Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

mullvad.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 345 posts

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

#51

Post by capableweb »

jrootabega wrote: post #21
hubraumhugo wrote: post #11

Once again this shows the huge disconnect between the government authorities and the tech industry. Basic knowledge and a quick investigation would make clear that Mullvad is not storing any customer data.

There's also usually another disconnect: between tech industry publicity and tech industry reality. Mullvad could have been, and maybe even still is, lying about how they operate, because it's good for business.

At least there have been some public and external audits that brings up the trust a bit, if you trust that those external companies are honest and putting their reputation on the line.

List of the audits can be found here: https://mullvad.net/en/blog/tag/audits/

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

#52

Post by pc86 »

colesantiago wrote: post #7

That is a shame. Is there an alternative VPN provider that wouldn't be subject to this? Huh? Why all the downvotes all of a sudden? this is a genuine question.

> Huh? Why all the downvotes all of a sudden?

Because the whole point of the article is that there was no data to be compromised. If anything this should make you more likely to go with Mullvad if you're looking for VPN services.

Reading no more than the title, making up the article content in your mind, and writing a comment based on that made up content is a pretty good recipe for downvotes.

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

#53

Post by rasengan »

cinntaile wrote: post #26
rasengan wrote: post #16

I’m confused. You’re saying cops came to your office 6 deep and just left with nothing even though your privacy policy says you have data [1]? There was no court case or investigation of any kind? This blog post concerns me deeply for a number of reasons especially given a VPNs only actual differentiating value/proposition is trust. [1] https://mullvad.net/en/help/privacy-policy

It's likely not the kind of data they were after so there was no point in seizing equipment.

Police investigations regarding 6+ officers showing up at your office do not end with “oh have a good day.”

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

#54

Post by brookst »

capableweb wrote: post #51
jrootabega wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also usually another disconnect: between tech industry publicity and tech industry reality. Mullvad could have been, and maybe even still is, lying about how they operate, because it's good for business.

At least there have been some public and external audits that brings up the trust a bit, if you trust that those external companies are honest and putting their reputation on the line. List of the audits can be found here: https://mullvad.net/en/blog/tag/audits/

Government investigations pursue lots of avenues unlikely to be fruitful. It's basic due diligence to check all the boxes; you don't say "standard procedure is to issue a warrant, but we'll make an exception to our process in this case because their website suggests it won't get any data, plus they hired an auditor."

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

#55

Post by lxgr »

lionkor wrote: post #5

Full title: Mullvad VPN was subject to a search warrant. Customer data not compromised As a customer, I have no doubt about the "customer data not compromised". I'm a paying customer, yet I have never given them any PII. Great service.

> I'm a paying customer, yet I have never given them any PII.

By nature, every VPN gets at least the IP you are connecting from and the IPs (and almost always also hostnames) you are connecting to. I'd consider that PII.

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

#56

Post by gerbilly »

rasengan wrote: post #47
dannyw wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A service provider may claim to not store any user data, but they could be lying. From the article: "After demonstrating that this is indeed how our service works" Presumably, Mullvad employees showed this data does not exist live.

> 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…

> It’s 2023 - if a VPN is how you’re doing your privacy you’re probably doing it wrong.

I'm honestly interested, how could one 'do privacy' the right way then?

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

#57

Post by andygeorge »

Maxious wrote: post #38
CodesInChaos wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you pay?

> Which payment methods do you accept? > We accept cash, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, bank wire, credit card, PayPal, Swish, Giropay, Eps transfer, Bancontact, iDEAL, and Przelewy24. > Can I really pay with cash? > You bet, and please! Stay anonymous all the way. Just put your cash and payment token (randomly generated on our website) in an envelope and send it to us. We accept the following currencies: EUR, USD, G…

ah yes, notoriously-anonymous physical mail

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

#58

Post by capableweb »

talhah wrote: post #44
hubraumhugo wrote: post #11

Once again this shows the huge disconnect between the government authorities and the tech industry. Basic knowledge and a quick investigation would make clear that Mullvad is not storing any customer data.

I might be uninformed here, but on the surface Mullvad says they don't record customer data but there's always a chance they might be recording some data or lying. So I figure that authorities still obtained a search warrant to atleast see what data they can get their hands on and to verify that this is true. In that case, it doesn't really illustrate any disconnect. > Basic knowledge and a quick investigation would…

> but there's always a chance they might be recording some data or lying.

As mentioned in another comment, at least they would have to be lying + the external companies who've done the third-party audits would have to be lying too (including companies like Cure53).

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

#59

Post by roblabla »

Nextgrid wrote: post #36
moffkalast wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still waiting for someone to convert an international waters oil rig to a lawless data center. Or like that submarine base that Microsoft did.

Governments can and will just criminalize the act of peering with them, so any ISP/transit provider will be liable if they peer. Problem solved.

You'd need every government to agree not to peer with them, otherwise you'd just route to whoever has agreed to peer. You might get shit latency, but it'd still work.

Getting everyone to agree not to peer seems like a rather tall order.

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

#60

Post by boesboes »

colesantiago wrote: post #7

That is a shame. Is there an alternative VPN provider that wouldn't be subject to this? Huh? Why all the downvotes all of a sudden? this is a genuine question.

None? Any VPN provider _will_ be subject to law enforcement in their jurisdiction.
Post reply on HN