This is a great time to switch!
Get yourself the latest version of Firefox with the following add-ons:
HTTPS Everywhere
uBlock Origin (and EasyList
Privacy Badger or Privacy Possum
Decentraleyes
CanvasBlocker
Smart Referer
Those are, imho, basic add-ons EVERYONE should have. They're pretty much set 'em and forget 'em.
If you wanna go further:
NoScript Security Suite
uMatrix (some use with NoScript, some use in lieu of)
NetCraft Anti-Phishing Extension
Combine that all with a PiHole and a trusty VPN (Mullvad, PIA, Nord, Proton, etc.) and you will be set!
** Semi-Unrelated reminder: while you're thinking of security, get a good password manager (BitWarden, Lastpass, KeePass XC) and use 2FA whenever you can!
EDIT: Thanks for the gold, kind strangers! <3
EDIT 2: Forgot to mention that you should change your default search engine in Firefox to DuckDuckGo.
I think nord VPN has a gag order on it so the government monitors all the traffic or something, I would recommend Mullvad VPN it’s cheap and doesn’t log anything EDIT: I might be wrong about the gag order
Mullvad () if you are wanting something that'll keep you anonymous. They get you to create an account number which is the only identifier.
It costs €5 ($5.50) for a month. They have the option for you to mail them cash to further protect your identity. They are definetly worth checking out.
For real. If you're not willing to spit some cash for a good VPN you WILL get fucked. A serious VPN like Nord or Mullvad will most definitely protect you.
The only real dangers are human errors (but that's your own fault then) and law enforcement physically tapping into the VPN servers. The latter is highly improbable though since some VPN services literally rent more than a thousand different servers all over the world
I use Mullvad. Quality VPN with options to pay with Bitcoin and cash. Flat amount of money per month (no "discounted" annual plan BS) and they just give you an account number rather than making you provide personal information towards creating an account.
None of this explains why Mullvad or Windscribe would be a better choice than Nord.
Once you eliminate the VPN providers that are owned by a big shady conglomerate or incorporated in the US or another surveillance-happy country, the remaining ones are pretty evenly matched and which one you pick comes down to personal preference.
I haven't heard any substantital counterpoints to Nord other than a brief security issue in '19. Everything else is "I don't like them because they advertise so much, or because I already use something else." Which is legit, but you don't have to shit-talk oranges just because you like apples more.
The price is $5/month, up to 5 devices.
Available for Windows, android, and iOS
Only available in 6 countries: US, Canada, UK, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Servers provided by Mullvad.
I think it was Mullvad, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were. That and Proton are by far my top recommendations for a VPN.
Mullvad and Proton VPN are two good ones. There's another that seemed promising in our research, but it didn't tolerate account sharing so we skipped over it.
Proton is better for performance, but doesn't like torrents, even of the legal variety (like Linux distros). Proton is also pricier than PIA and Mullvad. Mullvad is better for privacy but can be a little slower. Proton is still plenty private, it's just the torrent thing that may not be good for people wanting a VPN.
Just got this email.
If you sign up now, it locks in the $4.99 month to month price.
It'll be interesting to see how they change the pricing, considering Mullvad VPN (what Mozilla is repacking as Mozilla VPN, but Mullvad has more options in settings) is only about ~$1 more expensive in USD.
Just sign up for a vpn.
Here's a good TF article on which VPNs log your traffic, what jurisdiction they operate under, and if they share whatever information they hold with a 3rd party.
I'm currently using Mullvad with no complaints; no speed drops or sudden disconnects or anything so far.
They have started offering VPN as a paid product, but their GUI lacks a lot of features and customization options. And according to my knowledge, all they really had to do was integrate the GUI with existing Mullvad servers. Not to mention that it is still not available in more countries.
I, for one, would consider switching to Mozilla VPN if they offer more important features and configuration options.
They're not too bad, they're just far from ideal if you happen to be a person of interest to a government or something. Most people would likely be totally fine with Nord.
For those that are particularly paranoid or have some good reason to care even more about privacy then they could get a different provider like Mullvad instead.
+u/ArtakhaPrime
They still have your IP and traffic details. You are trusting them to live up to their assertion that they don't log.
