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.
Do you use a CPU?
I hate to break it to you buddy…
Do you have information on proton’s Israel links? I know they used radware several years ago but no longer do.
If you open the app Israel is literally listed as a server. It’s not hard to find.
That’s it? they’ve got some metal hosted in the country somewhere? I was expecting more.
Looking through the thread it seems you’re very keen on the end of the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and privacy which is good but going after proton won’t help on either front here.
If you want to help stop the murder look into the BDS and the organisations they’re currently running boyoctts against and focus your efforts on those as those organisations are the ones propping up the Israeli state and allowing/assisting it to commit it’s crimes. community action against targets that matter will have a far more meaningful effects than going after a handful of servers. To this end also look up Palestinian organisations where you live to work with. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK is good example.
And on the privacy side I feel you seem to miss the point of how VPNs work. If you avoid ever setting your exit point to Israel then Israel will never see your traffic and be able to surveil it. Unless you have some evidence that Proton’s network has been compromised I can’t see any technical reason to avoid using Proton or any other provider running endpoints in Israel.
The focus on this post was primarily the surveillance and lack of privacy Israel is known for, though genocide is obviously not a good look either. Relating themselves to Israel in anyway does lower the company’s reputation and the trust it inspires.
I am admittedly not tech-savvy so I’m not really able to understand the fine print myself, though if they conducted their operations within israel that’d definitely be alarming from a surveillance pov. I’m not sure it would register as merely “some metal” to me, if that were the case.
However I know they’re in Switzerland and I don’t have any idea how “exit Nodes” and the sort function.
Having servers in Israel means you are materially tied to them now? Making this jump to liken it to Epstein or Palantir is kinda wild imo
They don’t need to be materially linked; they are digitally linked. Israel allows it’s communication and intelligence agencies complete legal access to any communications through VPNs that operate in it’s area.
I don’t want that surveillance.
Having servers in Israel means you are materially tied to them now?
Yes, absolutely. Profiting from servers under genocidal control is literally being materially tied to genocide.
Like I hear what you’re saying. I’m on the fuck Israel train as much as everyone but how does them hosting servers in that region support genocide? Are they giving money to the Israeli government? Defending the IDF?
Like there is McDonald’s in Israel does that mean McDonald’s is complicit in genocide? (I actually don’t know if they give money to support Israel but my point is more broad than that and might be a bad example)
Edit: Also for the McD’s example I guess they make money off of Israelis but I still posit that is different to a large degree with being complicit in genocide.
hosting servers in that region support genocide?
yes, it’s occupied land, it’s not like those servers are in tunnels in Gaza, paying fees to Palestinians
It’s the same in many places, and more often than not israel is held up as a special example
Fuck McDonald’s too tbh
It’s not about supporting genocide that I’m concerned about over here per se (though it’s obviously not a good look), it’s the fact that the region is known for surveillance through any comms that enter it.
Unrelated, but yes, people against genocide literally boycott any businesses that operate in Israel, including McDonalds. BDS movement, for example.
Doing any business with or in Israel is being materially tied to Israel.
Complete bullshit by a trolling OP. Israel is cancer, but OP is doing an obvious smear on Proton to try to agitate leftists. Case in point: Mullvad and most other VPNs have exit nodes in Israel.
It is a dumbfuck corporate decision that has absolutely no more bearing on your VPN’s privacy than routing through the US or Australia. You are truly completely confused.
Also “its” doesn’t have an apostrophe when used as a possessive, you fucking idiot.
Just because mullvad and most other VPNs do something, doesn’t mean it’s good.
Israel is known for a level of surveillance that most other countries aren’t.
The rest of what you’ve said is just ad hominem I’m not interested in.
Proton is garbage though. They immediately disabled my account after I set it up, as I’m on some blacklist by some brazillian firm, they didn’t tell me that part, they said suspicious activity. I do nothing illegal, or spammy either, I read the news and use some social media.
Anyway they gave me no way to appeal. The other main one that doesn’t require a phone number or existing email let me appeal and approved it.
Now why am I on some shady blacklist that tech companies use to discriminate against people for? I can only speculate, but I suspect it’s an Israel thing.
