I used Mullvad for a long time, but hearing about one of the two CEOs actively supporting and financing swedish Nazis, I’m looking to put my money elsewhere. That’s the second one after Private Internet Access (who supported Gab).
I had AirVPN and Surfshark being recomnended, how do people here feel? What do you use?
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Sharing this because I think it’s funny, but someone opened an issue on Mullvad’s github about the questionable donations of one of the cofounders: https://github.com/mullvad/mullvadvpn-app/issues/10685
It’s funny, but it was probably done by proton
Hey bud,
Whereever you are located, they will start blocking VPNs soon. rent a server using crypto and install xray vless realty tlx.
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PIA is owned by Israel. https://hackread.com/private-internet-access-pia-vpn-sold-israel-privacy-concerns/
EDIT: Updated link to be source article instead of shiddit post
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Mostly it’s a US based company and has to comply with US laws/surveillance
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It’s an Israeli and US company. If anyone is somehow MITM snooping your TLS traffic, it’s them.
Owned by kape (israel), who own many of the dodgy marketing vpn’s.
Based in the USA (the opposite of privacy)
No personal experience with them myself
Is routing everything through Tor a good option?
I’d say just basic browsing and messaging, it’s a volunteer project so bandwidth is not their strong suit.
That makes sense, don’t wanna bog their whole network with streaming and such.
I use OVPN. They own their own hardware and are basically the same as Mullvad in how you manage the account. Their Linux GUI clients are broken in Wayland but you can use the terminal or save your to the network manager.
I’ve just signed up to ivpn for a month. I appreciate their honesty on their website and the education they also have.
My only challenge is looking at getting through the great firewall… I’m yet to find any successful VPN’s / best practices
It’s Mullvad. This whole thing, in my eyes, overreaction to one asshole being an asshole, and not anywhere near as bad as so many other assholes.
That’s my opinion, you’re 100% valid in voting with your wallet and I respect everyone that draws the line here.
For me, though, Mullvad is the only one worth their salt if you actually want the best of the best for privacy, and there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism so this feels like an exercise in futility.
I would rather be a decent person.
To be clear, by your judgment using Mullvad precludes me from being a decent person?
No, your own words “preclude you from being a decent person”
apathy is evil.
So then yes, right? I’m not trying to be a dick only understand what your stance is for the sake of discussion.
My position is not apathetic, it’s a reluctant acceptance that chasing idealism is a fleeting goal and, in my experience and belief, that energy is much better spent on doing things that will make the world a noticeably better place instead of getting riding the high denying a hundred-millionaire 5 quid a month.
I think paying massive telecoms for internet access is measurably worse for democracy and ethics than a mullvad subscription, but there are some things we have to be okay with for advancing a greater good. Mullvad is the only VPN to my knowledge that’s been proven to resist pressure from every government and has passed the subpoena test multiple times.
I’m not tryna say I’m right and you’re wrong, and I’m not trying to argue in bad faith to get a win; I’d much rather we share ideas and come out with greater understanding. Tone and authenticity are hard to convey in forums so please trust me when I tell you my intent is to do the most good with the least bad.
Have we really reached a point in which we have to stick with the “least bad” option? I don’t like this.
The lesser evil is what a lot of duopoly voters goes for, the concept isn’t new, even though it is of course ridiculous.
Always has been.
Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp. We’ve been there for a while. People suck.
It’s been this way since choosing who to buy copper from in Mesopotamia, probably longer.
No, we haven’t. There are several good alternatives.
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/
ivpn ia the one i would recommend
List of vpns not to use
NordVPN
Facebook Onavo
ExpressVPN
Private Internet Access
Everything Kape Technologies
HolaVPN
PureVPN
ZenMate
CyberGhost
What’s wrong with PIA? I thought they have shown that they do not store any data more than once.
They’re Israeli, and the biggest vulnerability of a VPN is the provider.
What’s wrong with Nord?