I like Mullvad, I just started using them and they're pretty fast. Their connectivity works fine with OpenVPN. I don't believe they would log my details, because their business depends on trust - employees talk, and if it ever got out that they were lying, they'd be dead. But let's not delude ourselves that a VPN provider would not at least technically be capable of fucking over someone who trusted them for anonymity.
The other nice thing about Mullvad is the transparency. Unlike others, ownership and management is known, they operate on EU rules and do not keep logs. There are no gimmicks, no discounts, tricky plans etc. just plain service at a fixed price.
I used it for a while, but everything about it was inferior to the Mullvad experience so I switched back. As much as I wanted to support Mozilla the app just felt half-baked.
Also the biggest bug was the lack of an auto-reconnect when service was lost, and a lack of notification as well.
I emailed support and they said they hoped to fix it in the future... That seems like a day 1 required feature to me. Having my phone go silent for 3 hours because I didn't realize my VPN connection was dead was unacceptable, and happened to me at least a half-dozen times in the span of a few months.
Purchase a vpn. Mullvad, Ovpn, nordvpn, private internet acess or whatever you want.
Connect vpn
Hold your mouse over your wifi or ethernet icon to see the adapter name often something like "VPNNAME-TUN" or something like that.
Go to your torrent client > settings > often "Advanced" > choose network adapter to the one you looked up in the previus step.
You can now seed and download with vpn connection only.
Open qBittorrent -> Tools -> Options -> Select "Advanced" on the bottom left -> set your network interface to the proton interface. I am using Mullvad so my interface is called "wg-mullvad".
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That way you limit qBittorrent to only use this interface. If your VPN looses connection, it's interface won't have any internet connection. Since qBittorrent cannot switch to another interface, it is being cut off thus preventing an ip leak.
You can check which IP is being reveiled in qBittorrent by going to and then copying the magnet link and adding it to qbittorrent. Your IP will be displayed a few seconds after that on the website.
If they were using a VPN, then their IP addresses got rerouted through a specific server, whose IP can be traced. However I don't think VPN providers will give out any information regarding that especially ones like Proton, Mullvad etc.
If they were using Tor to reroute their traffic then they can't be traced easily given in Tor the internet traffic constantly passes through multiple servers(or "nodes"), which can be used to anonymize internet traffic and is especially useful in regions with internet censorship.
Also, I think that those accounts are fake or randomly generated using bots, so it will be pretty tricky to trace the exact person behind it
Here's a direct link to Mullvad, which powers Mozilla's new VPN.
I've been using it since the start of quarantine and it's been pretty great. Lots of locations to choose from, and pretty speedy when I pick locations within the US (where I'm based).
It's not so good for mainstream streaming services, though; I haven't gotten a single server that works with Netflix, for example.
I've been using Mullvad for over half a year now and think they are great. They have (in my opinion) the most user-friendly ToS, focusing heavily on privacy. They actively support Wireguard and they even had a guide on how to get their VPN to run under QubesOS.
The funny thing is that you care about the VPN companies collecting your data and yet you use uTorrent as a client, the irony.
Unfortunately you will need a VPN since your country cares what you download, ProtonVpn and Mullvad are two vpn's that will not sell your data.
If you already delete uTorrent you don't have to worry about if something is still seeding using your torrents, and do yourself a favor, never use this piece of garbage. called uTorrent again, use qBittorrent or Deluge.
Here's a very basic guide for anyone who wants to fuck with these criminals.
Get a reliable VPN like PIA or Mullvad
Use and make sure it works
Only ever connect to anything related to your scambaiting while using your VPN now. This includes your VM.
Download virtualbox, and obtain a Windows ISO
Make your windows VM. Make sure your VM's network is configured to NAT.
Make a FireRTC account. Use throwaway info, they've been getting legal threats from a scamming company called myphonesoft. Of course, use your VPN.
Get numbers from and enjoy wasting these asshats' time.
Schließe mich hier mal an:
Tipp für Formel 1 mit F1TV: VPN am Telefon auf Österreich (Mullvad hat geklappt), in der App auf bezahlen per Playstore, Abo fertig machen, VPN aus und auf allen Geräten F1 schauen.
