Hilarious that no one on Nostr seems to know that pseudonymity != privacy and yet try to use Nostr being "private" to dunk on anyone who still uses other social media.

You're not going to want to hear this, but Nostr is VERY BAD for privacy, but great for pseudonymity.

For most people, Nostr directly ties their HOME IP ADDRESS to their nym and publishes this correlation to a dozen servers they don't control for all to see.

While being pseudonymous is pretty easy on Nostr, being private requires a good, always-on non-logging VPN, or even better connecting to relays only through Tor at a bare minimum.

I’m not sure exactly on pricing. I just know pfSense is switching away from FOSS, and so if you’re first getting going, then we recommend OPNsense.

Mullvad uses Gmail

The VPN company Mullvad mouths off “privacy is a right”, but deep down they really don’t give a shit. They don’t even bother to host their own emails for critical technical support, and point their MX email record to Google. (See attached image)

This is a potential privacy risk because many times people will not bother to use PGP and the technical support will ask for their account number. And you’re assuming the people who need VPN technical support even know how to use PGP, and they likely aren’t hiding their IP address because they need support. Often people may use their real email, so they don’t miss the reply on burners, and that leaks their name. Now Google, and therefore the government, know your mullvad account number…

From here, the government can sign in to Mullvad’s site as you, and see the timestamp of first sign-in on each device with the wireguard public key. Although Mullvad masks it will bullshit names, the government can sign-out of the device so when you re-sign in thinking it’s a random technical error, they now know which is which. This enables at a minimum, the identification of your other devices. Maybe you signed in at another location? For example your cellphone.

When you’re out using WiFi anonymously at a public location, the government signs you out of Mullvad. So then when you sign back in, they identify the public location traffic as you. If this is not enough, now the government knows which account to demand a court order for. What are you going to request technical support? Sounds like more info gathering.

Even if none of this is relevant to you. The basic fact remains that Mullvad is using primarily Google to talk to customers, and the customers aren’t even aware of it because it’s a vanity domain. I don’t think people realize just how difficult it is to avoid Google. It’s not voluntary dude, these companies are forcing me out to the fringe of society, to not have everything I’m doing piped into a company I so vehemently hate.

Google is literally paid by the US government to manipulate search results through their Jigsaw division and Moonshot CVE. They aren’t just doing ads dude, it’s a for-profit propaganda machine.

Other privacy influencers always recommend Mullvad, and for the most part I do agree with this for the “average joe”. But let’s keep it real here, if you check the servers, they use many of the same 3rd party providers. Mullvad, IVPN, and TorGuard all use M247 for New York and Los Angeles. So if you connected to LA Mullvad, then switch to LA IVPN, thinking you’re getting a “new identity” you’re not. It’s NSA passive surveillance on the size of data packets going in and out of places like M247 that reveal you, and NOT Mullvad backstabbing you.

Does using Gmail mean Mullvad is compromised? No! You’re twisting my words…

What I’m saying is that very few people genuinely care about privacy, and when you realize just how involuntary Google is, only then can you actually take steps to free yourself.

Is the point of this to smear Mullvad? Sort of. I want to create negative consequences for all companies that force Big Tech on us. All of them think they can cut costs because the public doesn’t care.

Well, I’m here today to say that I care. And even if I stand alone. Even if I’m shadow banned by search engines off the face of the earth. I stand my ground.

But I got a feeling I’m not alone. So if you spread this message, maybe… just maybe, we can get Mullvad to change.

Pro/Con of Privacy Routers

The router you get from your ISP is designed to spy on you. It knows which devices are sending which traffic and what guests are connecting to it. If you don’t use a VPN every second, then when you take the VPN down, you’re vulnerable to hackers first hacking the router, to then install malware on your devices (phones/laptop). For example Wikileaks shows the CIA loves to do this. Ok, so how do you get a “private” router?

A privacy router is just regular hardware with a new operating system. But not all hardware supports flashing a new operating system. So either check the manufacturer’s website, or just ask their support “what routers let me flash my own firmware?”. Then just like a stock Android phone being “DeGoogled”, you flash on a new operating system.

The following list goes over SOME of the more popular open source router operating systems. It’s not complicated, they are grouped into “home router” or “firewall”. The firewall is faster and more secure, but costs a little more and is harder to setup.

DD-WRT

Type: Home Router w/ WiFi

Pro: This OS can be flashed on many home routers including Netgear and Asus. It’s fine for just routing traffic and it has WiFi. Support on forums is great, they are nice and friendly. A VPN can be put on it but…

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Con: These home routers are much slower for VPNs to be put directly on the router. Also the DD-WRT website is volunteer run, so it often will be dated for your model. You’ll have to post on their forum asking for the new version.

Solutions: Use WireGuard instead of OpenVPN on home routers. If the 2-minute logging of WireGuard concerns you, then a home router isn’t for you and get a firewall.

OpenWRT

Type: Home or Travel Router w/ WiFi

Pro: This is similar to DD-WRT, but also has a Tor option. OpenWRT also can be flashed on travel routers (Glinet routers or Rasberry Pi).

Con: For VPNs, it’s a more complex setup than DD-WRT, and not worth it in my opinion unless you are doing a travel router or Tor. Only do Tor if you have fast internet to begin with, otherwise it’s unbearable. Support on OpenWRT forums sucks, these guys are rude.

PfSense

Type: Firewall WITHOUT WiFi

Pro: Enterprise Grade Firewalls have a higher level security than home routers and the ability to handle better hardware for VPN speed. Netgear runs this and they spend a lot of development. Firewalls are much better than home routers with their features and barely more expensive now. The costs for firewall hardware have come down significantly and are now in the $200 or under range! Support on pfSense forums is average.

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Con: The free open source version is being phased out for a paid version. 2nd con is that pfSense takes more time to setup and learn than the others on the list. Remember, hardware firewalls don’t have WiFi. So you’ll need to do:

pfSense → DD-WRT or OpenWRT for WiFi.

OPNsense

Type: Firewall WITHOUT WiFi

Pro: This is a fork of pfSense, but more consistent with the open source/freedom aspect. This is my current recommendation as pfSense slowly shifts to a paid model . All the same pro as pfSense.

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Con: Firewalls still mean you’re doing more learning than home routers. OPNsense redid the GUI from pfSense, so if you’re coming from pfSense then they created pointless learning work for similar features. Development wise, Less money is spent on OPNsense than pfSense.

Conclusion

If you want help with configuring or flashing your router, then reach out to us. Don’t accidentally brick or ruin your router. Save yourself hours of headache and hassle, and get the advanced configurations you need for VPNs/Tor, advanced security, and anonymity.

Session ID: Support / Signal #: +855 68 504 905 / SimpleX, email, or protonmail links on site

Feeling zappy today!

Everyone that like and comment here get sats 🤟💜⚡️

#ZBD

Good morning!

Anyone got suggestions for a decent movie to put on tonight? Looking for something to just zone out and turn off my brain for a bit.

They predicted thus type of behavior in theSovereigns Individual. Expect it to get worse before it gets better.