To summarize, are you saying your trust in Mullvad’s ability to safely host in Israel comes from its decision to relinquish prized features to resist interpol searches?

I’ve only recently started looking into privacy so much of it goes over my head.

I don’t use mails for communication, but I’d just like to limit the amount of information/tracking that corporate overlords can collect of me if I can help it (subscriptions mostly and the demographic information they imply, I suppose).

Just because mullvad and most other VPNs do something, doesn’t mean it’s good.

Israel is known for a level of surveillance that most other countries aren’t.

The rest of what you’ve said is just ad hominem I’m not interested in.

The focus on this post was primarily the surveillance and lack of privacy Israel is known for, though genocide is obviously not a good look either. Relating themselves to Israel in anyway does lower the company’s reputation and the trust it inspires.

I am admittedly not tech-savvy so I’m not really able to understand the fine print myself, though if they conducted their operations within israel that’d definitely be alarming from a surveillance pov. I’m not sure it would register as merely “some metal” to me, if that were the case.

However I know they’re in Switzerland and I don’t have any idea how “exit Nodes” and the sort function.

Yeah that is what I meant, I’m guessing you meant to reply to the other guy, not me?

Unideal? Yes

Does that mean I stop trying altogether to minimize surveillance? No.

Mullvad has Israeli servers.

Thanks for the other reccs though!

It’s not about genocide.

It’s about surveillance, which is fully legal in Israel.

There are other regions that don’t conduct surveillance of all VPNs and comms. That’s better.

It’s not operating in a bad country that makes the vpn bad, but the fact that the country is known for its surveillance of VPNs there that makes it bad.

Mullvad doing something — even if it’s reknown — doesn’t automatically make it’s actions good.

Israel conducts surveillance of any VPN communications of any that exist in the region. This is fully legal there. This is a threat to privacy. You’d need to let me know how that isn’t the case, not that X or Y company also hosts a server in the region.

Re: mail, not looking for perfect, just better than Gmail, ideally FOSS.

I think mullvad has a server in Israel too

Why is it BS?

I did my research, I wanted community feedback for things I may have missed.

If you open the app Israel is literally listed as a server. It’s not hard to find.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t running a VPN to a region require you to have a server in that region?

The observable behavior is the fact that Israel allows it’s communication and intelligence agencies complete legal access to access and monitor any info out of VPNs and other digital social info/comms.

That’s been sourced; Israel is known for its surveillance. I’m not sure why that’s so controversial.

This isn’t fear-mongering, this isn’t assumption.

It’s not about supporting genocide that I’m concerned about over here per se (though it’s obviously not a good look), it’s the fact that the region is known for surveillance through any comms that enter it.

Unrelated, but yes, people against genocide literally boycott any businesses that operate in Israel, including McDonalds. BDS movement, for example.

They don’t need to be materially linked; they are digitally linked. Israel allows it’s communication and intelligence agencies complete legal access to any communications through VPNs that operate in it’s area.

I don’t want that surveillance.

Thank you. I’m baffled by how complacent people are to Israel’s involvement.

They don’t necessarily need to oppose the genocide but just not host any servers in the area (since that means they’ve access to it).

Then why boycott anything. Why use privacy-conscious alternatives. Everything is connected, afterall.

The British ought to actively strike against and shut this down ASAP or they will lose their country to complete fascism. Say goodbye to any aspect of democracy.