I did a bunch of research and Mullvad seems to hit all the checkmarks if you're comfortable doing some DIY configuration (they don't have their own iOS app so you have to use configuration files).
Edit: They now have an iOS app and it's awesome!
After weeks of research i recommend Mullvad or due to the following details.
I''m not try to push my agenda onto you but if you do get a VPN, get one that is usually out of the spying countries like the US or UK.
A good one that I am using is Mullvad, it's swedish, doesn't keep log, you can pay by cash anonymously and no email to sign rather a random account number.
It as any VPN can retain data but their ethical business policy proves a lot.
In what regard is Mullvad better for privacy than Nord? I would like specifics, please.
Aside from that, if you are a person of interest to a sufficiently motivated government (agency), using any VPN is entirely inadequate. You should use Tor and other privacy-enhancing tools, preferably in combination.
Mullvad is the best imo in terms of remaining anonymous. You pay with crypto and you don’t actually create an account only a seed. People hate on Nord because of their breach they had a little while back. I use ip vanish and I never had any big issues and they claim not to keep any logs. I am kind of starting to dislike IpVanish because it’s decently popular and you will find many sites block you or they make you complete a captcha for 20 minutes.
I work in vision. Don't worry, we can still identify you :) Although masks do make it more difficult. You should probably also put a pebble in your shoe though. But you're better off just using privacy preserving tools like Ad Block (uBlock Origin), Firefox (mobile supports uBlock), Signal, and maybe a VPN (though that just shifts who can spy. Mullvad seems to be trustworthy in destroying logs)
(We also don't need to see you to identify you. You're walking around with a fucking GPS in your pocket)
Signal, Wire, Matrix.
I think we need to be paying very, very close attention to the work in the A.I. space because we are on the horizon of the information singularity and *that is some terrifying shit*
Yes, your VPN could technically store and sell your data just as much as your ISP but the difference is that you can change VPNs at any time and are not limited to providers under US government jurisdiction.
There are even VPNs like Mullvad that are based in Sweden and don't require any personal information for creating an account. They provide you with a generated User ID that is used for everything and if you don't like it anymore you could just generate a new one. If you want you can even send them cash in the mail to pay for your service.
Minor correction. It's Mullvad. As for the reasons:
The consensus in certain tech circles is that they offer better privacy (no one can verify though but when multiple people recommend when they don't have to, it might be worth something)
They are the service provider for Firefox's own VPN service (FF acts as a reseller in this case)
You don't need to give them ANY personal information to get an account. Hell, you could mail them cash anonymously.
Seconded for this narrative.
I say this because to my knowledge, they shut down the most effective ones about two years ago (based on my comparisons using That One Privacy Guy's spreadsheet). I contacted another VPN service that was using the same domain extension (think ".com" or ".net" but a more unusual one) and they laughed at my question of whether or not they'd be next. The attack wasn't even on their radar. When I checked back with them a few weeks later they'd been shut down too. I gave up and figured Mullvad seemed to be the best alternative.
I was reading along, thinking "dang, those were great ideas and great products, especially Send. Still, Mozilla needs to focus on Firefox, so this is good news."
But then, at the end:
> this decision allows us to sharpen our focus on experiences like Mozilla VPN, Firefox Monitor, and Firefox Private Network.
Oh. All three of those services are essentially rebrands. Mozilla VPN is Mullvad, Firefox Monitor is Have I Been Pwned, and Firefox Private Network is Cloudflare Warp.
I really hope the new strategy is more than "slapping our brand on other folks' products". Please focus on Firefox!
Voor meer informatie over VPNs wil ik graag iedereen doorverwijzen naar r/VPN.
Zelf gebruik ik Mullvad, komt volgens als één van de veiligste/betrouwbaarste (en bovendien goedkope en snelle) VPNs uit de bus, ook al zitten ze in een Fourteen Eyes country (jurisdiction in Zweden).
PIA is overigens Amerikaans en zou ik dus niet aanraden.
It depends on if they block your VPN or not. If not, or if a "plan" that allows for VPNs is cheaper than one which unblocks every website, then it will work.