NordVPN is interesting because it was less about them handing over data to the government, and them just not being transparent about an attack. All the others in that post clearly were in cahoots with big gov.
NordVPN’s defense was technically coherent: because the company doesn’t store activity logs, no user browsing data was exposed. The breach was framed as a vendor problem. The attacker had gotten in through an insecure remote management system that the data center had left open. NordVPN said it hadn’t even known the system existed.
That may all be accurate. But the eighteen months of silence is the actual story.
Imagine someone unironically using Facebook’s VPN service.
Why is airvpn on your list?
You included AirVPN in that list even though they aren’t mentioned in either of your screenshots… maybe a typo? I’ve never heard of them being associated with Kape so am curious why you lumped them into all that.
sorry, typo
I don’t want to be mean to you, as it might be just ignorance.
But my dude, why did you decide to use Inaccessible photo instead of using text or at the very least Text +photo?
If I suffer from any condition that affect my vision or my reading /understanding… how am I supposed to read this?
sorry, added the list in plaintext
Thank you a lot🌹.
I just dont get why anyone would willingly tunnel all their traffic to some party they dont know the inner workings of.
Because it’s only one point you don’t have to trust instead of every point along the way
That’s kind of like saying you want only amazon to deliver your packages instead of amazon, FedEx, ups, etc.
In other words, a honeypot. Putting all your eggs in one basket.
It’s true that the point of failure in a VPN is the provider, which is why trusting the company is important.
It’s also true that you definitely can’t trust your ISP and government so in the worst case scenario you just wasted $70.
Exactly. And seeing is believing, I’m not trusting some for profit corp with all my traffic data lol.
Also some people dont know how to set up VPNs properly, I realize a lot have apps now but site to site seems to be an option on most. If you just clunk your way through without knowing what you’re doing, you potentially could be opening your whole network to them.
No you can’t trust your ISP either. But this is why things like DNS over HTTPS and other protocols exist to encrypt everything. And if you’re going to that length with a VPN provider, you’re just throwing money away and no better off
isps in most places are required by law to record sitrs you visit
if you use a vpn they just see you are connecting to the vpn, but the vpn can potentially see sites you visit
so it comes down to deciding: do you trust your isp or the vpn provider. a lot of cases it will be the vpn provider
Depends where you live I guess.
Escape censorship
I’m still using mullvad. I don’t care enough about political morals at this day in age. I wouldn’t be allowed to operate life if I boycotted every service that went against my principles. I do tend to agree with the statement that while it may not be in my interest. What a co-founder does in a company isn’t reflected on the company as a whole. If Mullvad was actively donating to structures or was advocating for it I might care more.
Being said, it goes without saying for me that, considering this picked up news trend in the US and is being shared across every news site and seems to have a massive following on X, which is a known bot platform and hive mind. I’m taking the entire thing with a massive grain of salt, as nothing is allowed onto US news without it being to some advantage of the current government structure. Which means that it’s more likely this is being pushed as a nothing-burger with the intent to dissuade people from using a service that has no government controls.
I’m not saying he didn’t do it because he has openly admitted to it, but I’m just saying I expect that the entire situation is being blown out of proportion if it’s gained trending on US news sites
Wait. One of the mullvad founders funding a small Nazi party in Örebro has made national news in the US? The fuck?
I hadn’t even heard of the party until now and I live in the neighbouring county.
Edit: holy shit, they’ve used the money well. They’ve grown significantly in the polls, from being a straggler 2022 to being the second largest in recent polls.
Fuck.
Well I didn’t ask about a discussion but about alternatives. You do you.
Ah, sorry. I misunderstood then. I took
how do people here feel? What do you use?as an invitation that you were willing for discussions. I didn’t realize you aren’t looking for discussions ^^’
I use nym. Works well in my experience, though my Linux experience hasn’t been the best. I run a hardened system though, so take that with a grain of salt.
I’ve heard good things about this service. Haven’t tried it myself though.
