Mastodawn

Ok, just to sum it up for those following along at home:
NordVPN: confidence scam, the Raid: Shadow Legends of VPNs
Surfshark: owned by NordVPN
Mozilla VPN: reseller of Mullvad
Tailscale: partners with Mullvad
ExpressVPN: Israeli
Private Internet Access: ditto
ZenMate VPN: ditto
CyberGhost VPN: ditto
Windscribe: edgy branding, transphobic, uses slurs on social media
ProtonVPN: sponsors French fascists
MullvadVPN: donates millions to Swedish fascists

am I missing any?

e: if you are here looking for ones you SHOULD use, these were recommended to me and seem to check out:
https://vpn.ccrypto.org
https://njal.la
or self-host your own:
https://amnezia.org/self-hosted

CCrypto VPN

CCrypto VPN is an affordable, fast, anonymous and secure VPN service

@tael windscribe: fine on zhe surface but constantly spams you wizh edgelord marketing zhat makes you Feel Dirty

Tael 🔜 AC26 1d ago

@mynotaurus I didn't even look into it because the website was so obnoxious I was like "there's no way anyone actually takes this seriously"

@tael pffft wow i hadnt even checked zheir site since i left. when i first used em like 5 years ago zhis was a very normal looking vpn website

Tael 🔜 AC26 1d ago

@mynotaurus oh my god that's even funnier lmao

@tael back in zhe day youd never guess zhis company would send you promo emails wizh gifs from Zhe Office

@mynotaurus @tael it gets worse i'm afraid https://merping.synth.download/@107d/116823442615272204

kobot (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image · Content warning: transphobia, r slur

merpstodon!

laen 🌿1d ago

zenmate / cyberghost: israeli

🦧the grink🌈1d ago

@tael
Who does mullvad donate to? I've never heard of this and can't find anything when I search for it?

Infoseepage 6h ago

@banshee @tael Mullvad's CEO was just found to have donated about half a million bucks to an ethno-nationalist party whose leader is basically constantly spouting shit about somali's and foreigners being parasites. It's your typical "our country must be ethnically pure" bullshit. His is the single largest donation and majority source of funding to this party and it is enabling them to front candidates in parliamentary elections.

🆘Bill Cole 🇺🇦2h ago

@banshee @tael LMGTFY…

First real link.

Melvin Gundlach 2h ago

@banshee @tael https://det.social/@lostgen/116820546568940358

Jörg Seidel (@[email protected])

That's absolutely sad to read. The CEO of @[email protected] is not only financing the far-right Swedish Örebro party, but he even is their main financer. 70+% of their money is his donation. He is the reason why they go nationwide this year. For obvious reasons i cease to trust this service. Also i do not finance parties that aim for forced deportations. https://www.flamman.se/techprofil-ger-miljoner-till-orebropartiet/ #Mullvad

det.social

@tael IVPN?

@tael I mean when you think about it Fascists need VPNs when Democracy is fully functional so it makes sense for them to invest in such things.

MARIMO APPRECIATION ACCOUNT

@tael SurfShark.

MARIMO APPRECIATION ACCOUNT

@tael Also Opera's VPN service, but I have a feeling they're reselling someone else's, also there's Kaspersky VPN, which, uuuh, should be obvious what's up with that one.

Tael 🔜 AC26 1d ago

@Deiru afaik Opera VPN works by routing your traffic through Opera's servers. Kaspersky VPN uses Hotspot Shield which collects logs on everything.

notvaloodlejetski

@Deiru @tael Opera is a garbage company https://www.spacebar.news/stop-using-opera-browser/

Stop using Opera Browser and Opera GX

Opera Browser and Opera GX are bloated web browsers, and the company behind them has tried to cover up its controversies.

The Spacebar

@tael What about njalla? https://njal.la/

Njalla — Worlds most notorious privacy provider for domains, VPS' and VPNs.

Njalla — Considered the worlds most notorious &quote;Privacy as a Service&quote; provider for domains, VPS' and VPNs.

Tael 🔜 AC26 1d ago

@rtn All I have heard about it is the founder went to jail for his principles, which seems like a plus.

@tael Aye. Brokep you mean?

Tael 🔜 AC26 1d ago

@rtn Yep. Seems a good bloke

@tael @rtn This is just from the wikipedia page, but it seems like Swedish facists hate Njalla, which sounds even better

some kind of orange shape 1d ago

@tael MEGA: the founder tweets excerpts from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion no seriously

poma 🦝🛹1d ago

@tael I used to use AzireVPN, they had blog posts about how they build and run their own servers, so. not reselling. they're Wireguard-based

edit: MalwareBytes bought them in 2024 and they now have a much edgier logo. I dunno. seems ok?

Tael 🔜 AC26 1d ago

@pomagarnet Malwarebytes repackages Mullvad

poma 🦝🛹1d ago

@tael Do you mean "Malwarebytes" the antivirus software? I don't know/care about that installation, but I believe Azire is an unrelated codebase and unrelated physical servers.

edit: see reply.

poma 🦝🛹1d ago

@tael I see sorta what you mean but MalwareBytes VPN = Azire + Mullvad.