As for which VPN you should use I can't help but Mullvad seems to be pretty popular among some people I know.
I don't know about american laws. Regardless, if I were you, I'd do the following steps:
Install a GNU/Linux distribution with LVM-Encryption. That way, nobody without a password can boot UP the PC.
Get a VPN. Mullvad offers one for 5 € a month. Completely anonymously.
Forget Skype. Use a free/open-source, encrypted VoiP such as Jitsi Meet
Before she does the deed, tell her to run "sudo shutdown -h 60", so that the computer turns off after 60 minutes. When all is done, nobody will be able to follow the traces to you.
It might be overkill. But once you set all up, you can have a dignified last moment without any outer distractions.
I've been using Mullvad for a couple of years now it's so far been the best one I've used yet. Speeds are great, good amount of features, and it doesn't even ask you for an email address. They also have a pretty useful FAQ page on their website full of tutorials
Mullvad supports WireGuard (server list some WireGuard development. Works very well.
Hey man. I had the same issue in high school. A good VPN will obscure your network traffic and negate any websites your school's firewall prohibits (I do not endorse abusing this feature). I don't know anything about Mullvad, so I can't comment on it, but I still recommend using a good paid VPN (I use iVPN, $8/month.) If for some reason the VPN is not an option, read about TOR browser. It's a free browser that obscures your network traffic using essentially the same methods as a VPN. However, depending on your school's internet service provider, TOR might not work without a proxy. Good luck!
Edit: typo
you may have set your bar to low.
Vpn is about privacy, most Vpns just work so that you have no complaints but that isn't good enough. lookout for news, read your data.
I'd rather have a shitty no log vpn than a blazing fast one which may someday leak.
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A chain is only as strong as its weakest link they say. So make sure your links are focking MASSIVE.
also, yes Mullvad is great , for now
Mullvad 3 hour trial. and you get unlimited transfer at a very quick speed. You can select the exit country, and it is OpenVPN & PPTP compatible.
5/5 *s
The only trusted VPN is one you control.
I use Mullvad, personally, but the only thing I use it for is keeping my network traffic from being tracked by my ISP and encrypting my traffic when using public WiFi.
SE 101, basically seems like they went on weleakinfo or ihavebeenpwned. Typed in your email in the db and found a compromised pass. Don’t fall for this shit. Make sure u use Lastpass manager and Mullvad Vpn. Stay safe.
A lot of the industry is kinda shifty TBH. Unfortunately it's hard to tell what VPNs are actually highly recommended because the ones you'll find promoted everywhere like Nord, Express, PIA, Pure, etc. have affiliate programs, so there's an incentive for websites to recommend them over others. PIA has at least proved in court that they don't log so they have that going for them.
Personally I use Mullvad for the reasons listed here.
I also highly recommend that you check out this comparison site. It deals only with objective information and doesn't use affiliate links. Look through the tables for something that fits your criteria, ideally with a refund policy or trial, and test it to see if it gives you the speeds you need.
Didn't know Kaspersky had a VPN but i wouldn't trust it. Kaspersky had a lot of allegations of them being close with the Russian gov. I personally don't trust Kaspersky but either way it's up to you and how you feel about them. I suggest doing a bit of research. I personally use Mullvad VPN.
Whenever I travel, I always make sure to have a VPN subscription that lasts at least until I come back, and use that the entire time. Also /u/happinyz, if you need a good VPN but you don't want to pay for an entire month, IIRC Mullvad VPN lets you pay for any amount of time if you use cryptocurrency. If money is an issue, Mullvad also gives you 3 hours of trial time with every account number that you open, and using Rabbit you should be able to open an infinite number of accounts.
There are many VPNs that don't log traffic. I use Mullvad and it's great. Just whatever you do make sure you don't use a free one, because they are probably logging and selling your information. Especially don't use HideMyAss because they're notorious for handing logs over to authorities. If you have questions feel free to ask and I can try to help.
Mullvad is my personal recommendation. They have an app for pretty much every system and support for WireGuard if you’re on a system that supports it.
