Obscura: The first VPN that can't log your activity

I don't understand the point of this.

Many (if not all) of the benefits on the landing page are available in Mullvad too, which is a more mature and reputable product, has all clients fully open-source, and powers the exit servers for Obscura.

Why should I choose this over Mullvad?

i am very skeptical of most vpn companies, and while i haven't looked too hard at obscura, it is worth noting the official partnership with mullvad (https://mullvad.net/en/blog/mullvad-partnered-with-obscura-v...) which is certainly a positive signal

side note: i really wish more companies did the no email + randomized account number flow. there is a certain popular "pro-privacy" product beloved by many here that requires an email address and refuses to offer a similar account number method, which has turned me off the product.

As others have pointed out, this is like Apple iCloud Private Relay, and other multi-hop privacy systems that have been built on and off over the last several decades (Tor included).

We wrote a research paper on the general principle a few years ago: https://conferences.sigcomm.org/hotnets/2022/papers/hotnets2...

So two hops, basically. First hop sees your IP address but not the website you're going to, second hop sees website but not IP address. Similar to Private Relay: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102602.

a vpn company is a paid for MITM attack surface.

Your traffic is still unencrypted by the VPN provider at the other end of the Wireguard connection, I am not sure how this changes that?

This sounds pretty neat, and I do dig the website, though I can’t help but think it’s an odd combination to have bitmap/pixelated fonts and graphics inside perfect squircles.

Seems like you guys have two distinct ideas of a visual identity completely at odds there. Shape contrast is nice and can be rather fun to play with, but it has to be handled with care. Right now it feels like the designer had a bunch of ideas and didn’t know how to bring them together in a cohesive identity.

Bonus point for the TRON reference at the end! “I fight for the users!”

How does this prove Obscura and Mullvad can't just both gather tracking data and then just combine it on demand?

So like OHTTP but for UDP traffic? I suppose they are using MASQUE CONNECT-UDP?

They are careful to not exactly claim the same anonymity properties of Tor, though I think a lay reader will read that differently (ie, that they do have the same anonymity property as Tor).

That said being able to verify the inner wireguard conn to mullvad is nice. Of course you have to trust them that they aren't colluding with mullvad to share your identity/ip. But same goes for OHTTP.

I love the website, messaging and idea. Well done. if you guys need a place to host, please consider controlplane.com

Basically a middle-man for a Mullvad VPN, where if Mullvad decides to pull out of their agreement with this company, you lose your connection and are hopefully refunded.

The single point of failure for this product is Mullvad and its leadership's changing opinions.

I don't like 'us vs others' kinda comparisons, it's just marketing trick, which means they care more about sales than your privacy.

Secondly, Mullvad did what Obscura does now years ago.

Furthermore who needs a gamified VPN tool?

> first

Really? XD