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submitted 2 days ago by Yliaster@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

Proton VPN/mail. It's often recommended as being safe, but I'm not so sure.

It has servers in Israel. Ties to Israel are never a good thing. Palantir, Epstein, etc are tied to Israel, and Israel also is known for its surveillance. It is also true that it's completely legal there for them to access and monitor any and all information that passes through VPNs or networks there.

I'm looking for a safe alternative that's privacy-conscious and isn't linked to Israel. Both mail and vpn (it's fine if they're separate). Please let me know if you guys know.

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[-] Yliaster@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

To summarize, are you saying your trust in Mullvad's ability to safely host in Israel comes from its decision to relinquish prized features to resist interpol searches?

[-] doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 hours ago

That’s definitely not what I meant to write. In the words of our number one drone striker, uhh, let me be clear:

It’s much easier to believe that the Interpol was unable to successfully monitor or infiltrate mullvads servers even with warrants in multiple nations and instead took the alternate route of applying pressure to cdns and ISPs to blacklist the service as opposed to any other understanding because it’s much harder to convince everyone who handles packets globally to stop communicating with a set of IPs than it is to execute a search warrant that you have legal authorization and the specialized training and personnel for.

My interpretation of the reason that mullvad discontinuing port forwarding was acceptable to Interpol was that it would drive the people under investigation to either conduct their business under more compliant services or out in the open.

To directly address your concerns for your own choice of vpn:

If you’re worried about having your own data turned over to Israel, you can’t just rely on the physical location of servers to prevent that. The service you use needs to be trustworthy on its own because many nations comply with Israeli intelligence as a matter of course or as a matter of law. You may be well served by layering security instead of relying on just one service or connection in that case.

If your concern is not paying for a service that will eventually send that money to Israeli businesses or even to the government of that nation directly, that’s a toughie. Either because the region contains many motivated customers or because some VPNs are intelligence cutouts, a lot of VPNs have a server in Israel. Of the ones I use, airvpn doesn’t have any Israeli servers. I havent paid much attention to news about air and do not use it for sensitive communications. I do not recommend anyone use air for sensitive communications.

[-] Yliaster@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

The concern is primarily about not letting Israel have my data; payments towards them isn't. What would you recommend in terms of layering security? I am currently degoogling, getting rid of Meta apps, and switching from american for-profit socials to FOSS alternatives.

[-] doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 hours ago

Well, you’re getting into don’t own a phone, use libreboot territory. So bear in mind that the path you’re sniffing around leads pretty much only there.

If you feel comfortable using tor that might make you feel safer.

Social media is a megaphone. With respect and kindness, consider not posting about this if you’re concerned about it.

this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
-44 points (28.4% liked)

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