Best of all, their price is £5 a month. Flat. No need to pay for a years worth. I pay once a month when I can pay to top it up.
Their speed on pretty much every server hasn’t bottlenecked my 100mb internet either. They’re Swedish and if you really want privacy you can even pay for your vpn in cash (euros), in an envelope with your randomly generated registration number (or by credit card, PayPal, bitcoin etc).
I pretty much run it 24/7 on my phone as WireGuard barely sips battery power (and it can be used on 3 devices at a time iirc).
/r/VPN
1- go to PrivateInternetAccess or Mullvad and purchase a VPN subscription. $35/year isn't bad. There are dozens of services you can research, but these are the popular ones. Mullvad is european based, so not subject to bogus NSLs from the US government
2- Download and run their client software. This will route your traffic through their network and encrypt it
3- google What's my IP to confirm your IP address shows a different geographic location
Nothing is 100% safe, but this goes a long way toward maintaining your privacy. You can do a number of things to increase the effectiveness as well. Using an offshore VPN provider that at least says they keep no records is a start. I like Mullvad since you can fund your account anonymously with bitcoin. You can also use multiple VPNs for redundancy. This is achieved using virtual machines or configuring your router to connect to one vpn then connecting the seed-box to the other.
Essentially you are really just making yourself so difficult to track down that it is not in anyone's best interest to put the effort in to find you.
I get that, but that's not what I use it for. I just use it in an embedded home server to redirect http requests and P2P networking to an arbitrary country. Nord is the only provider that lets me use OpenVPN profiles over UDP and doesn't necessitate getting a new .ovpn profile every week because they decided to scramble something. Every other provider I've tried either breaks my connection after around a week or requires using their own proprietary client, which I can't do on my custom Debian server. For sensitive information I use Mullvad but for my less security-minded processes, Nord works well.
Also, the security concerns for Nord have been overblown. Everyone cites the server compromise but it was an out of commission exit node that didn't have anything sensitive on it.
Like I said, it's good to be a smart consumer but at the end of the day nearly every VPN service is going to have some issues and sometimes "good enough" really is "good enough."
Their VPN is a rebranded Mullvad service. Pocket is outrageously expensive for what it offers. And they were also paid $500 million last year with ~1,000 employees. That's a lot of money and not a lot of people or expenses. I hope Mozilla figures out some killer product to help them grow, but so far they haven't found it
Mullvad is my favorite of those since their servers are pretty stable and they have WireGuard support (a new VPN protocol which promises better stability, more bandwidth and less CPU usage compared to OpenVPN). They also accept many forms of payments including cash.
Their main disadvantage is that they are located in Sweden which is part of the "14 eyes", but if I am doing something that sensitive I would use TOR anyway and accept the huge performance cost.
Jag använder Mullvad för att jag vet att personerna bakom tjänsten är ideologiskt övertygade försvarare av yttrandefrihet. Det är killar som tar sitt jobb på stort allvar och inte bara är ute efter att tjäna snabba pengar.
I don't think you know how VPNs work, dude.
The VPN can be based in the Sweden (like Mullvad) but allow you to connect to the internet using servers in the United States or Hong Kong or wherever, having an IP address from those places.
The porn sites in the protest are blocking only California IPs since it's a California ballot initiative.
But really, Prop 60 is an existential threat to porn as we know it. Most porn is made in California, so this is a big deal. It'll open the door to censorship and lawsuits that could cripple the adult industry. So, if you like & support porn, vote NO on prop 60!!
But to fix your current dilemma, other users have suggested VPN. This is a good option (I recommend either Mullvad or NordVPN, but there are others). All you need is an IP outside of California and you should be all set.
Happy fapping
edit: clarity
I personally use Mozilla VPN. It’s basically a reskin of Mullvad, which is one of the most highly regarded VPN services. Regular Mullvad might actually be a bit cheaper but I love Mozilla’s products and their values around privacy & internet access so I want to support them by paying for their version.
Mullvad. You can mail them cash with no return address to fund a randomly generated account number that you provide. And it's only 5 euro a month.
Express is easy pretty secure and very fast but it will run you 100usd a year. You can pay in Bitcoin.
