no one talks about Russian VPN service providers
I prefer a VPN with a good image, reliable service and fast uncensored internet connection. Russians can't even reach Bitcointalk without VPN (outside Russia). 
Topic: List of VPN Service Providers - 2023 - page 6. (Read 3390 times)
Thanks to TryNinja[1] post in the Portuguese board, I was just informed that Mullvad recently suffered a search warrant from the Swedish polish in their offices[2]:
[1]https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5418378
[2]https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2023/4/20/mullvad-vpn-was-subject-to-a-search-warrant-customer-data-not-compromised/
Mullvad's blog is something one should constantly check because not only this but they usually post other helpful and important information.Quote
On April 18 at least six police officers from the National Operations Department (NOA) of the Swedish Police visited the Mullvad VPN office in Gothenburg with a search warrant.
They intended to seize computers with customer data.
In line with our policies such customer data did not exist. We argued they had no reason to expect to find what they were looking for and any seizures would therefore be illegal under Swedish law. After demonstrating that this is indeed how our service works and them consulting the prosecutor they left without taking anything and without any customer information.
If they had taken something that would not have given them access to any customer information.
Mullvad have been operating our VPN service for over 14 years. This is the first time our offices have been visited with a search warrant.
In line with Mullvad foundation philosophy, being transparent regarding such events is always good for any company - especially an event that resulted in supporting their privacy policies. Will be interesting to see what the case files say about this warrant (if they ever get released) since it would also validate Mullvad claims.They intended to seize computers with customer data.
In line with our policies such customer data did not exist. We argued they had no reason to expect to find what they were looking for and any seizures would therefore be illegal under Swedish law. After demonstrating that this is indeed how our service works and them consulting the prosecutor they left without taking anything and without any customer information.
If they had taken something that would not have given them access to any customer information.
Mullvad have been operating our VPN service for over 14 years. This is the first time our offices have been visited with a search warrant.
[1]https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5418378
[2]https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2023/4/20/mullvad-vpn-was-subject-to-a-search-warrant-customer-data-not-compromised/
By the way, regarding to VPNs, the fact that no one talks about Russian VPN service providers, confuses me. Literally, there is a war between Russia and West, so, logically, if one uses Russian VPN company, based on Russia, there is almost zero chance that the USA will gete any info from those VPN providers. Also, Russians are very pro-piracy, they manage the biggest torrent websites, they crack games, softwares, upload movies, etc and recently even Putin or one Russian political said that people are welcome to pirate western content.
I think, if we imagine that every VPN provider keeps logs, definitely the USA/Europe can demand data from companies that operate in western countries but I bet there is a very slight chance they'll get any data from Russia-based companies that operate from Russia.
Thanks to TryNinja[1] post in the Portuguese board, I was just informed that Mullvad recently suffered a search warrant from the Swedish polish in their offices[2]:
[1]https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5418378
[2]https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2023/4/20/mullvad-vpn-was-subject-to-a-search-warrant-customer-data-not-compromised/
Quote
On April 18 at least six police officers from the National Operations Department (NOA) of the Swedish Police visited the Mullvad VPN office in Gothenburg with a search warrant.
They intended to seize computers with customer data.
In line with our policies such customer data did not exist. We argued they had no reason to expect to find what they were looking for and any seizures would therefore be illegal under Swedish law. After demonstrating that this is indeed how our service works and them consulting the prosecutor they left without taking anything and without any customer information.
If they had taken something that would not have given them access to any customer information.
Mullvad have been operating our VPN service for over 14 years. This is the first time our offices have been visited with a search warrant.
In line with Mullvad foundation philosophy, being transparent regarding such events is always good for any company - especially an event that resulted in supporting their privacy policies. Will be interesting to see what the case files say about this warrant (if they ever get released) since it would also validate Mullvad claims.They intended to seize computers with customer data.
In line with our policies such customer data did not exist. We argued they had no reason to expect to find what they were looking for and any seizures would therefore be illegal under Swedish law. After demonstrating that this is indeed how our service works and them consulting the prosecutor they left without taking anything and without any customer information.
