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?

  • lime!@feddit.nuEnglish
    832·
    24 days ago

    there was an article today about the entire mullvad company being blindsided by this and a lot of people being upset. with any luck the guy will leave or get thrown out.

    also i think they’re technically nazbols.

  • root@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    413·
    24 days ago

    List of vpns not to use

    NordVPN

    Facebook Onavo

    ExpressVPN

    Private Internet Access

    Everything Kape Technologies

    HolaVPN

    PureVPN

    ZenMate

    CyberGhost

    • beep@piefed.worldEnglish
      14·
      24 days ago

      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?

    • Brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      12·
      24 days ago

      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.

        • VitoRobles@lemmy.todayEnglish
          6·
          24 days ago

          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.

          • blackn1ght@feddit.ukEnglish
            1·
            23 days ago

            Yeah, I was expecting it to be much worse to be honest. Obviously they should have said something right away and hopefully they’ve learned their lesson. Not sure I’d write them off for this one incident from 7-8 years ago but it’s probably still good to have that asterisks on their name.

  • CerineArkweaver@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    331·
    24 days ago

    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)

    • Doug@piefed.socialEnglish
      34·
      24 days ago

      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.

        • deliriousdreams@fedia.io
          17·
          24 days ago

          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.

        • mecen@lemmy.caEnglish
          11·
          24 days ago

          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.

      • Ilandar@lemmy.todayEnglish
        138·
        24 days ago

        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?

        • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.socialEnglish
          61·
          23 days ago

          “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.

          • Ilandar@lemmy.todayEnglish
            13·
            23 days ago

            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.

            • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.socialEnglish
              1·
              22 days ago

              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.

    • FedX@quokk.auEnglish
      5·
      24 days ago

      Same boat, really don’t want to keep supporting them, because of the reasons others have mentioned. But I have something like four or five emails, not to mentioned hundreds of relays, it would be really hard to lose if I ditched them as my provider.

    • AmbitiousProcess (they/them)@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      24 days ago

      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.

    • reluctant_squidd@lemmy.caEnglish
      7·
      24 days ago

      I’ve been a customer for a few years. Noticing some of their Canadian server endpoints are getting blacklisted by cloudflare lately though, which is disappointing when it happens. I just reset the connection and away I go again though usually.

    • LogicOverFeelings@piefed.caEnglish
      6·
      24 days ago

      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.

  • アイス@lemmy.zipEnglish
    171·
    24 days ago

    Being in the proton ecosystem I use their VPN, and it’s been working great thus far.

  • puppinstuff@lemmy.caEnglish
    15·
    24 days ago

    It’s like picking an airline. No matter who you choose somebody has a story of how they’re varying degrees of awful.

    I’m on Proton. I disliked when that one guy made that social post comment about how Republicans are easier to deal with. I’m not offended enough to roll the dice with another provider only to later discover they’re literal nazis, their founder has Epstein connections or they discriminate against trans people.

    (Which is to say, if you want to switch from Mullvad I get it.)

    • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
      2·
      23 days ago

      I agree that any provider is going to have something awful about them, but you can’t just conclude that supporting this type of thing is fine because everyone is awful.

  • rnercle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    11·
    24 days ago

    but hearing about one of the two CEOs actively supporting and financing swedish Nazis,

    sources?

    i would like to read about this

  • katinahat@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    111·
    24 days ago

    I’ve been using Windscribe for 10 years and have been nothing but impressed. Always surprised they don’t get mentioned more in these posts.

  • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachtsEnglish
    9·
    24 days ago

    I’ve been a Mullvad user for probably about a year but I’m considering Nym.

    Editing for further context: their board includes Chelsea Manning which bodes well, I like that they use decentralized nodes, and that all of their code is open for review. The $NYM stuff is a little weird, but to me it comes off like an attempt to decentralize currency, which can anonymize in its own way (with an asterisk). Just not sure what that landscape looks like, since a person’s identity can often be figured out by looking at the public ledger. I’m still learning about Nym though.

    • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      24 days ago

      Interesting, I have never heard of them. Honestly my first glance is I don’t like their website. It looks way too investor/shill heavy which worries me about the longevity/future of the platform.

      I like the concept of a decentralized system if they can promise reliability and privacy across all nodes I am concerned about how privacy will be retained when a node is established in an external country that has more restrictive government controls.

      I heavy dislike the fact it auto renews. That right there is a huge red flag for me because that means whatever payment information I provided, is being stored in a way that it can be linked directly to my account. With Mullvad once the 30 day window is up, they toss the payment token so it’s no longer associated/linked with the account, instead relying on you to have to provide a piece of info that they can connect to the account if you have account issues. While they can say that they don’t link accounts to activity, I heavily dislike the potential that it could be done in the future, especially since they are very upfront about it being blockchain so that tells me the information is permanent/never removed.

    • classic@fedia.io
      1·
      24 days ago

      What’s the story with them charging much less if you pay with their crypto currency?

  • root@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    101·
    24 days ago

    PIA is owned by Kape, which appointed someone from Project Raven as a CIO

  • rmrf@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2315·
    24 days ago

    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.

    • lukalix98@programming.devEnglish
      161·
      24 days ago

      Have we really reached a point in which we have to stick with the “least bad” option? I don’t like this.

      • rmrf@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        23 days ago

        To be clear, by your judgment using Mullvad precludes me from being a decent person?

          • rmrf@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            22 days ago

            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.