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Mullvad controversy
(self.privacy)
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this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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Privacy
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These pop up controversies are interesting (and usually fleeting?).
If we were to examine every place we put our money, we would probably find that some of it ends up contributing to nasty shit.
Buy cheap clothes in a Penneys or US equivalent: sweatshops.
Buy food in large food retailers: exploitation of small farmers and food producers.
Buy painkillers: "Oxy is good for you, we promise..." ---> lots of dead people.
Pay for Mullvad: funding dodgy parties...and so on.
The only way to truly avoid this is to live in a cave and never use money again! Or self host, all the things.
What a defeatist perspective. It's not all or nothing, and a VPN is something I can very easily change, especially when the co-owner of the VPN is one of the only major donors of a giant alt right party
I accept your point but as someone else pointed out, put your money elsewhere and its as likely to end up in a dodgy place is it not? It seems like every day theres a controversy like this about where the money goes.
I dont necessarily hold the view that I was posting, more so putting it up for perspective. If we were to take that approach we would all be driven demented.
Sooo what's your point? Did you not just read me say a VPN is easy to change? It's not like it's exactly hard to find a good one - just use airvpn
I know its easy to change, my point is, no matter who we change to, the same could well be happening. Peoples' frustration at finding it hard to know what company to trust, is palpable. One company let's them down, they move to another. That company either doesn't, or does.
I know nothing about airvpn, but you obviously trust them, and others do too I'm sure, until they are splashed across Lemmy for funding X, Y or Z, and then people move again etc.
Defeatist maybe. Is it too controversial to say that maybe we shouldn't get so wound up about this stuff? Pick the company with the lesser of the evils?
People are selective about what they get hyped up about. They will change their VPN from Mullvad, but still buy clothes that are made in sweatshops. Its just interesting to see how people react to certain things.
But this one we can actually do something about.