If they had taken something that would not have given them access to any customer information.
Mullvad have been operating our VPN service for over 14 years. This is the first time our offices have been visited with a search warrant.
[1]https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5418378
[2]https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2023/4/20/mullvad-vpn-was-subject-to-a-search-warrant-customer-data-not-compromised/
But the problem is that in 2019, Kape Technologies acquired Private Internet Access.
I posted about Kape and PIA a few years ago in this very thread: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.58547859I just went back to check if that clause in their Privacy Policy about sharing your data still exists, and it does. In addition, I also found that they use BitPay to process bitcoin payments. The same BitPay renowned for requiring KYC from their customers and their terrible privacy practices.
So yeah, I wouldn't go anywhere near PIA or anything else owned by Kape.
That was a list of very good articles. I think, there should be mentioned in this thread that the definition of some VPN's anti-log policy is that they won't log your activities but they will log the IP addresses that customers use to access the VPN. There is no point to use such VPN, it looks like to wear a transparent mask in public and lie to yourself that no one sees your actual face.
The problem is that it is very hard to pinpoint exactly the interpretation that each VPN provider has regarding "No logs policy". Eventually we get to know the interpretation of each company when a case such as the one in my previous post is reported. If you go today to PureVPN privacy policy[1] you'll see that they refer that they don't collect your origin IP, which totally happened in the previous report[2]. WBM has many snapshots of the privacy policy of PureVPN and in 2016 they stated that[3]:Quote
You are Invisible – Even We Cannot See What You Do Online
We Do Not monitor user activity nor do we keep any logs. We therefore have no record of your activities such as which software you used, which websites you visited, what content you downloaded, which apps you used, etc. after you connected to any of our servers. Our servers automatically record the time at which you connect to any of our servers, and the IP that was given to you. From here on forward, we do not keep any records of anything that could associate any specific activity to a specific user. The time you connected to any of our servers and disconnected is counted as a session, and your total sessions are kept in record to maintain quality of our service, along with the total bandwidth used. This helps us understand the flow of traffic to specific servers so we could optimize them better.
Out of curiosity I've checked the same page in 2018 - after the alleged colaboration with the FBI happened[2] - and the previous definition is somewhat different:We Do Not monitor user activity nor do we keep any logs. We therefore have no record of your activities such as which software you used, which websites you visited, what content you downloaded, which apps you used, etc. after you connected to any of our servers. Our servers automatically record the time at which you connect to any of our servers, and the IP that was given to you. From here on forward, we do not keep any records of anything that could associate any specific activity to a specific user. The time you connected to any of our servers and disconnected is counted as a session, and your total sessions are kept in record to maintain quality of our service, along with the total bandwidth used. This helps us understand the flow of traffic to specific servers so we could optimize them better.
Quote
We Do Not monitor user activity nor do we keep any logs. We therefore have no record of your activities such as which software you used, which websites you visited, what content you downloaded, which apps you used, etc. after you connected to any of our servers. Our servers automatically record the time at which you connect to any of our servers. From here on forward, we do not keep any records of anything that could associate any specific activity to a specific user. The time when a successful connection is made with our servers is counted as a “connection” and the total bandwidth used during this connection is called “bandwidth”. Connection and bandwidth are kept in record to maintain the quality of our service. This helps us understand the flow of traffic to specific servers so we could optimize them better.
They casually removed the part that they told you they kept the IP given to the user and the part that "The time you connected to any of our servers and disconnected is counted as a session,(...)" was also edited. All in all this just screams shady behaviour and I surely wouldn't touch PureVPN even with a stick.@o_e_l_e_o - In a totally different realm of VPN providers, here is an interesting take on the guys behind Mullvad that I found while browsing Reddit[1]:
Quote
10 years ago i was working at in a shared office where companies could hire a room. We all had a common lunch place and shared microwaves.
