Mullvad Browser: Is it Good?

About this Video

• Video Title: Mullvad Browser: Is it Good?
• Channel: The Linux Cast
• Speakers: Matt
• Duration: 00:20:19

Introduction

This video reviews the Mullvad browser, a privacy-focused browser developed by the Mullvad VPN company in collaboration with the Tor Project. The reviewer explores its features, compares it to Firefox, and discusses its overall usability and trustworthiness.

Key Takeaways

• Mullvad Browser is a Firefox fork: It's built upon the Firefox codebase, offering a familiar interface.
• Enhanced Privacy Features: It prioritizes privacy by default, automatically deleting cookies and history at the end of each session and incorporating anti-fingerprinting measures. It offers an "identity reset" function to further enhance privacy.
• Anti-Fingerprinting Techniques: The browser employs various techniques to make fingerprinting more difficult, including changing the time zone to UTC, limiting access to system fonts, and generalizing OS and app version numbers. Webcam and microphone capabilities are also masked.
• Integrated Mullvad VPN: The browser integrates with the Mullvad VPN service (paid), enhancing privacy further by masking the user's IP address. Other VPNs can be substituted.
• Transparency: Mullvad is praised for its transparency, publicly documenting its privacy-enhancing modifications on its blog. The reviewer highlights the trade-off between privacy and convenience. The reviewer also mentions that while Mullvad is more transparent than many VPN providers, it is still a company, and thus users must place some level of trust in it.