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beep@piefed.world to Technology@lemmy.worldEnglish ·
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vor 2 Tagen

Proton analyzed 7,000+ mobile VPN apps. 64 apps actively collect physical location via GPS or other geolocation, 3 are owned by market research firms, and 85% of them contain trackers.

protonvpn.com

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Proton analyzed 7,000+ mobile VPN apps. 64 apps actively collect physical location via GPS or other geolocation, 3 are owned by market research firms, and 85% of them contain trackers.

protonvpn.com

beep@piefed.world to Technology@lemmy.worldEnglish ·
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vor 2 Tagen
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Shady VPNs could be spying on millions of Americans | Proton VPN
protonvpn.com
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A new survey of VPN apps available in the US shows that a worryingly large number of them behave in unacceptable ways.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1366113/proton-analyzed-7000-mobile-vpn-apps-64-apps-actively-collect-physical-location-via-gps

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  • MoonRaven@feddit.nl
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    Surprisedpikachu.jpeg

  • esc@piefed.social
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    vor 2 Tagen

    No list, advert for proton.

    • beep@piefed.worldOP
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      vor 2 Tagen

      Check my other comment.

      • esc@piefed.social
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        So no full list, just cropped screenshots? Why?

        • boatswain@infosec.pub
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          To avoid defamation lawsuits, most likely.

          • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
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            How is it defamation if it’s actually true?

            • boatswain@infosec.pub
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              It’s not, but it takes a court and a bunch of very expensive lawyers to figure that out

              • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
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                Judicial system is broken, huh

  • Babalugats@feddit.uk
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    vor 2 Tagen

    Any chance of seeing the list broken down by ownership and trackers?

    It seems a bit pointless otherwise.

    • Victor@lemmy.world
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      Not important, this is just a disguised advertisement for Proton VPN.

      • tb_@lemmy.world
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        Just because it is, doesn’t mean it can’t contain useful data.

        See also: https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/

        • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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          useful data

          The extent of which is “Proton good, others bad”.

        • Victor@lemmy.world
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          I know lol, I was being facetious. 😉 I also want to see the list.

      • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        I don’t see a problem with that.

        • Victor@lemmy.world
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          It can be healthy to question your sources and their motives. 👍

          • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            Proton is a stellar VPN, but people cannot live without dragging out an old twitter post about a CEO praising the instauration of some judge by trump. That’s it. That’s all the critic that has been found over the years.

            Mullvad is super fasho and show me one that doesn’t store and sell all the data…

            • Victor@lemmy.world
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              people cannot live without dragging out an old twitter post

              Kind of like that Nazi salute people just can’t seem to forget, gosh.

              Proton is a stellar VPN.

              🤷‍♂️ Perhaps it is. Perhaps Teslas are great cars.

              Show me one that doesn’t store and sell all the data…

              Ah yes, well, if everyone is doing it… 🫪👍👍

    • beep@piefed.worldOP
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      Source: David Peterson, Proton VPN General Manager.

      • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
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        ProtonVPN

        Mulvad VPN

        CalyxVPN

        RiseUpVPN

        PIA VPN

        Proton has 1 tracker, while the others have 0.
        PIA has GPS location permissions, though.

        Edit. All links go to the Exodus Project page for those products. The same site that the David P post uses

        Edit 2. Some (including Proton) have camera permission, and I don’t understand why a VPN app would need access to my camera.

      • artyom@piefed.social
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        Its a good thing they posted them on inaccessible Xitter in a confusing as fuck “thread” instead of their own God damn website…

      • Cris_Citrus (he/him <3)@piefed.zip
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        Its unfortunate they really only name and shame random shovelware vpns it looks like. So it feels difficult to tell whether their points apply to any other real options people have heard of before…

      • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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        Surely it’s too hard to upload a spreadsheet on the internet.

        • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          Some people just have to complain about everything. Maybe a specific excel format?

    • Th4tGuyII@fedia.io
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      Yeah, it would be nice to have an actual list so we’re not reliant on their numbers alone. But unfortunately telling only half the story is something Proton seems to do quite a lot.

      On the bright side, the actual privacy data for this was by Proton’s own admission from Exodus, so while its probably not feasible for you to skim 65K apps on your own, you can at least see the data for specific VPN apps you might be worried about.

      • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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        They would probably get sued if they dropped names of direct competitors.

        • Th4tGuyII@fedia.io
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          Yeah true enough. Even if the data they’ve got was 100% accurate and easy to prove in court, they’d still be stuck having to pay out the arse for lawyers just to appear in court.

    • MolochHorridus@piefed.social
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      It’s an ad for Proton. Obviously.

    • Zarobi@aussie.zone
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      They listed a few in their article, but yeah a full list would be nice.

      Three of the VPN services we looked at are actually owned by market research companies: ‎Phone Guardian Safe WiFi (Sensor Tower), My Mobile Secure VPN (Comscore), and Urban VPN (BiScience, which has been been shown to capture user conversations across several services and share them with AI chat platforms).


      In what many could reasonably see as the ultimate act of betrayal, 64 VPN apps actively track your physical location using GPS and other geolocation data. […] These apps include some of the most popular VPNs in the US, such as VPN Proxy Master, VPN-Fast VPN Super, and X-VPN

      • PineRune@lemmy.world
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        Those all sound like fake VPN apps that I wouldn’t trust anyway.

  • DigDoug@lemmy.world
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    Given that Proton’s CEO has a massive boner for Trump, I don’t think they’re particularly worthy of my trust, either.

    • Paradoxeuh@jlai.lu
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      I heard that Mullvad’s cleaning lady is also voting for Trump…so here we are…

      • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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        Misinformation. What really happened is one of the Mullvad founders donated a stupid amount of money to a fascist party in Europe

        • Paradoxeuh@jlai.lu
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          I’m pretty sure the cleaning lady is a Trump supporter. The baker told me Wednesday.

          • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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            Is the cleaning lady also a company founder?

            • willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              The lady with the toughest boostraps.

      • Sanguine@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        This minimizes what actually happened at mullvad. And OP is overblowing the proton trump thing as per usual in these comments.

        Its exhausting really.

        • DigDoug@lemmy.world
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          I’m overblowing the Trump thing because I don’t appreciate being advertised to.

    • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nz
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      Source?

      • cenzorrll@piefed.ca
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        https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/

  • perishthethought@piefed.social
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    This is the trackers and permission site referenced in the X posts

    https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/

    • cub Gucci@lemmy.today
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      Thanks. Also bullshit

  • oyzmo@piefed.social
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    Mullvad

    • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Should be avoided.

    • perishthethought@piefed.social
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      … is not on the lists.

  • DigDoug@lemmy.world
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    deleted by creator

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