There I met two security nerds. They never shutdown their computers and if it happened, they did a full format and reinstalled the os - because if security.
They spoke with passion about security fixes they made in the vpn client that no other had.
They got many requests regularly from others that they should add there server as an endpoint - and they sad always no. All endpoints must be 100% secure by their knowledge. Never trust anyone.
If they had to leave a laptop they used some old coffee paper trick so that one could not open the lid without visible marks.
I was super impressed by them and have never met any like them. I guess they have grown out of their tiny office now, Mullvad.
Albeit we should take this with a grain of salt, I would definitely feel a bit better knowing that the guys who are behind Mullvad have such high standards of security in real life...There I met two security nerds. They never shutdown their computers and if it happened, they did a full format and reinstalled the os - because if security.
They spoke with passion about security fixes they made in the vpn client that no other had.
They got many requests regularly from others that they should add there server as an endpoint - and they sad always no. All endpoints must be 100% secure by their knowledge. Never trust anyone.
If they had to leave a laptop they used some old coffee paper trick so that one could not open the lid without visible marks.
I was super impressed by them and have never met any like them. I guess they have grown out of their tiny office now, Mullvad.
[1]https://www.purevpn.com/privacy-policy.php
[2]https://torrentfreak.com/purevpn-explains-how-it-helped-the-fbi-catch-a-cyberstalker-171016/
[3]https://web.archive.org/web/20160108132127/https://www.purevpn.com/privacy-policy.php
[4]https://web.archive.org/web/20180121070615/https://www.purevpn.com/privacy-policy.php
[5]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31005767
I think it will be very interesting if we discuss about VPNs that have actually proven to have zero-log policy.
It's impossible to "prove a negative".Quote
And in actually proven words I mean court cases where FBI has demanded logs from company and company hasn't provided them.
That still doesn't prove they're not keeping logs now. Here are a few possibilities:1. They kept logs, and lied about it in court.
2. They made a deal: they denied having logs to save their business, and shared the logs anyway.
3. They didn't keep logs back then, but they're keeping logs now.
By the way, that deal part is possible to happen as it's possible to happen that they will start to keep logs but I think it's a little beneficial to include some interesting stories in this thread.
It's impossible to "prove a negative".
Besides being impossible to prove that the mantra "No logs are kept" is true, there's also the nuance about the interpretation that each VPN provider has regarding "No logs are kept" - Does it really doesn't log any kind of information regarding the usage of their service & users? Or does it log the IP that is used to access the service? Take, for instance, the case of PureVPN who also claims[1] that it doesn't keep logs but, at least in 2017, it was reported that PureVPN helped the FBI in a cyber stalking case[2]. Turns out that, according to a statement by PureVPN, the IP that was used to access their service was kept[3]:Quote
However, that’s only half the problem. While it doesn’t log user activity (what sites people visit or content they download), it does log the IP addresses that customers use to access the PureVPN service. These, given the right circumstances, can be matched to external activities thanks to logs carried by other web companies.
Quote
“A network log is automatically generated every time a user visits a website. For the sake of this example, let’s say a user logged into their Gmail account. Every time they accessed Gmail, the email provider created a network log,” the company explains.
“If you are using a VPN, Gmail’s network log would contain the IP provided by PureVPN. This is one half of the picture. Now, if someone asks Google who accessed the user’s account, Google would state that whoever was using this IP, accessed the account.
“If the user was connected to PureVPN, it would be a PureVPN IP. The inquirer [in the Lin case, the FBI] would then share timestamps and network logs acquired from Google and ask them to be compared with the network logs maintained by the VPN provider.”
While we will never be able to confirm or audit if these companies don't keep log - in any form - the good news is that once someone finds out that their mantra is being violated by the company themselves, the word quickly goes around and for sure their reputation is tainted. After that you're the only one to blame if you still trust in the service or not.“If you are using a VPN, Gmail’s network log would contain the IP provided by PureVPN. This is one half of the picture. Now, if someone asks Google who accessed the user’s account, Google would state that whoever was using this IP, accessed the account.