I wouldn't regret switching to a service that actually does what it claims.
Unfortunately bad actors also know that Mullvad is the best, thus some sites ending up blocking some IPs. You'll find one that works, keep trying and make sure to always visit the page to make sure the IP you are on isn't blacklisted.
I would make an educated guess that Mozilla keeps about 50% of the sale. Mullvad presumably assumes the Mozilla brand can reach customers that the Mullvad brand can't... and since even a well-run VPN service is a high-margin business, they still make money.
Is also possible that Mullvad expects their brand to gain trust by being associated with Mozilla. In the VPN game, a trusted name counts for a lot; users are aware it's an easy business to enter and thus there are a lot of scummy services with little to differentiate them.
It's not a bad business to be in, but along with the other recent rebrands it starts to form a pattern of Mozilla trading on the Mozilla and Firefox brand rather than on their own products. That path leads toward Foxium. I hope I'm wrong!
Use MullvadVPN. It’s a super fast VPN service and is known for not saving any data at all. As some guys mentioned here already - if the service is free, you are the product! No one is giving away a VPN service just for free. No one.
I recommend moving to Mullvad and paying in cold hard cash if you want to improve your setup, also the wireless extender might be a weak point (you don't really provide any information about it)
The way you operate online is also important, you can be doing all the right steps but if you login to your Gmail, start scrolling on Facebook and check up on your colleagues on LinkedIn you're no longer private online.
Last of all, this is the wrong sub, check r/privacy or r/vpn
Lockwise ist in Ordnung, Gerätesynchronisation ist super, auch der Schritt ins VPN Geschäft mit Mullvad passt finde ich ins Konzept, aber ich habe bis heute keine Ahnung, was zum Geier ich mit Pocket anfangen soll.
Die sollen bei den Kernthemen bleiben. Irgendwelche sozialen Medien in den Browser integrieren fände ich ehrlich gesagt furchtbar und unnötig. Wieso den Browser mit so einem Quatsch aufblähen?
Trotzdem… Wenn Firefox verschwinden sollte, würde ich das vermutlich auch tun. Habe eh schon länger das Gefühl, dass sich das Internet in eine sehr negative Richtung hin entwickelt.
Worth noting too, that Firefox VPN uses Mullvad as the back-end provider! Good way to support both companies, although I'd assume that having your Mozilla account tied to the VPN undermines some of the anonymity.
I am the person who asked That One Privacy Guy to do a Mullvad review. proof (I would show more of my message to him, but patreon won't let me scroll up more for some reason). We were chatting about how to make the random selections he was using at the time turn up less shovelware by weighting the probabilities. I did not have any relationship with Mullvad whatsoever until after I requested the review, at which point I subscribed to their service based on TOPG's unbiased recommendation.
I have an active sub with NordVPN, no one shared the result because:
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The Report you about to see was prepared to enable NordVPN customers to verify that a report by an independent auditing company has been issued in connection with the no-log NordVPN service.
By proceeding further you agree that the auditing company will not be held liable nor responsible for any loss or damage suffered or costs incurred by you, arising out of or in connection with the Information provided in the report. You also agree not to copy and distribute the content or results of it.
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And then the audit is done under the name of "Tefincom S.A's NordVPN service to the Management of Tefincom S.A. Nicosia, Cyprus"
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Yes done under the country Cyprus, not Panama. I say screw Nord! Thank god I changed to Mullvad a few months ago even though I have still have an active sub with Nord.
Do not reply, they have no way of proving it was you that downloaded the file if you don't reply to the email.
If you want to keep torrenting, getting a paid VPN (they cost $3-5/month) will encrypt and hide your traffic as well as give you a random IP address.
Make sure the VPN service doesn't keep any logs of their customers, Mullvad or Private internet access are both good. And whatever you do avoid free VPN services.
My vote for is Mullvad as they go out of their way to not know your infomation.
As long as you don't pay with a tracked source like an actual credit card with your info or paypal and maybe refresh your account every few months, they have no way to know one person from the next.
Not to mention they have all the features the others have along with good performance to boot.
