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The Mullvad Browser

mullvad.net

231–240 of 434 posts

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, some of us don't want to be tracked, don't want to be tracked and don't want to be tracked. Given your stated preferences, are you actually looking for a privacy-focused browser?

Most of us are self-aware that I'm not that important to be specifically targeted. At the end of the day, where there is attention, there will be ads. All you are fighting for should they show you relevant ads or irrelevant ads. People who live a privileged life and have nothing else important going on in their life choose this hill to die on.

> Most of us are self-aware that I'm not that important to be specifically targeted.

Of course, not in the sense that the FBI, Wagner Group, or the boogy man are going after you today (but you never know what the future holds) - however data brokers and large companies have a financial incentive right now to know as much about everyone as possible and the information they collect is increasingly being used to decide your insurance rates, give you employment, etc.

>People who live a privileged life and have nothing else important going on in their life choose this hill to die on.

I mostly agree, however privacy issues impact the less privileged more, for example women seeking abortions in unfriendly states, teenagers learning about queer issues in a toxic community/family, people fleeing abusive relationships (the effort some stalkers do is truly insanity), minority groups (e.g. undocumented immigrants). Sure these groups can't dedicate lots of mental energy to privacy but plug and play browsers like this one make it easier and even if you are highly privileged protecting your privacy makes it more acceptable for others to do so too.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#232
post #13

Hm that seems like a mistake. If I'm reading the docs right, the Mullvad browser will let you browse the web without using their/any VPN, which mean that it's entirely possible to accidentally surf to a site without having your VPN up, and reveal your IP address to that site. To contrast, there's no way to use the Tor Browser without using the onion network so it's ~impossible to accidentally browse to site and revea…

Mullvad’s VPN software has an available function that blocks network traffic when the VPN isn’t connected, so there’s no need to patch that into the browser.

But isn’t this integrated directly into the browser, so that your host system does not need Mullvad?

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#233
post #176
post #20

I guess why not. This is an open source, rebranded Firefox and Firefox-like browsers could use some publicity. It promotes privacy and privacy can use some publicity too. Tor too. Mullvad seems to be honest in the fact that their business model is selling VPNs and it's nice they are saying it's not enough. They are not saying that you might not need one though. We need a Firefox with good defaults and it seems like t…

> I guess why not. > ...Even in the desktop version, Firefox's sandbox is still substantially weaker (especially on Linux) and lacks full support for isolating sites from each other rather than only containing content as a whole. The sandbox has been gradually improving on the desktop but it isn't happening for their Android browser yet. https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing

Seems like a wash overall with how Chrome for Android lacks support for extensions entirely. Firefox for Android supports uBlock Origin, which greatly cuts down on tracking and chances to be hit by broadly-targeted malvertising.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#234
post #109
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't care about Brendan Eich quite as much as I care about the Google / Chrome monopoly, and Brave just makes this monopoly stronger by depending on Chrome. By being Chrome, actually. I want the web to be built around something else than ad-/tracking-supported software and Brave is being very self-contradictory with this. Don't use Brave if you care about the global picture / tracking around the globe.

Brave is a separate fork and completely unreliant on Chrome. It also is the most privacy-focused browser so it's the opposite of "tracking-supported software".

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#235
> "Works on Windows 10 or later "

Why?

Firefox hasn't dropped support for Windows 7/8 yet.

If you are somebody using Windows 7/8 etc and want Tor Browser but without Tor, then add the following to your `user.js`

    user_pref("network.proxy.socks_remote_dns", false);
    user_pref("extensions.torlauncher.start_tor", false);
    user_pref("network.dns.disabled", false);
    user_pref("browser.aboutConfig.showWarning", false);
    user_pref("network.proxy.socks", " ");
That should give you all the anti-fingerprinting measures of Tor Browser but without Tor.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#236
post #215
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It annoys me that the only way to access iPlayer from abroad is via a VPN. Surely opening it up and allowing international customers to pay some form of license fee could be a nice little revenue stream for the BBC? I'm guessing the reason is just "licensing issues" but if they're making the programmes then what's the problem? I'm sure there's an international market for watching the world class output from the BBC.

Shows are often made by production companies on contract and licensed for domestic distribution. Licensing for international distribution might be significantly more expensive.

Yes but they would get more revenue from it too.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#237

Do I correctly understand that it does not have a mechanism by which to connect to Mullvad, much less mandate it? The only thing I see is the ability to manually detect externally-initiated VPN status. This seems like a key and significant departure from Tor Browser to me in terms of protection.

> Do I correctly understand that it does not have a mechanism by which to connect to Mullvad, much less mandate it? No. It comes with their extension with contents to the VPN via socks5.

[deleted]

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#238

I am disappointed to see that it doesn't integrate with Mullvad VPN at all. I have Mullvad VPN but I use it too less because I don't want all traffic on my mac going via VPN (e.g all kinds of random IDEs and websites). All I want is one browser which always uses VPN. But Mullvad has no split tunneling on mac AFAIK, and on windows also you can only block some apps from VPN, instead of saying that only this application…

you might want to check out vopono, i've gotten it working with firefox and its nice https://github.com/jamesmcm/vopono

Vopono does look awesome but it seems it is Linux only, no mac.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#239

Do I correctly understand that it does not have a mechanism by which to connect to Mullvad, much less mandate it? The only thing I see is the ability to manually detect externally-initiated VPN status. This seems like a key and significant departure from Tor Browser to me in terms of protection.

> Do I correctly understand that it does not have a mechanism by which to connect to Mullvad, much less mandate it? No. It comes with their extension with contents to the VPN via socks5.

An extension that has no user prompting or even status indicator, and that will permit the user to browse the web without a VPN connection or warning by default.

It appears that the process is to 1) open Mullvad Browser 2) (externally) open Mullvad VPN and connect to it 3) click on the Mullvad Browser Extension icon and connect it to the Mullvad proxy. Only after this will the proxy be used and the connection secured.

Contrast this with Tor Browser's process of 1) open Tor Browser. It will only work after it automatically connects to Tor and secures the connection. Do you see the significant difference?

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#240
post #31

From the FAQ [0]: > Why is the time is wrong? > The timezone is spoofed, to combat fingerprinting. > What's this weird spacing around the websites? > It’s called letterboxing, a function to combat fingerprinting (using your browser window size to identify you together with other measures). > How do I stay logged into specific websites between sessions? > It’s not possible. It’s an action to combat tracking. Not sure…

Except most of the time I don't want to spoof my timezone, don't want weird spacing around websites, and do want to remain logged in to websites. > How do I stay logged into specific websites between sessions? > It’s not possible. It’s an action to combat tracking. Turns me off immediately

I like the Duck Duck Go browser. It has a "burn" buttton that destroys all cookies except those you opt in to keep.
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