I use Proton but I’m also in their ecosystem (ie, I also pay for ProtonMail and get the rest of their suite alongside it)
Wasn’t Proton’s CEO in some hot water a year or so ago, or was that a bunch of hooey? I know it’s impossible to find an ethical CEO, but just curious.
…sure I could look it up, but my phone battery sucks and it helps boost activity.
He made a couple of supportive tweets about a Trump anti-trust appointment (who was later fired by Trump) and the Republican Party that offended some people, mainly the American left. People seem to forget that he is not American, nor is Proton an American company, so none of this actually means anything. He cannot vote, he and his company do not fund the American right in any way and he is not someone with a huge online presence, so it’s unlikely he has much influence.
More recently a far right influencer in France signed up for Proton’s affiliate program and promoted Proton on his channel, which led to some misleading claims about Proton “funding Nazis”. Proton immediately removed him from the affiliate program upon being notified of this and apologised for what it claims was an oversight.
Personally I’m very sick of the purity tests and cancel culture on the left and wish people would slow down a bit and really consider whether these “controversies” are actually worth burning it all down for. Proton provides mainstream, easy to use alternatives to big tech and is better existing than not. Its VPN is also one of the few that retains port forwarding, which can be useful for piracy. After the attempts to cancel Proton, the left hard shilled for Mullvad and now it turns out that’s objectively worse in terms of its political influencing. Mullvad is another company that does more good in the world than bad, are we going to cancel it too?
you keep referring to “the left” which means you are on “the right” so…
Joined 28 days ago, entire comment history is anti-Proton disinformation and shilling for competitors. Fascinating.
“Why do Americans care if Ford supports Hitler, he’s not even German!”
Interesting combination of lies and unironic use of “cancel culture” in the rest of the nonsense btw.
You guys don’t even bother pretending to be sane these days. It’s just mask off from the first reply with the Hitler comparisons that used to be considered a joke in more normal times.
This dumbass is literally looking at CEOs outright supporting fascism and ethnic cleansing in a privacy sub and asking why people are bringing up the Nazis.
Btw, dumbfuck, Godwin had an interview where he tried to point out to people like you that the “Law” isn’t meant to stop people from accurately describing loud and proud fascists.
in a privacy sub
???
he is a trump fan, not sure of other ethical issues, at least for the ceo himself.
They made a very naive comment suggesting a authoritarian regime supports privacy
Technically it is true, it makes easier to spread their propaganda in other countries by using bots.
So some of anti-age verification agenda is generated by russia and china etc. to make easier to create bot accounts.
And doubled down then changed their comments as if the way back machine doesn’t exist in order to backtrack without having to admit they were wrong.
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/
I use Proton. but I find it suss how they are trying to do it all, so I don’t use most of their products
Same here, the cost is just way more worth it if you already pay for other Proton services.
Does seem like IVPN is closer to Mullvad in how it works though for people who just want to pay for a VPN separately. No email needed for an account, similar price, open-source clients. Also debubks misinformation used by VPN peddlers to convince people to buy VPNs who don’t need one.
here’s an interview with IVPN with techlore:
https://odysee.com/@techlore:38/ivpn-breaks-industry-silence-on-logs,:b
Yep, I’ve been using AirVPN for about 6 months now. No complaints, works great! (Yes they support port forwarding.)
And works with gluetun! https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/blob/main/setup/providers/airvpn.md
I’ll definitely be renewing when my year is up.
Been using it myself for some years but the up speeds are really ass max I got was 5MB/s up. In speed tests ~300mbit up while my server was in an actual Datacenter with multi gibt connection I switched to proton and got throttled at 1gbit which is a lot better
Oh and someone was hosting a Tor endpoint on one of there vpns which gets the IP Blacklisted and you potentially banned from some trackers. support just closed my complaint without comment.
I use IVPN
This honestly seem pretty good, they even offer mail aliasing. I think I’m gonna migrate to them once my one year subscription to Mullvad end.