“If the user was connected to PureVPN, it would be a PureVPN IP. The inquirer [in the Lin case, the FBI] would then share timestamps and network logs acquired from Google and ask them to be compared with the network logs maintained by the VPN provider.”
[1]https://www.purevpn.com/why-purevpn
[2]https://thehackernews.com/2017/10/no-logs-vpn-service-security_8.html
[3]https://torrentfreak.com/purevpn-explains-how-it-helped-the-fbi-catch-a-cyberstalker-171016/
It's impossible to "prove a negative".
Besides being impossible to prove that the mantra "No logs are kept" is true, there's also the nuance about the interpretation that each VPN provider has regarding "No logs are kept" - Does it really doesn't log any kind of information regarding the usage of their service & users? Or does it log the IP that is used to access the service? Take, for instance, the case of PureVPN who also claims[1] that it doesn't keep logs but, at least in 2017, it was reported that PureVPN helped the FBI in a cyber stalking case[2]. Turns out that, according to a statement by PureVPN, the IP that was used to access their service was kept[3]:Quote
However, that’s only half the problem. While it doesn’t log user activity (what sites people visit or content they download), it does log the IP addresses that customers use to access the PureVPN service. These, given the right circumstances, can be matched to external activities thanks to logs carried by other web companies.
Quote
“A network log is automatically generated every time a user visits a website. For the sake of this example, let’s say a user logged into their Gmail account. Every time they accessed Gmail, the email provider created a network log,” the company explains.
“If you are using a VPN, Gmail’s network log would contain the IP provided by PureVPN. This is one half of the picture. Now, if someone asks Google who accessed the user’s account, Google would state that whoever was using this IP, accessed the account.
“If the user was connected to PureVPN, it would be a PureVPN IP. The inquirer [in the Lin case, the FBI] would then share timestamps and network logs acquired from Google and ask them to be compared with the network logs maintained by the VPN provider.”
While we will never be able to confirm or audit if these companies don't keep log - in any form - the good news is that once someone finds out that their mantra is being violated by the company themselves, the word quickly goes around and for sure their reputation is tainted. After that you're the only one to blame if you still trust in the service or not.“If you are using a VPN, Gmail’s network log would contain the IP provided by PureVPN. This is one half of the picture. Now, if someone asks Google who accessed the user’s account, Google would state that whoever was using this IP, accessed the account.
“If the user was connected to PureVPN, it would be a PureVPN IP. The inquirer [in the Lin case, the FBI] would then share timestamps and network logs acquired from Google and ask them to be compared with the network logs maintained by the VPN provider.”
[1]https://www.purevpn.com/why-purevpn
[2]https://thehackernews.com/2017/10/no-logs-vpn-service-security_8.html
[3]https://torrentfreak.com/purevpn-explains-how-it-helped-the-fbi-catch-a-cyberstalker-171016/
I think it will be very interesting if we discuss about VPNs that have actually proven to have zero-log policy.
It's impossible to "prove a negative".Quote
And in actually proven words I mean court cases where FBI has demanded logs from company and company hasn't provided them.
That still doesn't prove they're not keeping logs now. Here are a few possibilities:1. They kept logs, and lied about it in court.
2. They made a deal: they denied having logs to save their business, and shared the logs anyway.
3. They didn't keep logs back then, but they're keeping logs now.
I think it will be very interesting if we have a discussion about VPNs that have actually proven to have zero-log policy. And in actually proven words I mean court cases where FBI has demanded logs from company and company hasn't provided them.
Actually, the first VPN that comes to my mind and will be added in the VPN list, is PIA - Private Internet Access.
But the problem is that in 2019, Kape Technologies acquired Private Internet Access. If you don't know why is it a problem, then you have to check this article: What is Kape Technologies?
Long story short, Kape Technologies, before 2018 called Crossrider, was actively engaging in shady behaviors, including hijacking users' browsers via malware injection. In 2018, Crossrider changed its name to Kape Technologies and as they say, they moved from infecting users to improving their cybersecurity, which is a lie, I hope we all agree with.
