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submitted 2 months 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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[-] antifa_ceo@lemmy.ml 44 points 2 months ago

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

[-] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

[-] antifa_ceo@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

[-] manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 months ago

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

[-] Yliaster@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

Fuck McDonald's too tbh

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Doing any business with or in Israel is being materially tied to Israel.

[-] FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

Remember me of a guy who said that being paid by the CIA doesnt mean youre actually working for the CIA.

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[-] unknowablenight@piefed.social 23 points 2 months ago

Having exit nodes for their VPN is not the same as collaborating with the government. There is no evidence that the Israeli government has access to any of their information, their servers are hosted in Switzerland.

[-] Yliaster@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't running a VPN to a region require you to have a server in that region?

[-] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 2 months ago

I wouldn't assume they aren't able to grab it all. Both the US and all 5 eye countries, and Israel, should be avoided if possible, to have nothing passing through their servers. Not that other countries won't also grab it as they can, but Israel by extension of the US has things compromised on a base level.

[-] Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 2 months ago

I have my issues with proton because of its CEO and some weird decisions for their product lone and don't use them at all. I.e. I won't defend this company.

Such a claim without source and explanation or interpretation of assumed implications are pure fear mongering.

Because of this: my advice is to decouple your privacy concerns and thoughts from politics in the first degree (rhetoric and hearsay). Base it ok policies, observable behavior, audits, laws and so on..your example: exit nodes for VPNs don't have an impact on security at all in neither direction. Hosting infrastructure there would (i.e. it would increase potential access and put the infrastructure under additional legal requirements).

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[-] Egonallanon@feddit.uk 17 points 2 months ago

Do you have information on proton's Israel links? I know they used radware several years ago but no longer do.

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[-] Concur6053@lemmy.today 16 points 2 months ago
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[-] tyrant@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago
[-] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Mulvad is the first group that really gets me. Good because they care about the idea, cheap because they aren't trying to choke me for money, and they take cash.

[-] HorreC@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

but doesnt mullvad have an exit node in Isreal too? Wouldnt that just be the same boat this person (OP) put proton in for?

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[-] doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Your ties to Israel claim is more than just a little specious.

Mullvad, widely considered the gold standard for privacy, allows the user to select a server in Israel.

Aside from that nugget, consider not worrying too much about perfect email secrecy. Email isnt private, was never intended to be and has many, many vectors of attack which are so well documented and in such common use that ISPs have attacked email simply to promote end users running their service instead of the competition.

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[-] Shabby4582@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

You have the ability to whip up this BS about proton, but a web search for “private email provider” was too much?

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[-] basilisa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Bad news, the sun shines in Israel and provides illegal settlers with vitamin D therefore it must have ties to genocide. BOYCOTT THE SUN!!!!

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[-] anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

There are plenty of problems with Proton, but since they have a VPN service it means they probably have an exit node in Israhell. I'm pretty sure any VPN that masks traffic as coming from Israhell will do the same. I'm not saying that it's not worth looking for one that doesn't do business in Israhell, it just might be hard to find. If you ever need to exit through that node, just make sure your encryption is maxed, with quantum encryption preferably, and avoid doing anything sensitive over that node.

[-] magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 months ago

Mullvad or ivpn for vpn, tutanota or posteo for mail.

Also stop looking at advertisements for privacy tools and services.

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[-] chloroken@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

[-] Yliaster@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

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[-] gtr@programming.dev 3 points 2 months ago

Ties to Israel are never a good thing.

I think we're on the same page but you might be exaggerating a bit here. Everything is connected in this world.

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[-] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Not sure why people would downvote this completely reasonable question.

Unfortunately I don't know of any VPN services that actively oppose genocide. I would like to know as well.

It's part of the misery of living in the imperial core. The whole of capitalism is based on genocide, etc.

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this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
-44 points (29.6% liked)

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