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Comment by antihero | Hacker News Reader

Even if you buy it with BTC surely you're still connecting with your real IP?

I should point out getting bitcoin anonymously requires some work too (if you buy BTC it is tied to your CC, and many exchanges require your ssn). Mullvad does allow you to send them cash anonymously in the mail as well.

Mullvad also allows you to pay in Monero which by itself is still considered anonymous, no one broke it (yet?).

The most anonymous way to purchase a Mullvad subscription is ironically buying a card from Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Mullvad-VPN-Windows-Android-SCRATCH/d...

Edit: I realized they accept Monero. That is probably about equally anonymous.

You can also mail them cash

No they have tor onion links

To connect to the VPN through TOR?!

Web search "mullvad onion" -> https://mullvad.net/en/blog/mullvad-onions-served-best-anony... so yes, they do, it's not hard to find

That’s for accessing the website, not for sending your traffic via TOR to Mullvad. I don’t think they have a built-in way to send traffic to them via TOR without going through an exit node.

Oh, huh that's odd, why provide website access but then not actually product access when your product is a network service. Didn't think to read further than the headline because of that I guess, thanks for correcting me

same as with cash and crypto payment method it's to minimize data exposure outside of the service itself. If you don't trust them to connect with your ip why bother using a VPN instead of just tor.

I know it's a whole field of research and I'm not familiar with any of it, so I'm not saying this is a good reason, but what I understood from upthread (where the person mentioned you'd connect to Mullvad with your real IP address) is that they don't want either the ISP (or perhaps a tap) or someone subpoenaing Mullvad, to know that they're using Mullvad. By connecting via Tor, they don't know what you're connecting to, and if they go through the trouble of attacking Tor for you, they'll still land at Mullvad and they probably have to get a warrant for them to start keeping logs on all Tor users until they eventually can tie activities to an ISP subscriber

So I can see the reasoning, though anyone who considers this: I've heard years ago that they're not sure whether VPN-in-Tor or vice versa improves or degrades the anonymity, there are apparently reasons for either way, please read up on it before you feel safe using whatever solution in a regime without freedom of speech or something

not if he is using his neighors

maybe he is using tor on top of it

who knows

I’ve never understood the neighbor approach. What’s the logic for that? Instead of your skin, it’s a person one door down from you, that was generous enough to share their connection with you? That’s not anonymity, that’s just outsourcing the identity to someone that probably extended trust to you. And if other things like Tor remove that connection, then what was the point of using a neighbor in the first place?

Generous to share? What makes you think the neighbor even knows about it? Also, one door down? They make antennas that can reach much further than that. If you're in a high rise building, you can even be picking up something from another floor in a different building more than one door down.

You're just not trying very hard if you're using your immediate next door neighbor.

This is an unnecessarily obtuse and pedantic response to the thought being raised.

Yes, a neighbor may not realize they're sharing their network, however, interpreting their "next door" comment as a literal unit of proximity doesn't make your comment look as intelligent as you may think it does.

This is an unnecessarily obtuse and pedantic response to the thought being raised and doesn't make your comment look as intelligent as you may think it does.

If you are hell bent on being a scumbag then there’s a whole different lack of rules.

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