Kape Technologies own:
Why do they need four different VPN companies? They don't care about privacy, they care about money and money, more, more money.
So, since PIA is now owned by Kape Technologies, if I were you, I wouldn't trust PIA because of their excellent past. Since 2019, they are owned by Kape!
Actually, the first VPN that comes to my mind and will be added in the VPN list, is PIA - Private Internet Access.
- First court case: In 2016 one man allegedly made bomb threats while he was connected to PIA Vpn Ip. The FBI officially subpoenaed PIA to provideuser logs but they didn't provide, simply because they had no logs. [source1]
- Second court case: In 2018, John Arsenault, the lawyer for Private Internet Access, told the court that PIA doesn't save user logs and are unable to provide any useful information in response to a subpoena. [source2]
But the problem is that in 2019, Kape Technologies acquired Private Internet Access. If you don't know why is it a problem, then you have to check this article: What is Kape Technologies?
Long story short, Kape Technologies, before 2018 called Crossrider, was actively engaging in shady behaviors, including hijacking users' browsers via malware injection. In 2018, Crossrider changed its name to Kape Technologies and as they say, they moved from infecting users to improving their cybersecurity, which is a lie, I hope we all agree with.
Kape Technologies own:
- CyberGhost VPN
- Zenmate VPN
- Private Internet Access (PIA)
- ExpressVPN
Why do they need four different VPN companies? They don't care about privacy, they care about money and money, more, more money.
So, since PIA is now owned by Kape Technologies, if I were you, I wouldn't trust PIA because of their excellent past. Since 2019, they are owned by Kape!
I used Free Proton VPN on my phone, but I don't know if happen to someone here, because I always get disconnected after I change the browser, for example from Chrome to Firefox. I know that, because I always check whatismyipaddress before open something in bookmark and that show my real IP (Indonesia), not an outside country I choose (Japan and Netherland)
Most phones will have a setting in them somewhere which allows you to either set the VPN to "Always On" so it does not disconnect, or to automatically block all traffic if the VPN is disconnected so you can't accidentally connect to somewhere without it. 
Discussion about browsers in this thread proves again that we need Cyber Security board!
About damn time.
I don't understand why should someone block Youtube, there is nothing wrong with this platform. I would say, it's very censored and you won't see adult or violent content, the risks are minimum. There is no discussion about religion too, to my mind it's the least platform someone should ban.
It was part of a general blockade of social media services being used by protesters and government critics (i.e. "the usual reason").
I've heard somewhere that every serious person using Telegram has a VPN and (ideally) a disposable phone number. Crazy.
ProtonVPN's obfuscated servers are good but latency can be a problem, especially when it comes down to video streaming.
By the way, Chinese use Shadowsocks, V2Ray, Xray, Trojan, VLESS & gRPC to bypass firewall.
Alternatively, you can also use Tor Bridges, this will allow you to bypass restrictions and at the same time it will hide your Tor usage for your ISP.
By the way, Chinese use Shadowsocks, V2Ray, Xray, Trojan, VLESS & gRPC to bypass firewall.
Alternatively, you can also use Tor Bridges, this will allow you to bypass restrictions and at the same time it will hide your Tor usage for your ISP.
This will be very helpful to anyone who needs help overcoming internet restrictions, and it is also amazing to know that there's more tech out ther than just SOCKS4/5 and OpenVPN/WireGuard!
I used Free Proton VPN on my phone, but I don't know if happen to someone here, because I always get disconnected after I change the browser, for example from Chrome to Firefox. I know that, because I always check whatismyipaddress before open something in bookmark and that show my real IP (Indonesia), not an outside country I choose (Japan and Netherland)
Sometimes the VPN is disconnected if you lock your phone, depending on which OS you're running.
I've been using paid Proton VPN for a few weeks (before I used Avast, paid, and others free) and I must say that proton is 1000 times better.
