Mullvad VPN has informed its users that the Swedish Police raided its office with a search warrant, but the company told them it hosts no user data.
“On April 18, at least six police officers from the National Operations Department (NOA) of the Swedish Police visited the Mullvad VPN office in Gothenburg with a search warrant. They intended to seize computers with customer data.”
– Mullvad VPN
As the company’s statement explains, Mullvad told the law enforcement officers that if they proceeded to confiscate equipment, they would violate Swedish law, as the company’s policies clearly state that no user data is collected or hosted anywhere.
After producing proof of evidence on how its VPN service works, Mullvad says the police consulted the prosecutor and left the premise without taking anything. This means that no data was compromised, but Mullvad underlines that user data would still be safe even in the case of equipment seizure.
The statement closes by mentioning that in the 14 years of the VPN service’s operation, this was the first time that police visited their offices with a search warrant.
RestorePrivacy attempted to clarify some points about the incident, but a company spokesperson told us that they are also in the process of gathering more specific information about the police’s request at the moment.
Mullvad gave RestorePrivacy some information about the applicable laws that can lead to on-premise searchers, with the only one justifying the action being The Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure (1942:740) (RB), which presupposes that the police have reasonable expectations of finding evidence that will help in its investigation.
The Electronic Communications Act (2022:482) (LEK), which applies to electronic communications networks and services, does not apply to VPN service providers, while “know your customer laws” also do not apply in Mullvad’s case because the company does not offer financial, exchange, or trading services.
“Since Mullvad VPN is not required by law to collect any data related to our users’ activities online – and since the pure purpose of our service is to protect users from the collection of such data – it is in our interest, our customers’ interest, all our employees and owners interest to not collect any data and therefore there is no reasonable grounds to doubt that WE DO NOT COLLECT ANY DATA ABOUT OUR USERS ACTIVITIES ONLINE,” reads the additional comment the VPN provider sent to RestorePrivacy.
“It is also reasonable to understand that we delete any information we have about a user (even an e-mail to our support) as soon as possible.”
It should be noted that no-user-data retention promises are standard across all large VPN providers today and verifiable by multiple external audits. However, the applicable national laws often make a difference in what seizures and data extraction and examination can be conducted.
The website of Mullvad VPN does not use a Cross-Site Tracking cookies.
Mullvad VPN android app has only 2 permissions, it’s just awesome! No data shared with third parties.
Mullvad accepts one-time payments, cash payments in any currency and an anonymous payment method.
Mullvad don’t ask for any personal information no username, no password, no e-mail address.
It creates so-called “numbered account” associated with a random account number.
No auto-renewal policy. You do not have to write emails to cancel the subscription. If your subscription has ended, they will stop taking money from your Credit Card and bank account, unlike other VPN providers…
Just compare all that above with other VPN providers. Just open their websites and count how many Cross-Site Tracking cookies they use. Check their App permissions and Data safety on Google Play!
There also the only VPN with quantum resistant tunnels, Tor Project Vidalia Onion Member since 2021, there own Onion service to register a account, I am shocked to see no review for Mullvad VPN on restore privacy
Just take a look on TorGuard VPN:
TorGuard VPN website is using Cloudflare DNS to check the security of their connection :))))))))))))))))
“Cloudflare Privacy Terms: Checking if the site connection is secure”
Cross site tracking of TorGuard VPN:
– torguard.net
– ajax.googleapis.com
– cloudflareinsights.com
– fonts.googleapis.com
– trustpilot.net
No purchase / payment of TorGuard VPN possible Without all this:
“You did not enter your first name
You did not enter your last name
You did not enter your email address
You did not enter your state
You did not enter your postcode
You did not enter a password
You must accept our Terms of Service
You did not enter your card number
You did not enter the card expiry date
The cards CVV number is required”
———————————————————–
NordVPN: “As soon as you cancel your subscription, the amount will be refunded to the bank account you purchased it from within 10 days.” IT IS NOT TRUE! The money was taken from my account after 3 months I cancelled my subscription. Same disaster on other VPN’s like AVG etc. Read the user comments on their websites, read Trustpilot.
Cross site tracking by AVG VPN:
avg.com
http://www.avg.com
av.st
cookielaw.org
go-mpulse.net
googletagmanager.com
hubspotusercontent40.net
kampyle.com
medallia.eu
onetrust.com
trustpilot.com
THERE IS NO END OF THAT!
YOU CAN SEE ALL TAHT and people see that, and people see the excellent work of Mullvad team!
and GREAT services of VPN’s like Proton, VPNac etc. It’s very much appreciated!
Thank you restoreprivacy team, God bless you all!
It looks Mullvad provided new information about it https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2023/5/2/update-the-swedish-authorities-answered-our-protocol-request/
It would be great to see a review of Mullvad VPN on Restoreprivacy!
Not to mention there might be a connection to their postings about the planned EU chat control legislation. Seems like big eyes are watching everywhere nowadays.
I agree with John Doe. Mullvad is actively trying to animate the general public against the EU Chat Control Act. On his official website, he published several texts criticizing this law and sent a large number of calls to politicians and experts not to allow the adoption of this law.
EFF is too:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/10/eu-lawmakers-must-reject-proposal-scan-private-chats
proves they are no log vpn……..
False, clickbait headline.
There was NO raid. The police came “knocking on Mullvad’s door”, they were let in, talked, and left.
The next time your boss comes into your office and wants to speak to you, are you going to say that your office was raided by your boss? Geesh!
Your boss knocking at your door and a bunch of LE officers knocking at your door isn’t the same thing buddy. Not even close.
True but raid suggests a surprise and force used to enter. There was no mention here of that.
Do your boss need a court order to get into your office? Geesh 😀
@ccr, the article clearly says enforcement arrived on site with a search warrant.
I sounds like you read the read the headline and not the article.
This is interesting. Not a Mullvad customer, but it certainly reaffirms my faith in them, should I ever consider switching.
Agreed!