Piccadilly Circus, London.
Keir Starmer now demands state spyware on every mobile device, always watching the screen, scanning everything, looking for things the government disapproves of.

Whistleblowers, activists, and journalists depend on anonymous VPN services. Requiring identity verification for VPN services would put them at risk. It would also have a chilling effect on online debate (VPNs can help people post anonymously on social media).

In authoritarian countries, VPN services are crucial forcriticizing the government. That is precisely why such governments seek to ban or restrict them. Hopefully, the UK will not join that list.

2/2

Some politicians in the UK think it is a good idea to introduce identity verification for using VPN services.

It could be that these politicians do not understand what they are proposing. The alternative, that they do understand, would be even worse.

1/2

So-called age verification for social media is spreading across the world, framed as an effort to create a safer internet for children. In reality, age verification lays the foundation for a fully controlled internet.

The age verification rush must be slowed down, and politicians need to recognize the consequences of different types of legislation and systems.

Read more on https://mullvad.net/blog/age-verification-for-social-media-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-a-free-internet

The EU age verification app is presented as “completely anonymous”. The idea is to use Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) cryptography.

But currently, the EU app does not have ZKP functionality. More importantly, the app is designed to always function without ZKP. Even if fully developed ZKP technology could be implemented in the future, it would remain an optional feature that countries may choose to disable and that the EU could remove at any time.

More details on https://mullvad.net/blog/age-verification-for-social-media-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-a-free-internet

Our Android app has for the second time passed MASA, a standardized security assessment, conducted by Leviathan Security Group.

Read more: https://mullvad.net/blog/2026-security-assessment-of-our-android-app

On Friday the 15th of May, we became aware of a fingerprinting issue affecting Mullvad users.

We have a method which changes this behaviour currently being tested, with plans to begin rolling it out to our VPN servers in the coming weeks.

Read more here: https://mullvad.net/blog/exit-ip-fingerprinting-between-vpn-servers

A new VPN leak that allows any app to leak traffic outside the VPN tunnel has recently been discovered by Yusuf (https://x.com/cybaqkebm)

Read more here: https://mullvad.net/blog/any-app-on-recent-android-versions-can-leak-certain-traffic

It’s absurd that American authorities can purchase personal data – that they’re not allowed to gather themselves without a warrant – directly from data brokers. This violates the Fourth Amendment, and it’s time to close the data broker loophole.

Today, the Surveillance Accountability Act was introduced. It requires warrants based on probable cause for all government surveillance and data access.

You can read more about it here: https://www.surveillanceaccountability.com/

Apple's networking stack is preventing the iOS app from being as secure as possible, we have now secured our app to mitigate this despite the rough edges around the update procedure.

Read more here: https://mullvad.net/blog/force-all-app-traffic-into-the-tunnel

When we projected our banned TV ads onto buildings in London, we thought this would be a fitting location. Nineteen Eighty-Four was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.

This is Senate House in London. When George Orwell wrote 1984, the building served as the model for the headquarters of the Ministry of Truth (the propaganda ministry). The Ministry of Truth decided what was true, for example that 2+2=5. It was responsible for censorship and rewriting history, and it banned the word “free” in the sense of freedom.

Chat Control 1 is dead. Let’s end Chat Control 2.

Members of The European Parliament: stand firm in your position – no mass surveillance whatsoever!

Starting with 16.0a1 alpha release, Mullvad Browser Alpha is based on the Firefox Rapid Release channel rather than the Extended Support Release (ESR). The alpha release is now available on Linux ARM.

Read more here: https://mullvad.net/blog/mullvad-browser-alpha-moves-to-firefox-rapid-release-and-adds-linux-arm-support

The only way we want our ads to come down. When people take them home.

a) Keep them.
b) Send them to Ashton Kutcher.
c) Put them outside 10 Downing Street.

Looking to be a star on CCTV?

And then The Council of the EU (law proposals must go through both the Parliament and the Council), after three years of negotiation, finally reached a common position on Chat Control. The requirement for mandatory scanning (including end-to-end encrypted messaging services) was removed, which is a major victory, but several problematic elements remain in the Council's position. For instance, the Council wants to demand ID Control to use messaging services (including end-to-end encrypted).

And then?

And then, in 2026 the final negotiations began, between the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the EU. At the same time, the European Commission is working on a Plan B, through the initiative Going Dark/ProtectEU, where they once again try to force total surveillance (this time organized crime is the excuse) on the citizens of the EU.

And then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPzvUW8qaWY

And then it was revealed that Thorn, together with the EU Commission, had also started and funded “children’s rights organizations” that had supported the proposal. What appeared publicly to be charitable organizations were in fact lobby groups.

And then?

And then politicians in Brussels wanted to exempt themselves from the scanning.

And then?

And then the European Parliament, in an almost historic consensus, voted against the proposal and called Chat Control nothing but mass surveillance. As one of the members of the parliament said: “The Commission wasn’t focusing on protecting children but wanted mass surveillance.”

And then?