Oddbean

I'm sorry but this is really a nothing burger, a pure nitpick. Who gives a fuck where they host their customer support emails? You can spin up new mullvad accounts with 0 friction. Even if you doxx your account in an email, you can create another one. I don't know any service who "self hosts" email for customer support. That's probably a terrible idea since self-hosted email often gets flagged as spam and that's the last thing you want for customer support. Your note makes it seem like this is some dealbrealer and that "they don't give a shit about your privacy". I don't think you have bad intentions but you're letting the perfect be the enemy of good and the result is that people who read that will just be discouraged and not improve their setup. I think we should be vocal about things that matter. A customer support MX record pointing at gmail is not it.

I disagree. Communication is a core principle of privacy. And it’s not just Mullvad. My point is that so few companies actually care to not use Google, to the point that it is completely involuntary. They could have used one of the other providers such as even Proton that isn’t spam. And your point that they can’t have emails in their own domain because it’s spam, is exactly the centralization of the internet that I’m talking about. Because literally everyone… not even you, a privacy “influencer” cares enough. Go ahead, bow down and obey Google overseeing all activity on earth. But I don’t accept that

Email is already centralized and captured regardless of what provider you choose. It's a shitty protocol, terrible for privacy. They provide email support to meet people (normies) where they are. People who really care about anonimity: 1. Should be using Tor instead of a VPN 2. Should not be contacting customer support in the first place. I didn't even know they had customer support 🤣 You have to think about the impact of the things you are bashing. The internet does not get more centralized because they are using gmail. You could shittalk so many companies that have terrible privacy practices but instead took that time to write a lenthy rant for something this meaningless...

I think you're both right. They should probably avoid google AND it probably matters less by comparison than, say, not using a VPN at all. What would kill two birds with one stone is having a customer support option like SimpleX so we don't have to use email in the first place. That would keep anyone, including Mullvad tech support, from knowing who you are.

Of course I agree with you that email is not private and awful. Of course I agree Tor is more anonymous than a VPN.. THAT’S NOT WHAT WE ARE DEBATING. I disagree with you that I have to accept things for the way they are. I disagree that have to get down on my knees and obey. It turns it into a completely involuntary interaction with Google. This is Mullvad’s only form of contact. And change has to start SOMEWHERE. SOMEONE has to crack, and I pick the one who claims to be for privacy. If we can’t get Mullvad to change, then nobody. I agree with you that many other companies have worse privacy policies, what I’m saying is that Mullvad can be converted. They can be changed. Of course companies using Gmail makes the internet more centralized, how can you even debate this point? Again, you’re saying, submit and accept the empire. I don’t submit. I’m not obeying.

Your OP was clickbaity and sensationalized. It's ok to want Mullvad to move away from gmail for ideological reasons but that was not your tone. You claimed that because of that "they don't give a shit about user privacy". You thus implied it affected user privacy when that's clearly not true. Yes a user can doxx all his PII in a customer support email and then reuse the same mullvad account, but at that point, that's more of an L to him than to mullvad. Personal responsibility is irreplaceable.

Yes you’re correct that the burden of responsibility falls on the individual for anything in life. But Mullvad is misrepresenting themselves here. If they really cared, they wouldn’t do this. My tone is to purposefully create negative consequences for the use of Big Tech, to force them to change. As if I worded it in a “wouldn’t it be nice” way, then I would be ignored.

Who pays for VPN to use it on daily basis? Idiots who don't trust ISP but trust unconditionally VPN provider who knows everything about their traffic. There is Tor, not great but much better when it comes to privacy. FOR FREE.

The VPN provider knows everything about your traffic except... KYC and PII which is kind of the most important thing. Using a VPN is like using a no-kyc ISP + you get the added anonimity set of sharing an IP with other users. A VPN is not the ultimate solution but it's just basic protection. Without is, it's kind of like getting fucked on the internet without a condom.

Using a VPN is not supposed to protect you from the VPN provider. It's just strictly better than just using your ISP. No one is arguing that tor isn't superior privacy wise. Why not route everything through tor? Because many types of internet usage are unusable and unviable through tor.

Now, imagine getting fucked non-stop my a herd of corporate elephants... 😳🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘💨 #lol #privacy nostr:nevent1qqsgtaa5ddwj64upvhhmksyfmurvpqd66s7xt9awg34y9k6uxz2qrlqpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmqzyrgda0ulkyk7lq05847xjs5mk7zgz2kpunfd2w3q9km243l2fdrxcqcyqqqqqqgywss4h

My work software won't let me log in when my VPN is on, but I can turn it on after logging in and use it (I don't understand that at all). Reading your post made me realize, I'd failed to turn it back on after logging into my work software. Thanks.

This is extremely advanced but if you're game, there are plenty of ways you can configure routing rules so that it uses the vpn for specific IPs except some specific ones. I have some rules like that precisely because of this sort of issues.