I used Mint before, but I had some issues that I couldn't fix and I definitely changed after several days of exchanging with Stef and Sanny from Mullvad because Firefox didn't want to connect with the VPN anymore, or any other browser, we didn't manage to solve the problem under Mint, I got fed up with it, I had heard good things about Pop Os, especially for gaming because I'm using Proton, I chose it and today I don't have any more problems, but it really depends on cases, my case is not a generality.
On the laptop, I use Xubuntu.
Mullvad !!! Privacy, privacy, privacy ! Anonymous !!! Do a Google seach and read the first page of résults for Mullvad review And you can pay with Monero if I remember correctly You can buy for a year or more, cheaper, I think
Outstanding work.
I've been using Mullvad for a while now and currently see no reason to change my VPN provider. Your list is an excellent way to form a solid first opinion. Before deciding on a provider a while back during my research, I was bothered by the "sponsored" reviews on reddit and the overall lack of in depth information on the web.
Not to mention their Wireguard service is pretty fast, and supports port forwarding up to 5 ports.
I had port forwarding setup with PIA previously buts it's a PITA to get setup if you don't use their desktop client. You have to run some script in the background to get the port and keep it alive, and it was super flaky once it did work. With Mullvad, they just give you the ports when you request one, and it's yours, associated with your key and persistent. No script or other hoops to jump through.
Everyone here is talking about turning off your location in the settings app, but you should also use a VPN. Social networks will figure out your location based off your IP address as well as any location data you send them.
There are a number out there which are fine, but free ones typically make their money by reselling data about you.
I use Mullvad for work and they seem to be good at a reasonable cost.
Also, make sure you’re removing metadata from your images. There are apps for that, but you can also use the shortcuts app.
Don't buy a VPN for 80 years lol. The Internet will be so different in 2100 that it will probably be unrecognisable, I doubt Mullvad will be around then, even tech giant like Google and Facebook may have fell by then
According to Mullvad, their VPN still works for all apps including Apple's:
>Starting in Big Sur, the latest version of macOS released 12 November 2020, Apple excludes its own apps from the content filter provider APIs. As a result, any network monitoring and security software using these APIs is unable to detect and block traffic from Apple apps.
>Mullvad does not use content filter provider APIs to secure the device. Instead, we use the Packet Filter (PF) firewall which is built into macOS. This is a packet firewall, not an application firewall, which means that it does not exclude packets from any apps, including Apple's own apps.
>In other words, our usage of the PF firewall does not allow Apple apps to leak when Mullvad VPN is blocking the Internet. We have verified this by observing the network traffic from outside of the Apple machine.
Mullvad seems likely to be trustworthy. It is a Swedish company, but they seem pretty serious about never logging anything and about supporting work on improving VPN technology. They work with the creator of WireGuard to improve it and they were one of the first VPN providers to adopt it.
Browser: Firefox with ublock origin, https everywhere, privacy badger, cookie autodelete (all w/o whitelists)
Search engine: Duckduckgo
Email: Protonmail
VPN: Mullvad - with SOCKS5 proxy over OpenVPN (I've researched this a lot and I really find Mullvad to be the most trustworthy/safe provider. Only grey spot is Swedish jurisdiction, but I can leverage it with a no-log policy I can actually trust. I also appreciate that they do not aggressively advertise - if they advertise at all - and that it's 5eur/month flat. Cherry on top is the fact you don't need a user account - you get a random generated number instead)
Using RSS to bypass the need to log in to services to get content updates (i.e. Youtube/Google account to get subscription feed)
Relevant points:
>Starting in Big Sur, the latest version of macOS released 12 November 2020, Apple excludes its own apps from the content filter provider APIs. As a result, any network monitoring and security software using these APIs is unable to detect and block traffic from Apple apps.
>Mullvad does not use content filter provider APIs to secure the device. Instead, we use the Packet Filter (PF) firewall which is built into macOS. This is a packet firewall, not an application firewall, which means that it does not exclude packets from any apps, including Apple's own apps.
I'm getting some great ideas from this thread. Most of my efforts have been around digital security. Generate strong passwords, use a password manager. Use a good vpn, shoutout to Mullvad for supporting wireguard (no affiliation). Up to date linux laptop with full disk encryption (really no downside). Browser has uBlock origin, privacy badger, https everywhere, etc. White noise machine to help with sleep and cover, ehem, extracurricular activities.
