cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8915892
(original article in Swedish that reported this)
Posting this because I hadn’t heard about it before and I’m probably not the only Mullvad user here, so might as well.
The party claims to stand for a “class-conscious populism” which according to party leader Markus Allard takes inspiration from marxist ideology and unites the “productive” classes of society against the “Transferiat”, with the “Transferiat” being a term coined by Allard to describe the classes of society that lives off transfers that are a net negative for society such as those who, despite having an ability to work, live off social welfare benefits, as well as those who work “made-up services”[…]
The party differs from modern day left-wing parties by seeing the working class as co-dependent with people working in enterprise and business and instead sees the classes that “live off transfers”, as specified, as a large economic net-negative and an obstacle for a functional society.
Their ideology is nonsense fake-marxist revisionism to redirect anger at capitalism and turn it against immigrants and people who need social welfare (though they do back some generally left oriented social policies, their main thing appears to be racism)
Even if you’re comfortable with funding this, it still begs the question of just how trustworthy Mullvad actually is.
I guess this still beats any of the dozens of Israeli VPNs that definitely spy on you, but it’s not great
- corporations we buy from every day do the same shit and worse. Proton fundraised for the (US) Congress outfit Freedom House.
- 5 million SEK sounds like a lot until you realize it’s 500k USD, not 5 million USD. I would still love half a million to do communist stuff with lol, but it’s not 5 million dollars.
- mullvad has no idea who I am and which customer of theirs I am. If you pay for your VPN with a credit card you’re a chump.
- they are also the only vpn with a proven track record of not leaking customer info, because they don’t have it.
- this is a tiny no-name party that he’s supporting. At least for now - in 10 years it could be an AfD situation. Current perspective is euro govs are going to ban VPNs faster than this party will win an election.
- the other co-founder distanced himself from that donation, at least publicly. Who knows if something will be dug up on him too later.
- europe is fash central, and there’s also a LOT of fascists in software, including open software! (and just terrible politics in general)
Important news and absolutely worth being aired out, but I don’t see anything that will do anything for me except be able to tell myself that I’m morally pure. Like I disagree with “Even if you’re comfortable with funding this” (I know you just crossposted OP) - I’m not funding anything. Let’s not do “vote with your wallet” politics in a communist space; Mullvad’s founder is funding this, not me.
Proton is not trustworthy, tutanota is not trustworthy, there is no such thing as a private internet. There is only harm reduction so that when the fascist state comes for you, they find very little info to convict you with. At this point if you really want to be private not using the Internet is your only option. Being on a VPN is not an invitation that you can do whatever without legal repercussions.
You can rent a Virtual Private Server and host your own VPN on it, but that also won’t hide you, because all requests you make will be coming from the VPS, and you’re the only person on it. I looked into it when deciding on a VPN, and it doesn’t seem to be an option (unless you live in a place where internet is restricted, in which case you are not looking for anonymity but simply bypassing restrictions).
If there’s ever something better than mullvad that comes along I’ll switch. In the meantime keep an eye on the situation.
Also switch away from Google search because they save every search you make whether you use a VPN or not.
when the fascist state comes for you, they find very little info to convict you with
how do we tell him?
What I mean is the best you can hope for is to minimize the damage done to yourself. sure the nazis can just make up whatever charge and condemn you to whatever they want. But the Filton 24 trial showed that to date, it wasn’t always a slam dunk. The fact that the prosecution leaked selected bits of evidence footage helped shift the jury and even the case.
this is also why people have got to stop filming everything btw. Filming ought to be strategic; it’s a tool, not a ritual. Basically the best you can do is limit what they can get on you, and make it difficult for them (and it might also protect your comrades since they look for connections). Same reason I encrypt my hard drives; Al Capone was done in for tax evasion, not for the murdering and killing. If they want to compel me to surrender my decryption key, it still affords me some time to think about it.
Of course a VPN alone is not going to save anyone, we should make that clear. If you have a VPN but still connect to a google account to do google searches with, police will just ask for your search history from google directly, they don’t need to decrypt your hard drive to access it.
Browsers also fingerprint you, and there are add-ons and even browsers such as Librewolf to fake your fingerprint, but I’m not sure how secure you truly are after it.
well, technically you have a point
I can only guess you’re referencing that the state can go after you regardless. Which is technically true, but making it harder for them to do it “legitimately” (through the existing bureaucracy of the state) does have its advantages. It means if they push forward and do it anyway, they may now damage the legitimacy of the state in the eyes of more people, creating more resistance in the process. It’s not like you’re gonna have a revolution from that alone, but… basically, if you can avoid handing the state easy ways to legitimize coming for you, that is worth something.
you have a point as well…maybe i’m too cynical
Why is Tuta untrustworthy?
