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.