Privacy

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Routing all traffic through Mullvad? (lemmy.mtate.me.uk)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by smeeps@lemmy.mtate.me.uk to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I'm thinking of configuring a VPN in my router so that all traffic runs via Mullvad, just trying to consider if there are any downsides to this?

If I buy Mullvad via the onion site with Monero, obviously there's no link to me, and they appear to keep no logs, as has been tested. In any case I trust them to keep no logs more than my ISP and government.

I do already have ProtonVPN but it's attached to my debit card details, my email address, and name etc. No need to give them all my traffic too.

I know I can still be tracked by browser fingerprint and IP but I'll be one of many users using the same Mullvad IP and I also employ adguard DNS, anti fingerprinting on my browsers etc.

My threat model is generally removing as much passive data gathering and tracking as possible, corporate or state. My threat model does not include active investigation from the law enforcement or state

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[–] Mikelius@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I've been doing this for a while now with opnsense being what masks the whole network behind the mullvad VPN.

Pros:

Even fresh new devices that have all that crap junkware installed get routed through the VPN, meaning no tracking to you immediately (unless they sniff the rest of the network and relay your network AP I guess)
one device instead of many, leaving extra devices available to use for a single mullvad account (limited to 5 devices, at least for wireguard)
if using wireguard, you honestly won't be hit with network performance issues. Just don't choose a server across the world from you. I chose one in the same country as myself and get an average 95-97% of my internet speed, and that's because I also have IDS/IPS enabled

Cons:

as others mentioned, increase captcha annoyances
some banks may lock your account if you try to log in with the VPN
if the VPN server goes down, the whole network will. This may be a good thing since your don't want traffic to leak, but just pointing out you now have another single point of failure outside your ISP
when someone's hoarding the entire VPN server you're connected to, you'll probably witness a slowdown

That all being said, if you're not very technically savvy on the networking side or haven't ever setup a custom router/firewall, this will be a pain. But it you want to learn something new and are up for the challenge, eventually it gets down to almost never having to worry about it. I've been doing it for a long time now, so for me personally, I've gotten to the point of only needing to login to the firewall for a VPN setting update or server change maybe once a month