A secret program called "Project Ghostbusters" saw Facebook devise a way to intercept and decrypt the encrypted network traffic of Snapchat users to study their behavior.
This is the problem with using VPN services in general, you have to have complete trust in the service provider.
There is no way to know whom the trustworthy VPN provider shares data with. That’s just the reality. And sure you’re back to square one if you don’t use a VPN, but the point here is that people think that using a VPN is much safer than it actually is. Furthermore, another option is always to just run your own VPN that you can host in whatever jurisdiction you want.
If Mullvad got raided by the Swedish police and was not able to provide them with a single bit of data, then I think it is very safe to assume they are not providing the data to ANYONE
It’s safe to assume they were not providing data to anyone at the time, and perhaps they are not now. Thing is that you don’t know that, and it’s a relationship fundamentally based on trust. There’s nothing wrong with trusting a company like Mullvad, but it is just trust in the end.
The creators of MullvadVPN or their identities are not prominently disclosed, which means you have to trust them. For all we know they could be working with Swedish law enforcement or other nations and you’d never know.
Again, worst case scenario and you are just back to square one. If you are trying to do illegal activities or hide from the feds in general, no amount of VPN (even self hosted) would prevent that. You would need to start using TOR and breaking into a whole different level of OPSEC than the average Joe trying to get some more privacy in his day to day life
There is no way to know whom the trustworthy VPN provider shares data with. That’s just the reality. And sure you’re back to square one if you don’t use a VPN, but the point here is that people think that using a VPN is much safer than it actually is. Furthermore, another option is always to just run your own VPN that you can host in whatever jurisdiction you want.
If Mullvad got raided by the Swedish police and was not able to provide them with a single bit of data, then I think it is very safe to assume they are not providing the data to ANYONE
It’s safe to assume they were not providing data to anyone at the time, and perhaps they are not now. Thing is that you don’t know that, and it’s a relationship fundamentally based on trust. There’s nothing wrong with trusting a company like Mullvad, but it is just trust in the end.
The creators of MullvadVPN or their identities are not prominently disclosed, which means you have to trust them. For all we know they could be working with Swedish law enforcement or other nations and you’d never know.
Again, worst case scenario and you are just back to square one. If you are trying to do illegal activities or hide from the feds in general, no amount of VPN (even self hosted) would prevent that. You would need to start using TOR and breaking into a whole different level of OPSEC than the average Joe trying to get some more privacy in his day to day life