It is true that I am not a computer scientist with high expectations, but the stability of the proton VPNs is really excellent and suitable for continuous use even for less experienced people like me.
Proton come with also 15 emails included, and we're not talking about gmail or Libero Mail (Italian provider that never works!) but we talk about a service created from CERN in Geneva!
I feel comfortable in recommending the use of proton VPN
I used Free Proton VPN on my phone, but I don't know if happen to someone here, because I always get disconnected after I change the browser, for example from Chrome to Firefox. I know that, because I always check whatismyipaddress before open something in bookmark and that show my real IP (Indonesia), not an outside country I choose (Japan and Netherland) It is true that I am not a computer scientist with high expectations, but the stability of the proton VPNs is really excellent and suitable for continuous use even for less experienced people like me.
Proton come with also 15 emails included, and we're not talking about gmail or Libero Mail (Italian provider that never works!
) but we talk about a service created from CERN in Geneva!I feel comfortable in recommending the use of proton VPN
Slightly off-topic, but very recently i found out Proton bought SimpleLogin[5] which is service to create email alias[6]. Basically it's intermediary between sender and your email address. Since you already have paid version of Proton, you also get paid version of SimpleLogin and IMO it's worth checking out.
Privacy wise, as of now, it is very hard to compete with Proton has. With a single subscription you get access to a great range of products - e-mail, VPN, calendar and drive - whose mantra is focused on yourself and being private. The SimpleLogin features is also a great addition to the family of products that they have - and honestly it seems aligned with the nature of their concept. As always there are also users that observe this "centralization" of services and prefer to have their services spread between companies to avoid being centralized in one, but I guess this kind of debate and opinions will always exist.Do note that if you aren't a Proton paid subscriber you can still access to a limited offer from SimpleLogin as a free customer, which mostly focuses on 10 aliases and 1 mailbox[1].
[1]https://simplelogin.io/pricing/
I've been using paid Proton VPN for a few weeks (before I used Avast, paid, and others free) and I must say that proton is 1000 times better.
It is true that I am not a computer scientist with high expectations, but the stability of the proton VPNs is really excellent and suitable for continuous use even for less experienced people like me.
It is true that I am not a computer scientist with high expectations, but the stability of the proton VPNs is really excellent and suitable for continuous use even for less experienced people like me.
It's almost unfair comparison
(whether free or paid version of Avast) since IMO their product in general is crappy[1-2] and they also have poor privacy history[3-4]. Comparing with general/speed-oriented VPN service (such as nordvpn) would be more fair.Proton come with also 15 emails included, and we're not talking about gmail or Libero Mail (Italian provider that never works! ) but we talk about a service created from CERN in Geneva!
) but we talk about a service created from CERN in Geneva!Slightly off-topic, but very recently i found out Proton bought SimpleLogin[5] which is service to create email alias[6]. Basically it's intermediary between sender and your email address. Since you already have paid version of Proton, you also get paid version of SimpleLogin and IMO it's worth checking out.
[1] https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/avast-antivirus-corrupted-my-windows-10/5004788c-e51c-410c-8dfd-90d32702a323
[2] https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=117057.0
[3] https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/antivirus-firm-avast-is-reportedly-selling-users-web-browsing-data/
[4] https://www.tomsguide.com/news/avast-avg-data-collection
[5] https://proton.me/blog/proton-and-simplelogin-join-forces
[6] https://simplelogin.io/
Discussion about browsers in this thread proves again that we need Cyber Security board!
ProtonVPN's obfuscated servers are good but latency can be a problem, especially when it comes down to video streaming.
By the way, Chinese use Shadowsocks, V2Ray, Xray, Trojan, VLESS & gRPC to bypass firewall.
Alternatively, you can also use Tor Bridges, this will allow you to bypass restrictions and at the same time it will hide your Tor usage for your ISP.
