I'm sorry but this is really a nothing burger, a pure nitpick.
Who gives a fuck where they host their customer support emails?
You can spin up new mullvad accounts with 0 friction. Even if you doxx your account in an email, you can create another one.
I don't know any service who "self hosts" email for customer support. That's probably a terrible idea since self-hosted email often gets flagged as spam and that's the last thing you want for customer support.
Your note makes it seem like this is some dealbrealer and that "they don't give a shit about your privacy".
I don't think you have bad intentions but you're letting the perfect be the enemy of good and the result is that people who read that will just be discouraged and not improve their setup.
I think we should be vocal about things that matter. A customer support MX record pointing at gmail is not it.
Replies (11)
I disagree. Communication is a core principle of privacy. And it’s not just Mullvad. My point is that so few companies actually care to not use Google, to the point that it is completely involuntary. They could have used one of the other providers such as even Proton that isn’t spam.
And your point that they can’t have emails in their own domain because it’s spam, is exactly the centralization of the internet that I’m talking about. Because literally everyone… not even you, a privacy “influencer” cares enough.
Go ahead, bow down and obey Google overseeing all activity on earth. But I don’t accept that
Email is already centralized and captured regardless of what provider you choose. It's a shitty protocol, terrible for privacy.
They provide email support to meet people (normies) where they are.
People who really care about anonimity:
1. Should be using Tor instead of a VPN
2. Should not be contacting customer support in the first place. I didn't even know they had customer support 🤣
You have to think about the impact of the things you are bashing. The internet does not get more centralized because they are using gmail.
You could shittalk so many companies that have terrible privacy practices but instead took that time to write a lenthy rant for something this meaningless...
I think you're both right. They should probably avoid google AND it probably matters less by comparison than, say, not using a VPN at all.
What would kill two birds with one stone is having a customer support option like SimpleX so we don't have to use email in the first place. That would keep anyone, including Mullvad tech support, from knowing who you are.
People who use Mullvad are not "normies"..normies use Chrome or Edge.
People who use mullvad don't usually need customer support either.
It shows much more... Attitude
Who pays for VPN to use it on daily basis? Idiots who don't trust ISP but trust unconditionally VPN provider who knows everything about their traffic.
There is Tor, not great but much better when it comes to privacy. FOR FREE.
The VPN provider knows everything about your traffic except... KYC and PII which is kind of the most important thing.
Using a VPN is like using a no-kyc ISP + you get the added anonimity set of sharing an IP with other users.
A VPN is not the ultimate solution but it's just basic protection. Without is, it's kind of like getting fucked on the internet without a condom.
VPN privider knows you very well even if you pay with cash by mail.
They know your connection-patterns on daily basis.
You can always use Orbot Full VPN mode.
Using a VPN is not supposed to protect you from the VPN provider.
It's just strictly better than just using your ISP.
No one is arguing that tor isn't superior privacy wise. Why not route everything through tor? Because many types of internet usage are unusable and unviable through tor.
Which sites? Some banks?
Maybe use clear (ISP) connection to browse them?