They hand over data to the authorities like it’s candy at Halloween. They don’t really have a choice to cooperate, but the workaround is to simply not collect all that data or collect as little of it as possible so that there is nothing to hand over.
Some stuff like metadata (such as when you send the email and to whom) will always remain in cleartext, Proton has it and hands it over too. It’s a problem with email, though all chat platforms that I know of haven’t really found a way around encrypting metadata.
This also means when registering on a service you need to give them as little info about yourself as possible. Like I said, using a VPN doesn’t mean you can say whatever on the internet without repercussions. There was a case where proton handed the authorities the recovery email to the user’s proton account. (edit: meaning, keep your proton profile as separate from anything else you do as much as possible. Don’t link it to anything about yourself)
The problem with tuta is they hand over inventory data (banking info, credit card payment data etc), real-time metadata, even the entire emails, encrypted or not.
Neither tuta nor proton have fully sourced their code so people can’t audit it.
Ultimately it’s a company in the imperial core, in Germany of all places lol. Proton Mullvad and Signal have the same problem - they want privacy but they set it up right in the belly of the beast.
Email in general is just not meant to be private, it’s tech from before they even had to worry about privacy or spam.
There are more specific issues, their severity depending on how important this is to you, but:
- tuta relies on Amazon Web Services for its DNS… odd
- encryption is only possible between tuta users, as mentioned
- they restrict access from the tor network (tor itself is not without its controversy lol)
The Edward Snowman 2016 interview brought up great points about metadata. I suggest we all take heed, although I’m pretty naked, so there’s that.
corporations we buy from every day do the same shit and worse. Proton fundraised for the (US) Congress outfit Freedom House.
Irrelevant.
5 million SEK sounds like a lot until you realize it’s 500k USD, not 5 million USD. I would still love half a million to do communist stuff with lol, but it’s not 5 million dollars.
Irrelevant. You’re minimizing this action. 500k usd makes up 70% of that party’s funding.
mullvad has no idea who I am and which customer of theirs I am. If you pay for your VPN with a credit card you’re a chump.
Where’s the evidence for that? Now YOU’RE moralizing, what are you doing to help ppl understand that they can keep themselves safe by not paying with a credit card? "personaly-responsibility"ing is uuuuuh, yeah, not the best framework.
they are also the only vpn with a proven track record of not leaking customer info, because they don’t have it.
Give me the evidence of this, not just words. Was there ever an instance of them being under judicial pressure? (which is what most corps break down under. i think i remember reading something about the telegram or signal ceo refusing to hand in its users private data.)
this is a tiny no-name party that he’s supporting. At least for now - in 10 years it could be an AfD situation. Current perspective is euro govs are going to ban VPNs faster than this party will win an election.
Irrelevant and (potentially?) dangerous. Just look at milei’s trajectory, openly known as a joke on TV around 2014 (exposure, normalization of his “”““antics””“”), made his political party in 2016 while using anarcho-capitalism as his stance, won presidential election in 2023. i agree w ur last sentence bc yes, this is true lmfao. And now with the current attacks on open source sites as a whole, the alternatives to the alternatives to the alternatives are even at risk lmfao.
the other co-founder distanced himself from that donation, at least publicly. Who knows if something will be dug up on him too later.
yeah I read about this. i wanna see what mullvard does now, if it’s a publicity stunt or competing companies playing dirty.
europe is fash central, and there’s also a LOT of fascists in software, including open software! (and just terrible politics in general)
What’s your intention in bringing this up? It doesn’t change the fact that one of mullvard’s co-founder is funding a xenophobic party. but i agree w everything else u said, being 100% private is not feasible, or at least not for now. where r the marxist hackers??? 🥺
Where’s the evidence for that? Now YOU’RE moralizing, what are you doing to help ppl understand that they can keep themselves safe by not paying with a credit card? "personaly-responsibility"ing is uuuuuh, yeah, not the best framework.
I’m not moralizing. You can pay for mullvad with a cash envelope with no return address, they explain this procedure on their website and it’s in fact one of the main reasons you would want mullvad.
Give me the evidence of this, not just words. Was there ever an instance of them being under judicial pressure? (which is what most corps break down under. i think i remember reading something about the telegram or signal ceo refusing to hand in its users private data.)
In 2023 swedish police raided the mullvad HQ, they wanted to seize a server for some customer’s data. The employees explained how their servers operate (no-logs and ram-only servers), and police left empty-handed. Even if they had seized the server there would have been nothing on it to tie the customer to the mass of traffic, unless the customer used something such as an email address or a credit card payment to mullvad. Only weak link is if police monitors your devices and finds your mullvad account ID, but that wouldn’t be the fault of the VPN.
