited all their customers and equipment from a sanctioned company (according to the Dutch news report). Should be enough for most people.
>Providing a website is hardly evidence they were a legitimate business.
legitimate business? Of course they weren't. This is a bulletproof hoster specializing in offering hosting to people doing illegal stuff.
That's not OPs claim.
You can go on the website and rent a server for a couple of dollars in cryptocurrency right now, you don't have to work for the Russian government to do so.
Unlike in Germany where I lost several social media accounts because my email service provider (pissmail) went to jail because someone signed up for his service and sent spam.