While other countries can easily crack down on most VPN providers, I can use Stealth Protocol and bypass all of these (except for China, but then you can use Shadowsocks for that). Regardless, for everything else, Proton works smoothly for me - recently the country I'm in decided it would be a great idea to block Youtube, and apparently the internet operator forgot to turn off the blocking switch, so I have exported OpenVPN profiles of all proton servers and imported them to all of our computers, and it works like a charm.
I don't understand why should someone block Youtube, there is nothing wrong with this platform. I would say, it's very censored and you won't see adult or violent content, the risks are minimum. There is no discussion about religion too, to my mind it's the least platform someone should ban.ProtonVPN's obfuscated servers are good but latency can be a problem, especially when it comes down to video streaming.
By the way, Chinese use Shadowsocks, V2Ray, Xray, Trojan, VLESS & gRPC to bypass firewall.
Alternatively, you can also use Tor Bridges, this will allow you to bypass restrictions and at the same time it will hide your Tor usage for your ISP.
- AF does not start in Private Browsing (PB) mode. Instead it can effectively achieve that in normal mode via sanitizing on close - and the threat model does not go as far as trying to avoid all disk state (but you can do that in the optional OPSEC section)
So is this basically saying that Arkenfox is just a firefox build with "Do not save history and cookies" settings turned on? If that's the case then there isn't really much of an argument for using it in the first place. And even while Mulvad's browser/VPN, which you can also get with Mozilla's VPN service, is convenient - I mean who doesn't like free stuff? - I am definitely in the Proton camp here, as far as censorship resistance goes.
While other countries can easily crack down on most VPN providers, I can use Stealth Protocol and bypass all of these (except for China, but then you can use Shadowsocks for that). Regardless, for everything else, Proton works smoothly for me - recently the country I'm in decided it would be a great idea to block Youtube, and apparently the internet operator forgot to turn off the blocking switch, so I have exported OpenVPN profiles of all proton servers and imported them to all of our computers, and it works like a charm.
@o_e_l_e_o: While browsing around Mullvad Browser GitHub page[1] I've found an interesting debate regarding the differences between Mullvad Browser and arkenfox or even Librewolf[2]. In the mist of the debate Thorin-Oakenpants, the owner of arkenfox[3] who ended up working with other privacy related projects as well. According to his vision, the main differences between AF/LW vs Mullvad Browser are the following:
[1]https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser
[2]https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/issues/1
[3]https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js
Quote
AF (arkenfox) vs LW (librewolf)
AF/LW vs MB (it's not a competition).
So all in all, that's 99% of the differences. Slightly different threat model re disk and using normal mode vs PB mode. Makes sense for MB to just piggyback on everything TB uses with a few tweaks. And AF allows customization to harden or relax because AF is not a crowd - also see point earlier about literally not being able to make things worse (99.24% and that's without the IP data point).
(...)
That's about it:
At the end he even goes to say that he'll use MB as a third daily driver (his other two are FF portable stable with AF + nightly). He seems to be supportive of the "hide in the crow" model adopted by Mullvad, albeit the same concern regarding crow size was also addressed by him. Either way, I believe this was a great step in providing another option to browse the web more safely - I guess that we'll see what they achieve in 1 year from now...- AF enables SB (safe browsing) and uses mozilla's API key. LW doesn't have a SB key (edit: note AF does block real time binary checks)
- AF updates same as Firefox. LW has no updater in windows
- AF can use any language, LW is limited to en-US
- AF restricts cross-site referrers by default
- LW ships with uBO - AF users have to do that manually and add/flip the two recommended filters as per the AF wiki
- So basically everything you see at Arthur's independent test site at [ulr]https://privacytests.org/[/url] for LW applies to AF along with referrers (navigational) with a green check as well
AF/LW vs MB (it's not a competition).
