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Obscura: VPN that can't log your activity

233 points · 140 comments · Flimm

  1. maxloh · · focus · HN ↗
    I don't understand the point of this.

    Many (if not all) of the benefits on the landing page are available in Mullvad too, which is a more mature and reputable product, has all clients fully open-source, and powers the exit servers for Obscura.

    Why should I choose this over Mullvad?

    1. LeoPanthera · · focus · HN ↗
      A lot of people are abandoning Mullvad because their CEO is directly funding a far-right political party.

      As they should, IMHO.

      1. mephju · · focus · HN ↗
        That actually signals that the CEO has a legit reason for Mullvad to work really well.
        1. _g0xr · · focus · HN ↗
          Sure. But the political party in question has an explicit goal of rounding up and "deporting" all immigrants and all the children of immigrants (including those who grew up in Sweden and are citizens).

          Besides being reprehensible, that kind of mass trafficking requires mass surveillance. It simply can't be done without it.

          This kind of surveillance is antithetical to what Mullvad promises.

          There of course could be a "privacy for me and my customers, but not for thee" thing in their minds.

          But I don't trust that CEO whatsoever, and I don't trust the rest of Mullvad's leadership either because their response to the backlash was mealy mouthed "everyone is entitled to their opinion, let's all be civil" minimization schlock. They didn't give a fuck; they just wanted the PR problem to go away.

          Mullvad's VPN service might continue to be trustworthy, but... I have other options. And it could be enshittified over time, just like so many other things. At least one CEO has a motivation to enable mass surveillance.

          I'm also just not going to knowingly put money into the hands of someone I know will use it for evil, if and when I have a choice, which in this case I do.

      2. KoolKat23 · · focus · HN ↗
        Purity politics, doesn't work sorry, just highlights hypocrisy.

        I can't see how this has any bearing on the functioning of Mullvad, if they were campaigning on circumventing privacy rights it'd be a different story.

        1. duskdozer · · focus · HN ↗
          Sometimes people don't want to financially support people or companies that engage in certain behaviors they consider unethical. Whether or not the product functions is irrelevant in such a situation.
          1. KoolKat23 · · focus · HN ↗
            It's more the soapboxing that's the issue. I long for the days when not everything in life is given a political twist. This is a relatively recent phenomenon.
        2. max__dev · · focus · HN ↗
          People not wanting to give money to someone they don't like is now purity politics and hypocrisy?
          1. KoolKat23 · · focus · HN ↗
            It's the soapboxing that's the problem.

            It's not related to the product at all, not even privacy policy proposal associated with the party.

            Imagine feeling emboldened to share your two cents every single time because some company founder was a douche to you once and most importantly, the implied take, that everyone else should also boycott them because of this.

      3. duskdozer · · focus · HN ↗
        Do you know if there are other/general replacements for their browser extension that allows choosing a server/location per domain?
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