What other VPN provider do you propose we use? Which one gets your seal of recommendation? Everyone in this business in the imperial core is a chud, because marxists are a tiny minority. The only other option if you want to remain morally pure is to not use the internet at all, which is valid, but if you have a bank account, go grocery shopping, buy stuff online, or work for literally any company, you participate in the system that perpetuates these chuds. Your boss also bankrolls far-right shitheads, he just doesn’t say it.
As long as mullvad’s service remains the same, which is definitely a question but not one that has been brought up, because all that has been brought up has been “cancel mullvad immediately”, then what exactly is “my” responsibility in this? that circus party works on 5M SEK, meanwhile the Moderate Party, the biggest right-wing party in Sweden - and also in government - made 140M SEK in 2024, with 100M coming from the State itself as it pays elected parties/officials. That’s not even talking about my actual national parties that have way worse politics than these Moderates do. We’re not gonna defeat fascism with the power of our wallets and individual actions.
you are most definitely moralizing, comrade. not everyone knows how to opt out of using a credit card & not everyone CAN. Ok see, that lands better than calling ppl chuds and placing the blame directly on THEM.
What other VPN provider do you propose we use? Which one gets your seal of recommendation? Everyone in this business in the imperial core is a chud, because marxists are a tiny minority. The only other option if you want to remain morally pure is to not use the internet at all, which is valid, but if you have a bank account, go grocery shopping, buy stuff online, or work for literally any company, you participate in the system that perpetuates these chuds. Your boss also bankrolls far-right shitheads, he just doesn’t say it.
i’m not tech-privvy, also that is not the point. I’m calling out the actions of this dude, they are valid. i’m also explaining that 10-years from now as a defense is potentially dangerous. i was actually gonna ask you which one gets your seal of recommendation (not in bad faith). maybe & some business chuds can be observant in the trend that ppl want privacy, but if it can be acquired by the authorities, they will lose revenue.
idgaf about morally pure. i do have an issue with how that term is being USED in alot of cases that require nuance. u can use mullvad and criticize their chud founder at the same time. i also take a huge issue in the moralization of how ppl are FORCED to survive under capitalism but that’s another topic.
As long as mullvad’s service remains the same, which is definitely a question but not one that has been brought up, because all that has been brought up has been “cancel mullvad immediately”, then what exactly is “my” responsibility in this? that circus party works on 5M SEK, meanwhile the Moderate Party, the biggest right-wing party in Sweden - and also in government - made 140M SEK in 2024, with 100M coming from the State itself as it pays elected parties/officials. That’s not even talking about my actual national parties that have way worse politics than these Moderates do. We’re not gonna defeat fascism with the power of our wallets and individual actions.
I DID SAY I WAS CURIOUS AS TO WHAT THEY DO NEXT. Yeah, that’s why I mentioned the possible motives behind this post, and the motives of the article and why the dude was exposed NOW, WHILE also asking why the hell is this dude giving that much money to this particular party?
idk i’m a marxist that uses a marxist-leninist lense to broach these sorts of topics and i refuse to tell YOU what your responsibilities are. you’re your own person, you have ppl closer to u that know you and might provide a different perspective.
jfc… there’s never a good choice for anything… there is always nefarious shit behind everything online
Maybe hide.me? As far as I know it doesn’t have Western ties… well except for being founded by a Westerner, but that’s it
Great.
Is there any other VPN service you can buy using crypto and no identity verification?
Thanks, I hate it. Mullvad user for 5+ years.
Yeah, also been using it for years. Am a month into a three-month prepurchase, after which I’m going elsewhere - IVPN looks like a possibility.
from what i’m reading mullvard “distances” themselves from the decision of one of their dude’s PRIVATE decision to donate to that party. but dude’s still part of the team 🤔 i wonder if that will put pressure on them. i wanna see if they fire him or nah.
“comfortable” that’s moralization. and whether they are trustworthy or not, we can’t know. you would have to look at every single one of their members and what motivates them. if it’s purely for the moneyz, they will be easily bought. but the dude deciding to donate money to a political party could be out of ignorance or a strategic move. we’ve seen what happens w ppl that try to up-one w/e political party is in office, the hackers are bought and begin to work for intelligence services or they have to flee from country to country and go through one million hoops to avoid being found. but these are just assumptions.
if anyone wants to do the research of every single person that constitutes the mullvard corp., that would be a starting point but otherwise…
it’s the same w political parties. idk their motivations or ulterior motives. idk if they’re co-opting socialist language like the fascists or “third positionists” historically have done. that “left nor right” phrase that they use is what milei did here. either way, if they’re genuine, not providing safety nets will backfire on them.
