Calling them spy may be wrong, but I certainly won't ever work with, or use technology made by people who worked for an intelligence agency. That's something over which I'd also terminate friendships.

And many people have a similar mindset, so it's understandable to report this information, and make consumer choices based on it.

That said, Israel should probably consider solutions like other countries with mandatory military service have, e.g. in Germany (until it stopped being mandatory) it was possible to avoid military service by spending the exact same time instead working in social services, e.g. hospitals, daycares, retirement homes, etc.

Israel does allow it in some cases, but the security conditions in Israel and Germany are very different, as is the size of their population. But I have some bad news for you: you are most likely using technology made by people who've worked for intelligence agencies. For example, if you're using Intel chips, many dozens of their designers served in Israel's military intelligence. Same goes for Google, Apple and Microsoft products. It's just that a very high percentage of engineers in Israel served in military intelligence, and a lot of technology companies do R&D in Israel. But if you use Wikipedia, it's OK: its PHP engine was made by someone who served in the Israeli airforce, not military intelligence. Although, your packets are probably routed through Cisco routers, so maybe not so OK. Oh, Akamai servers, too. Also, there could be an issue with your Qualcomm Wifi chip.

In the end, it still makes sense to realize this, and to be cautious. The NSA, Israeli Intelligence, BKA, FSB, etc are all not much better than the StaSi, and one should treat them, and their (ex-)employees with as much trust and respect.

Of course using SELinux or TOR, or Intel products is something that’s hard to avoid, but one shouldn’t trust blindly.

> The NSA, Israeli Intelligence, BKA, FSB, etc are all not much better than the StaSi

I guess it depends on your definition of "much better", but for roughly the same definition you'd need to use to make that statement, you could also make it about Google and Facebook. And note that we're not talking about Israeli intelligence; we're talking about people who, when they were in their late teens and early twenties served, like a big portion of tech workers in Israel, did their mandatory service in a military intelligence unit. I know it's hard for people not familiar with it to understand, but most of these people don't have contacts in intelligence, as the personnel circulation in those units is very high -- almost everyone is just serving a few years for their mandatory service.

> you could also make it about Google and Facebook

Would you trust Google or Facebook to run a VPN? No, I don't trust them at all. I only use them in the most limited amount necessary, and only entrust them with data which is already public.

I self-host everything else, because I don't trust them at all.

That's fine, but you should know that VPN implementors often particularly seek out former intelligence agency people to design their security, and that's pretty much where VPNs started. Feel free to trust whomever you like, but the assumption that people who've served in an intelligence agency can be trusted less than those who haven't isn't very logical. Those are often the people who understand security best, and as far as allegiances go, how can you trust anyone? When intelligence agencies want to insert backdoors etc., they can and do cover up their tracks. I.e., you won't know that the people involved are doing their bidding, nor would you have some special reason to suspect them. Your point of view might well lead to a less secure system.

To me the word spy and the term ex-intel paint a very different picture of the person being described. When I realized this guy was just in the 8200 unit I literally giggled at the notion that all those 18 year old nerds are all spooky spies.

Do you believe people would continue using a VPN if they knew several of its employees were ex-NSA? No, not at all.

The same applies here, it doesn't matter if you call the people spy or not, VPNs should not have any association with intelligence services.

Thing is, Akamai and Cisco employ a lot of those people. Quite many of them in security research. People who were in the NSA or Israeli intelligence are the people companies seek when they want security. Israel's military intelligence is one of the places where VPNs were first used, and the idea later became commercial VPN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Check_Point#History