So much for "free internet"

VPN
1

I just found out that mullvad no longer supports port forwarding. I’ve read through their explanation and many comments on this subreddit, and I honestly don’t get it.

People act as if it’s something unexpected, and a small fraction of the user base just absolutely ruined it for everyone.

Well, this is literally what their website says:

Mullvad believes in a free internet. Free from mass surveillance and censorship. Free from big data markets and authorities mass monitoring your every step. We believe in a free internet where everyone has the right to privacy.

If you advertise and praise yourself as being free internet activists, without censorship and where EVERYONE (even scum) has the right for privacy, and you actually deliver on the promise - what kind of people do you expect to be using your services, huh? You certainly don’t expect the target audience to be your average Russian grandma that just needs to access Instagram, right?

And what’s next, where do you draw the line? When someone hacks Pentagon using Mullvad, will you block ports and start filtering traffic? What if a child predator uses Mullvad to find new victims, and FBI comes knocking on your door - will you enable logging?

I honestly don’t see how anyone who truly wants privacy can use Mullvad any longer: the best outcome is that the rug gets pulled at any second, and the worst is that they start cooperating with law enforcement or start complying with a wider range of requests.

Mullvad just went from the absolute best privacy-oriented VPN to being slightly above average for general use - still suitable to access geo-restricted websites and to hide your IP, but there’s no way in hell I can trust it now to be reliable for anything serious, even if they undo their decision on port forwarding.

This is a very sad day indeed, I enjoyed the service so much, so please forgive my frustration. RIP old Mullvad, you will be missed.

2

Ha thank god Mullvad took a stand on this so we can rid purist-when-it-suits-me folks like this.

Yearly audit by reputable firm on their claims and non traceable payment should be higher on your list, not port forwarding. I am not that sorry you torrent seed ratio got hit.

3

With respect, you’re overreacting a bit here.

The removal of one feature that was clearly being abused in no way implies others will be removed.

Mullvads USP is privacy, not p2p connections or enabling serving content. In that respect, nothing has changed, they continue to be one of the most privacy respecting providers available. In fact, creating unique ports for users lessens their privacy as it can tie a customer directly to a software solution using it.

Everyone seems to be assuming that they’ve bowed to legal pressure but there is another possibility - maybe they realised what sort of material was being served and took a moral choice that as humans they didn’t want to enable that.

4

target audience to be your average Russian grandma

Ironically the app barely even works in Russia now.

5

The target audience certainly won’t be a bunch of criminals, that’s for sure. There is no such thing as absolute freedom in this world. If there were, the strong would be able to deprive the weak of their freedom. It’s best to hope that you are the strong one. Moreover, valuing privacy does not mean valuing criminal activities. The majority of people use Mullvad to protect their privacy, not to shield their criminal behavior from being discovered.

Personally, I would recommend that you utilize the services provided by extraterrestrials. I believe their services are not bound by the laws of any country in the world

6

I still love Mullvad

7

I don’t think removing the port forwarding feature is ruining the idea of a free internet.

Either way, if you want a VPN with a similar mission, try AirVPN. They’re the actual GOAT when it comes to real security and privacy. It has port forwarding for ports >=2048, and it allows you to have a bunch of ports open before you reach the cap.

They also fund a bunch of great open source projects, and they run ipleak.net

8

I was just about to buy Mullvad a few months back then recently I hear of them removing the ability to able to do port forwarding. I’m glad I was busy with other life obligations and waited to get VPN. Saved me from wasting money. I’m just looking to torrent in peace and trying to get the best speeds. I’ve heard good things about AirVPN. Other recommendations anyone could share? I was probably going to go with them as their port forwarding is supposedly fast and works well with both downloading and seeding.

9

I’m sorry, what stand do you think they took?

Read the blog post, they literally said they are being pressured by law enforcement and hosting providers, and that’s the only reason they give for canceling port forwarding. They couldn’t give a shit what you did if no one complained.

So the way I see it, the only stand they took is, if we get in enough trouble because of a feature, we will cancel it. Let’s just wait until law enforcement or IRS starts pressuring them because of non traceable payments.

10

Who even uses a VPN to torrent when seedboxes exist :person_shrugging:

11

If they “took a moral choice” - I would understand it, except that’s not what they did. And people are not assuming they’ve bowed to legal pressure - they straight out said it in the blog post, just read it, there’s not a single bit on morality or any other reasoning.

12

I would be more careful with that line of thought. “protecting the kids” is a common trope government uses to promote censorship disguised as some sort of goodwill.

13

Nothing changed yet*

Where do you draw the line then? Would you be OK with enabling logging and canceling anonymous payments if it helped protect kids?

There’s nothing wrong with being OK with it, but then there’s no reason to use Mullvad over any other mainstream VPN. Well, I guess the speeds are nice, it could be the new selling point.

14

Nothing wrong with it, I think I still do, too. But it’s not the same mullvad any longer, unfortunately, as the precedent has been set

They sent a very clear message: if enough pressure is applied, we will bend

15

Just get a seedbox, mate. I will never understand why people use VPNs to torrent stuff.

16

Are seedboxes cheaper than VPN?

17

This is the way. Find one that ignores DMCA strikes and you can download whatever you want.

18

The people that don’t use seedboxes.

It seems you’re answered your own question.

19

That’s only semi-accurate. The blog post says:

“This has led to law enforcement contacting us, our IPs getting blacklisted, and hosting providers cancelling us.”

Three reasons given, of which law enforcement contacting them is just one. And they didn’t say ‘pressure’ they said ‘contact’.

Given the fact the one time they were approached by law enforcement they simply demonstrated they had no data to hand over and therefore seizure would be illegal and the police just left I don’t think that really counts as pressure. Its hardly a unique scenario for VPN providers.

I also didn’t say they did employ moral reasons, I said maybe. But it certainly wasn’t down solely to legal pressure.

20

stop telling people to “get a seedbox” if you can’t even point a couple good services.