this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2026
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Privacy
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There's Proton, but given the controversy... yeah (though I did look at what they donate to and it seems to not be right-wing companies).
IVPN is perhaps your best bet.
Proton made one positive comment about some Trump anti censorship policy. Their "controversy" is really overblown.
Mullvad is directly donating to Nazis.
That said Proton doesn't have the same extreme privacy as Mullvad. But they are much cheaper with promos and also have good app support.
Proton also keeps leaking information to the government that led to protesters getting arrested
Edit: Links for the downvoters:
https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/proton-mail-discloses-user-data-leading-to-arrest-in-spain/18191
https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/proton-mail-helped-fbi-unmask-anonymous-stop-cop-city-protester/36007
Dude, they provided payment information because they were legally required to do so by swiss law. They did not share any actual user data from within the product. It sucks but if you use a roundabout payment method this wouldn't be an issue.
At the same time, Proton makes paying anonymously difficult. If you want to pay with Monero they don't officially support it and you have to go through a third party and buy a gift card, which is also not documented on their website, or exchange Monero for Bitcoin and pay with that. Contrast with IVPN/AirVPN/Mullvad which all officially support Monero. Also looking at their payment page, if you do pay with credit card they automatically renew by default, thus storing your credit card information without making that clear. Contrast with IVPN which doesn't by default and clarifies the privacy drawbacks, and Mullvad which doesn't do that at all. Sure the activist shouldn't have used a credit card, but at the same time Proton aggressively markets themselves as a privacy service so they need to act like one instead of encouraging bad privacy practices because subscriptions are profitable.
Privacy and anonymity are two different things. Proton doesn't market themselves as anonymous, they market as a privacy service, as you said. And as for the info given to gov'ts, they were legally required to do so. No company, including Mullvad, will break the law for you. Mullvad/IVPN/AirVPN, etc, will all abide by law and give up info if required.
Yet anonymity is one of the main points of VPNs
That's your personal opinion. It's fine to view it that way, but you can't assume that literally every single vpn user thinks the same way.
it's the opinion of a large number of VPN users, not just me personally, and their practices are still clearly dogshit compared to ones like IVPN. And on the topic on privacy vs anonymity, the fact that they can't keep users' payment info private seems like a privacy issue as well.
Sure buddy.
Not that much
It is for people who want to not get arrested, especially when the alternatives don't have the same level of neglect that Proton does (and some of them have a proven track record of not leaking information). IVPN and AirVPN at least accept Monero so I'd trust them more
A Mullvad founder and co-owner donating to Nazis is NOT Mullvad directly donating to Nazis.
No, but it is Mullvad customers money going directly to funding an obviously far right party.
The co-owner is very much the major funder of that party.
Honesty is really easy.
OP asked for options, not for this debate to go around in circles again.
What does the word 'honesty' mean to you?
Cool, you know what honesty means
It's just not for you?
Everyone knows what happened, and where the money is going.
https://lemmy.zip/post/68295409
https://lemmy.zip/post/67067247
proton is privacy greenwashing
How so? i know only about the CEO saying stupid things. But the technical aide?
Repeated misleading marketing on both their social medias and websites such as the false "no-log" claim that got someone arrested
Interesting. I'll read up in that.
Also: check your permissions to prevent possible rights escalations. (And yes, I know that it relies more on the sudoers file but I am sure there is some attack surface there ...)
Yeah IRL for most things I actually use a separate account not in the "wheel" group that doesn't have sudo access and use a Nix module that locks down directory permissions lol
proton are an ai company, and an email provider. do the math there.
I had a 2 year subscription with them, using their vpn and email. I stopped using them after approx 6 months of product use, customer support, and paying attention to their social media manipulation, and repeated lack of attention to product quality. Throwing away the other 18 months of subscription.
They are a very dodgy company, trying to be the next google, which is ironic considering how many canadian patriots are now heading there due to trump/google.
Their brand is very popular with their zombie fans who struggle to think, but are very quick with upvotes, and downvotes.
You're pretty vague for a "non-zombie". What's the issue with being an email provider? Also, they have an AI chatbot, I'm not sure they're training any models, and I don't know of any issue they've had with that product. Lastly, define them being a "dodgy" company.
I believe I made it obvious I wanted going to bother dealing with proton fanboys again?
People can make their own minds up by paying attention, or they can just follow the crowd, not my problem.
Not even close to a fanboy. Just someone that calls out a non-existant argument when they see one.