>"Malwarebytes has partnered with Mullvad in order to utilize [Mullvads] VPN servers for its own VPN application, Malwarebytes Privacy VPN, since October 2019." https://mullvad.net/en/help/partnerships-and-resellers

>"Malwarebytes Privacy VPN is built in partnership with AzireVPN['s...] independently owned VPN infrastructure [...] 100% self-owned [...] physical VPN servers" https://www.malwarebytes.com/vpn

https://blog.azirevpn.com/azirevpn-joins-forces-with-malwarebytes/
https://www.azirevpn.com/service/servers

Tael 🔜 AC26 1d ago

@pomagarnet you don't see how those two statements are contradictory? lol

poma 🦝🛹1d ago

@tael have a great weekend :)

@tael opentech.fund/wp-content/uploa…

David Gerard 10h ago

@tael ssh -D

Tael 🔜 AC26 8h ago

@davidgerard My conclusion at this point is basically that I should spend $4/mo on a VM and run everything through WireGuard

@tael @davidgerard yes, but a lot of services block cloud/hosting infra :(

@tael @davidgerard what about windscribe? (this is not an ad, this is not shilling, this is a genuine question)

Tael 🔜 AC26 6h ago

@chx @davidgerard I looked at their website and concluded they were not a serious contender

Rob Pumphrey 5h ago

@tael @davidgerard
This must be the route for true nerds. Presumably, since you pay for the vm though, it will be possible to find out who you are?

David Gerard 4h ago

@robpumphrey @tael yeah it's not a variety of residential-looking endpoints

Tael 🔜 AC26 4h ago

@robpumphrey @davidgerard It wouldn't be impossible, although I believe your bandwidth would be running through the datacenter (and subject to its limits and charges fyi) so it would look like it was coming from your provider. If someone contacted the provider and investigated you I'm sure you'd get turned over; but it would still shield all your requests from your ISP and you could be certain you're not logging anything (though your provider might).

It depends on what you are using a VPN for, really.

Aisling 10h ago

@tael while im aware of the awfulness of all of the rest, the only thing I know about NordVPN is that they sponsor youtubers to a suspicious degree. How are they a confidence scam?

Aisling 10h ago

@tael I’ve tried to nose about what their story is a few times over the years, but never found anything

Tael 🔜 AC26 8h ago

@Lingmops They are terrible from a privacy perspective (joint ownership of NordVPN and Oxylabs, conflict of interest), they lie about what the use case for a VPN is (to the point they have gotten in trouble with the courts), they blow tons of money on marketing (never a good signal for a VPN), and they have previously been breached multiple times.

@tael ivpn?

Tael 🔜 AC26 8h ago

@hazel I've not heard anything about it.

Dud and Forgotten.6h ago

@tael What's the verdict on Surfshark and Incogni?

@BackFromTheDud @tael @Deiru Surfshark is bad, same owners as NordVPN (Nord Security). See also https://www.privacyguides.org/en/about/privacytools/#privacytoolsio-now "NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN, and hide.me; Giant VPN corporations with untrustworthy platforms and business practices, notorious for their aggressive marketing and affiliate programs." (still includes positive mention of mullvad at the moment)

So same with incogni, which is owned by surfshark.

PrivacyTools FAQ - Privacy Guides

The real story behind the team transition from privacytools.io to privacyguides.org

Privacy Guides

Dud and Forgotten.6h ago

@grayhaven OK, now, what companies CAN we trust? @tael @Deiru

@BackFromTheDud i haven't heard anything bad about iVPN or njalla yet

https://www.ivpn.net/en/

https://njal.la/

https://www.ivpn.net/en/

Dud and Forgotten.5h ago

@grayhaven Any recommendations?

@BackFromTheDud if i had to choose i'd recommend ivpn. slightly more private, accepts cash and doesn't require personal contact info for account creation. regular independent audits. 5-10 devices whereas njalla might limit to 1 but i don't know for sure. but those are minor differences and njalla would also be fine for many people and use cases.

also, some people might appreciate that one of njalla's lead people is verifiably cool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sunde whereas i'm not aware of any of the identities of the people running ivpn. not that anonymity is proof of bad actors of course, and we can't be 100% positive that any of sunde's co-owners aren't doing mullvad shit without knowing all their identities, but i find it unlikely enough that i feel comfortable recommending both njalla and ivpn

Peter Sunde - Wikipedia

Tael 🔜 AC26 5h ago

@BackFromTheDud @grayhaven @Deiru I have been recommended these:

https://vpn.ccrypto.org/
https://njal.la/

But you should never trust any company

CCrypto VPN

CCrypto VPN is an affordable, fast, anonymous and secure VPN service

Otter-Matic 6h ago

@tael AdGuard VPN https://adguard-vpn.com/en/welcome.html?_plc=en

AdGuard VPN for your privacy and security

Keeps the Internet open and your data secure. Top-notch VPN from the creators of the famous ad blocker.

AdGuard VPN for your privacy and security

Tael 🔜 AC26 6h ago

@OtterMatic I don't know anything about them

rainynight65 4h ago

@tael That's... almost a positive? @OtterMatic

Kevin P. Fleming 6h ago

@tael I'm pretty sure the Mozilla VPN is their own, not Mullvad.

Berbatoglou 6h ago

@kevin @tael it is Mullvad. From https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/legal/terms/subscription-services/

> Mozilla VPN is a Virtual Private Network in partnership with Mullvad.

Mozilla Subscription Services

Mozilla

Tael 🔜 AC26 6h ago

@berbatsson @kevin It is Mullvad at a markup, at that

InterestingMoo 6h ago

@tael tailscale only partners with mullvlad if you add VPN to their service as a paid add-on with mullvlad. But its optional and unnecessary

Any issues with protonvpn?

Kerry Benton 6h ago

@tael @jwz do we know if SurfShark are terrible? Like NordVPN they seem to have a questionably vast pile of money to spend sponsoring podcasts and YouTubers, but I’ve never caught wind of any Serious Issues with the company.