Mullvad win because they've now got partnership with a mainstream brand. Mozilla win because they'll see a cut of the subscription fees.
Both parties win because both parties will see an increase in their revenues, allowing more money to be pumped back into their respective products, resulting in better stuff for all of us.
I don't get why people are crapping all over this arrangement? Surely anything that brings in more revenue to two privacy respecting and advocating companies, whilst making a good quality VPN more visible and available to the general public, can only be a good thing?
Just buy a Mullvad subscription directly -- they're the providers for the Firefox VPN and when you buy it from them you have way more options for configuring it (e.g. OpenVPN, Wireguard, running it on whole devices or networks).
>Don't need to read it to know Mullvad is objectively the best.
I agree. I've been using Mullvad for over a year and it's been as reliable as any other service I've used. Plus, it doesn't require an email account to sign up and you can pay with Bitcoin or even cash. also gives Mullvad his top rating.
Mullvad is a great VPN service. They don't collect ANY information about you when you make an account. You get a random account number and that's how you're identified--no email, no name, no contact information, nothing. Also, if you connect to a near server, I haven't noticed any speed decreases compared to no VPN connection with 70mb/s service.
Mullvad is the least compromised to date.
There's also outline, but it's a little bit involved to set up.
You can also use TOR.
None of these offers actual anonymity. It's just slightly better than nothing. Not a condom at all.
If you want actual anonymity, you need to yeet out Google services from your android (by installing /e/ or Lineage or some other custom rom), stop using Google services completely, and use a good adblocker at the system level.
That, too, doesn't guarantee anonymity, but it's "something".
Mozilla VPN is just a rebrand of Mullvad VPN except it's cheaper. So Mullvad is benefiting by having an expanded market to more people through Mozilla's marketing and brand recognition while Mozilla is getting a cut for relatively few resources. Win-win.
edit: I should note that I do not have explicit knowledge of what the contract and business relationship looks like between Mozilla and Mullvad, but I expect there's a profit component for Mozilla (otherwise why bother).
> Mozilla VPN is Mullvad
I would love to know how they're making money on this. As an American, Mullvad costs $5.50. Mozilla VPN costs me only $5. Even if Firefox got a good deal with Mullvad, it can't be much revenue.
I've been with Nord for years and from a personal service received point of view I've no complaints, but their many cockups over the past couple of years has made me lose all confidence in them. So much so, that I've move to Cryptostorm now. Another solid choice is Mullvad.
There's no getting around the license really unless you want to delve into the world of fakes, which I wouldn't recommend.
What I mean by a middle man is something that is between the site and you. So you link cam site > middleman > you. Patreon, for example, would be a middle man because you are linking you account to an entirely separate service, so if something happens and the cam site leaks all or your information, they leak the patreon information and not your actual bank details. It's much easier manage the middle man than it is close down a bank account.
Note: I also used Patreon as an example. I have no idea how Patreon works or if it's an option.
Also, as another user mentioned, a VPN should be high on the list. Mullvad is a good option as it's about five bucks and it can be paid for anonymously.
Are you looking to switch? If you are, I'm curious what you end up switching to. I've personally used PIA, but disliked that I ended up with really slow speeds most of the time. I also had issues connecting to a banking website when using PIA.
Currently using Mullvad, which works it works. Sometimes it'll just straight up lose connection and I have to go and find another server to connect to. Speeds are decent though. I've also not had any issues connecting to websites with Mullvad, which is nice.
I was looking to try Nord next, but if it's getting blocked by places like Amazon, I don't know where else to look. I just want something stable, relatively secure, with good speeds. Mullvad is everything I want except stable thus far.
Every bitcoin transaction can be traced back, it's pseudonymous. The best is probably cash. Some offer that. I actually did test Mullvad a while back, and sent them 5€ cash via anonymous letter an anonymously created acc number in it. 5 days later the account received a month of runtime. Really liked that system, though it adds cost for postage stamp. I am not sure who else does this type of anonymous payment.