• FauxLiving
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    23 hours ago

    They’re giving good advice but, in my opinion, they are using the reputation of Mullvad to ‘privacy-wash’ their public image by associating with a trusted brand.

    WhatsApp is not a secure messaging service, your messages are not private. Being end to end encrypted doesn’t mean anything if both ends are compromised by having the app installed on them (or being vendor rooted).

  • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Whatsapp, the Facebook property? They are telling people which VPN to use to bypass censorship? The same Facebook who censors anything critical of the US government? Yeah maybe they could you know just stop boosting the US government and tell the truth and we wouldn’t have to worry about censorship.

    • artyom@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      Mullvad is widely considered the best VPN, so they’re actually not wrong on this one. Don’t take it from Meta, there are tons of other unbiased sources on this.

      • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        Agreed. Sadly an endorsement from Meta and/or it’s various subsidiaries is more of a condemnation than any criticism.

    • surewhynotlem
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      1 day ago

      That just means they don’t want you to leave their service and can get at your data anyway if you use a VPN.

  • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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    1 day ago

    Now is probably a good time to remember what a VPN can and cannot do. It can block your ISP from knowing which sites you’re going to. It can bypass ISP-level blocks, including geo-blocks.

    It cannot stop the endpoints (WhatsApp, both the client and server) from harvesting whatever data they want from there.

    Meta is clearly concerned about bans on WhatsApp. This is nothing more than their own self-interests.

  • AbidanYre
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    1 day ago

    I’ve heard good things about Mullvad, never heard of Amnezia. This coming from WhatsApp makes me immediately suspicious of both.

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Supposedly Amnezia is an anti censorship tool, however Facebook has a terrible track record with recommending VPNs. The previous one turned out to be spyware

      Onavo, Inc. was an Israeli mobile web analytics company that was purchased by Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms), who changed the company’s name to Facebook Israel.[1] The company primarily performed its activities via consumer mobile apps, including the virtual private network (VPN) service Onavo Protect, which analysed web traffic sent through the VPN to provide statistics on the usage of other apps.

      Guy Rosen and Roi Tiger founded Onavo in 2010. In October 2013, Onavo was acquired by Facebook, which used Onavo’s analytics platform to monitor competitors. This influenced Facebook to make various business decisions, including its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp.

      Since the acquisition, Onavo was frequently classified as being spyware, as the VPN was used to monetize application usage data collected within an allegedly privacy-focused environment. In August 2018, Facebook was forced to pull Onavo Protect from the iOS App Store due to violations of Apple’s policy forbidding apps from collecting data on the usage of other apps. In February 2019, in response to criticism over a Facebook market research program employing similar techniques (including, in particular, being targeted towards teens), Onavo announced that it would close the Android version of Protect as well.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnezia_VPN

    • scytale@piefed.zip
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      1 day ago

      I guess the broken clock thing applies for the Mullvad recommendation. I haven’t seen any issues with them and they have had a good track record.

  • nucleative
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    1 day ago

    Been with mullvad for a very long time but this scares the crap out of me and I might have to bail soon.

    • Nindelofocho
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      10 hours ago

      I think this might be a multi level move to get you to do just that (and to push whatever that other vpn is) Imo the best thing to do is disregard anything meta says and keep up your own diligence

  • RandomDude@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    I’ve never heard of Amnezia VPN, but agree with Mullvad. ProtonVPN is also up there

    • ptu@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      I tried Proton mail and was surprised of how aggressively they were upselling. Seemed like they were ran by venture capitalists although a non-profit controls the majority share.

  • Feyd@programming.dev
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    1 day ago

    If amnezia is sus they probably added mullvad to lend credibility to the overall statement

  • matlag@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Whatsapp wants to make absolutely sure everyone in the world can be free of censorship on their app and therefore free to put oneself under a 24/24 tight surveillance under their app.

  • mr_noxx@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    My guess is that this has more to do with the slew of recent bans on social media for youngsters. Think of all that lost ad revenue!