Decided to experiment with a month of Mullvad VPN. (Was using ProtonVPN)
Mail: Proton
O/S: Windows
Use: Boring… emails, Reddit and news
Are there any known issues with the current version of Mullvad VPN that we should be aware of?
It installed quickly and appears to be working fine. (10 minutes of use so far). It seems to pass Leak tests.
No, you’re fine. Keep using it. Proton is also great btw.
Proton has more servers and subject to less CAPTCHA, and Mullvad has less servers but more private and has IPv6 support…
What do you mean by more private? These are providing the same service and protection.
Proton wants some info from info, like email and account name, Mullvad creates a random numbers for you without asking anything else.
The reason for my experimental use of Mullvad VPN was the discussion about them introducing newer protections:
You can still use both services anonymously… I don’t see a big problem.
Can you create an account as anon with Proton? Nope. You need an account with an email and password. That is not the case with Mullvad.
Yeah, you can make an account with Proton anonymously via Tor. And pay for the service in Cash. The only thing literally being saved is your password which Mullvad doesn’t need as it is not a traditional account. You will still need to store the Mullvad username somewhere, and you’ll have to do the same with Proton.
Again, I don’t see the big differentiator here where any other “meta data” is collected.
With Mullvad, you only need a random numbers, that is it. You don’t need an email, even a temporary one, and you don’t need an account at all. You don’t need an email and an password. You don’t need to provide a payment method.
Proton on the other hand wants everything above.
You can store your Mullvad account number in a text file and delete it after 30 days and then create another one without hassle.
Yes - still ways to get around and mitigate those things.
Anyways, these are not the reasons why a service is better or not than another. These are simply cosmetic differences if you ask me.
I can buy a gift card from a random place and create a random account on Mullvad but I can’t do the same on Proton.
Don’t get me wrong, but are privacy friendly but account wise Mullvad is better.
You can buy a Proton gift card online and use that to upgrade your account you made with Tor.
I do see what you’re saying - its logical. But account wise being better doesn’t make the service itself any better.
In my mind, Mullvad, IVPN, and Proton are all the same with some key differentiating features and functionality and of course, their UI/UX.
(afaik) This (rather expensive) “protection” is needed because Mullvad is going all-in on WireGuard. OpenVPN, for instance, doesn’t need these?
Proton has credential-less mode live on Android, which is similar to Mullvad’s (and Windscribe’s?) implementation. Things are moving in the right direction.
Doubt that.
You can use anything anonymously if you go through 10 million steps.
Your low effort comment doesn’t help.
You can label any argument as “low effort” or “not helpful” but how about you counter it?
You have not said enough or made enough sense worth countering.
Would a better solution be a decentralized approach like Safing SPN? Safing Portmaster - SPN Features
As @ignoramous said, Proton VPN on android is as anonymous as it gets with no login usage for free tier.
Mullvad has no free tier, and thus it needs a person to use stuff like Monero. For Monero you need to find a non KYC seller (or risk getting profiled for buying Monero) and its often hard to buy in countries. It also requires you to either find a trusted node or run one yourself. Then you need to maintain proper opsec to ensure you accidentally don’t reveal yourself.
So idk why this narrative of “you need a throwaway email so its not anonymous” is prevalent compared to “you need an anonymous payment method and maintain it constantly so it can almost never be anonymous since humans are humans and make mistakes”, especially when the former statement is false on android.
Anyway, no VPN can be technically guaranteed to be anonymous, since they know both your IP and your traffic. Tor or VPN over VPN/Multi party relay is the only practical network anonymity option right now.
Safing isn’t that decentralized yet. Technically you can run community nodes, but practically I think most of them are safing’s own.
Even proper decentralized VPNs make you trust multiple entities which brings in the same issues as Tor with the malicious entities being able to control large portions of it since they have the resources to run nodes.