- AF does not start in Private Browsing (PB) mode. Instead it can effectively achieve that in normal mode via sanitizing on close - and the threat model does not go as far as trying to avoid all disk state (but you can do that in the optional OPSEC section)
- This has benefits - such as being able to leverage containers (containers and PB mode are incompatible), being able to retain some login data (site exceptions are retained), being able to leverage private window sessions as another "container", having non-PB mode APIs available such as service workers
- AF uses dFPI and network partitioning, not FPI. FPI has some issues outside of PB mode, such as isolation of service workers. dFPI allows for site exceptions for cross-site logins
So all in all, that's 99% of the differences. Slightly different threat model re disk and using normal mode vs PB mode. Makes sense for MB to just piggyback on everything TB uses with a few tweaks. And AF allows customization to harden or relax because AF is not a crowd - also see point earlier about literally not being able to make things worse (99.24% and that's without the IP data point).
(...)
That's about it:
- MB piggybacks on TB's hard work and threat model and uses FPI and PB mode, and HAS A CROWD for resisting fingerprinting - just grow that crowd - and benefits from early TB patches
- AF is a different threat model + space and while it encourages using a system VPN (not an extension), it has no crowd, allows configuration, and uses normal mode with sanitizing and dFPI and ETP benefits
[1]https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser
[2]https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/issues/1
[3]https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js
I've been using paid Proton VPN for a few weeks (before I used Avast, paid, and others free) and I must say that proton is 1000 times better.
It is true that I am not a computer scientist with high expectations, but the stability of the proton VPNs is really excellent and suitable for continuous use even for less experienced people like me.
Proton come with also 15 emails included, and we're not talking about gmail or Libero Mail (Italian provider that never works!) but we talk about a service created from CERN in Geneva!
I feel comfortable in recommending the use of proton VPN
It is true that I am not a computer scientist with high expectations, but the stability of the proton VPNs is really excellent and suitable for continuous use even for less experienced people like me.
Proton come with also 15 emails included, and we're not talking about gmail or Libero Mail (Italian provider that never works!
) but we talk about a service created from CERN in Geneva!I feel comfortable in recommending the use of proton VPN
While reading the definition of "coin control" I thought that it would be a great idea to use the feature to gather all the small inputs that one has in an address and send them all to a single address and it seems that I wasn't wrong considering your thread[2] about dust LoyceV.
If you have multiple dust outputs on the same address, then yes, this is fine and you lose nothing by consolidating all these outputs in to one larger output.If however you have multiple dust outputs across multiple addresses, then by consolidating them all together in a single transaction you link all these addresses under common ownership, and therefore you link all the transactions which created those dust outputs together as well. You may have reasons that you do not want to link those transactions together as all belonging to the same person.
As for me I'll keep my eyes open from now on to use this option and method of operation. Thank you for enlightening me.
PS: Have you checked out the parent company of Mullvad - Amagicom AB - new product? It's called Tillitis[1] and both the hardware and software will be open source.
It mostly depends on the current transaction fee. I have a 1 sat/vbyte transaction that's unconfirmed for more than a month now. I'm not in a hurry, so that's fine.
From that perspective you're right - I got no rush in consolidating them as of now so I could just push the transaction with a low fee and whenever it happens, it happens.I don't really understand the "50 Google searches a day" thing. There are better search engines out there than Google, but if you are desperate for Google results, then you can either use Startpage or SearX configured to return only Google results. Both of these options are free and unlimited.
I also can't wrap my head around this one. This is perhaps a stupid question but would it make sense to put a limitation to each user to avoid being blocked by Google API due to a large number of requests if the browser ends up being massively used? [1]https://www.tillitis.se/
In terms of the browser, looking in to it a bit more it is obviously not being designed to replace Tor or compete directly with Tor. Rather it has been designed to compete with other non-Tor browsers.
Agreed. So they should adjust their marketing a bit, and focus more on the fingerprinting than on the Tor part. Even better if they focus on tracking too.While reading the definition of "coin control" I thought that it would be a great idea to use the feature to gather all the small inputs that one has in an address and send them all to a single address and it seems that I wasn't wrong considering your thread[2] about dust LoyceV.
It mostly depends on the current transaction fee. I have a 1 sat/vbyte transaction that's unconfirmed for more than a month now. I'm not in a hurry, so that's fine. Jump to: