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Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

mullvad.net

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Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#311

Post by RonMarken »

grvgr wrote: post #176
rasengan wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> service provider may claim to not store any user data, but they could be lying. As someone who ran a VPN in the past, this blog post is extremely strange as well as the purported described sequence of events. Police in any jurisdiction aren’t jokes - especially not Sweden where they can absolutely walk in and take your stuff according to mullvads website [1]. It’s 2023 - if a VPN is how you’re doing your privacy yo…

[dead]

Have further information on potential malice by Private Internet Access or employees?

Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#312

Post by InCityDreams »

slowmotiony wrote: post #139
asoneth wrote: post #97

> After demonstrating that this is indeed how our service works and them consulting the prosecutor they left without taking anything Setting aside impacts on customers, I wonder how common seizures would need to be to support a purely financial case that businesses that are known to not store identifying information are therefore less likely to incur the cost and effort of scrambling to replace seized hardware.

After getting a call from the CIA to leave their honeypot alone, they left without taking anything ;-)

...as a mullvad user, I salute you.

Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#313

Post by tomjakubowski »

singleshot_ wrote: post #306
kkielhofner wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have legal representation show up quickly means nothing. Consider the many, many scenarios where search warrants are served on companies with in house legal. Law firms. Individual lawyers. Literally happens every single day. Law enforcement has a warrant signed by a judge. Just because a lawyer of some sort is there doesn't mean they're going to stand around paralyzed saying "Oh there's a lawyer here, better stop wha…

This analogy breaks down at a certain resolution but imagine if the cop who pulled over Tyson brought the district attorney with him and Tyson has God in the passenger seat. I could absolutely envision a situation where God explained the facts to the DA who subsequently changed his mind about whether there was a substantial likelihood of a conviction, which is (usually) the ethical threshold for bringing prosecution.

Godwin's Law: the longer the Internet argument, the more likely someone invokes God to make an analogy - and wins

Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#314

Post by Zuiii »

jrootabega wrote: post #12

I predict a bold new operational exercise/publicity stunt for Mullvad or some other provider: every week they randomly pick a server/storage pod and send it to law enforcement.

That's how you get illegally compromised hardware. Better send the bootdisk image (which should be small given that their servers are diskless (Netboot?)

Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#315

Post by antman »

hammock wrote: post #234
troad wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is quite silly. A warrant isn’t a magic bullet that ends all your rights and gives the police superpowers. A lawyer can very much say “no, this information isn’t responsive to the warrant”, where a lay person may not realise this, and volunteer information that they have no legal obligation to hand over. The police absolutely rely on the information and power asymmetry between them and the public. You honestly d…

Many cases the police don’t let you watch, they make you wait outside. Reason to have cameras in your place (pros and cons)

In other places in the world they can only search room by room so that you can be present and oversee the process.

Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#316

Post by 411111111111111 »

kkielhofner wrote: post #252
troad wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is quite silly. A warrant isn’t a magic bullet that ends all your rights and gives the police superpowers. A lawyer can very much say “no, this information isn’t responsive to the warrant”, where a lay person may not realise this, and volunteer information that they have no legal obligation to hand over. The police absolutely rely on the information and power asymmetry between them and the public. You honestly d…

This is extremely silly. I did not say it ends your rights. I did not say it gives them superpowers. What it does do is give them government and legally sanctioned power backed up by force to do whatever the warrant says. They can tear your house apart. Seize your property. They can withdraw your blood by force if necessary. Micheal Jackson (rich, famous, and powerful) had his genitalia examined. They can certainly (…

> They can tear your house apart. Seize your property. They can withdraw your blood by force if necessary. Micheal Jackson (rich, famous, and powerful) had his genitalia examined. They can certainly (and do) go in your office and take every single thing computer or data related if those devices may contain information relevant to the warrant.

Thats only true for the US, which isn't where Mullvad is located.

Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#317

Post by actionfromafar »

unixgoddess wrote: post #247
actionfromafar wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least that forces legislators to be overt.

unfortunately that's useless if you can't do anything about it... just think about the recent unfruitful millions-strong street protests in france, how powerless we are even in self-proclaimed democracies.

Even then, it's better to know you are being short-changed. Alas, France's problem is an old one, the executive has too much power. It was maybe good for people like de Gaulle, but most leaders can't burden the responsibility properly.

Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#318

Post by kkielhofner »

411111111111111 wrote: post #316
kkielhofner wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is extremely silly. I did not say it ends your rights. I did not say it gives them superpowers. What it does do is give them government and legally sanctioned power backed up by force to do whatever the warrant says. They can tear your house apart. Seize your property. They can withdraw your blood by force if necessary. Micheal Jackson (rich, famous, and powerful) had his genitalia examined. They can certainly (…

> They can tear your house apart. Seize your property. They can withdraw your blood by force if necessary. Micheal Jackson (rich, famous, and powerful) had his genitalia examined. They can certainly (and do) go in your office and take every single thing computer or data related if those devices may contain information relevant to the warrant. Thats only true for the US, which isn't where Mullvad is located.

This has been talked to death on this thread.

Swedish law enforcement did an initial investigation. Applied for a warrant. Was granted a warrant. Then six officers from the national police arrived to serve the warrant.

In any country in the world with a functioning government they are not just going to walk away because someone said they don’t have the materials covered in the warrant.

Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#319

Post by SiempreViernes »

bragr wrote: post #164
SiempreViernes wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? Lag 2008:717 does not contain any provisions about forcing companies to log or store data. Rättegångsbalken does have a provision that a prosecutor can order you to preserve information you already have saved for a maximum of 180 days ( https://lagen.nu/1942:740#K27P16S1 ). I can't find anything about what the punishment for ignoring such an order would be, but to say a company could be forced to ke…

Try this one [1] which contains an obligation for operators to comply and maintain secrecy. I'm not a lawyer, and definitely not a swedish lawyer, but my point is, despite baked in protections, like most countries, Sweden seems to have a robust set of overlapping national security and surveillance laws. [1] https://lagen.nu/prop/2006/07:63

When you try to argue something is law, please have the decency to link to the actual law, you have linked a proposal and not the law as accepted by parliament.

Re: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant – customer data not compromised

#320

Post by nisegami »

hnarn wrote: post #272
nisegami wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If they are confident that this data does not exist, why would they start seizing hardware? As retaliation or as a punitive measure. Basically, just to spite them.

I understand that. So why would they want to spite them?

ACAB
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