Sweeden mmmMmmm what a nice big honeypot you are

With all these Sweedish VPN's popping up it just makes me think that this is going to end bad. What happens when the court orders start flying and pressure is put on VPN's to turn on the logs. Seriously guys if it's not already happening it will, call me a pesimist but I can't see this ending well.

Why is Sweeden seen as the land of the free? Can someone explain to me why every man and his dog VPN operation is based or have servers in SWE?

 

Because Sweden is cold and the electricity costs of keeping those servers cool is less.

 

It probably has something to do with laws, internet infrastructure, workforce, history, etc.

 

Vikings

 

Well, since I live in Sweden I can say that there are forces that are trying hard to take away the little freedom (on the net) we have. Back in 2009 we got a new law that gave the the swedish counter espionage right to monitor swedish internet traffic. The politicians promised the way politicians always do, that it would only be monitoring traffic that had to do with "terrorism" abroad to see if it could be a threat to sweden.

Just a couple of weeks ago the swedish right wing (well not that it matters what sort of party it is, they´re all the same exept the swedish Pirate party) politicians decided that police and security police would get access to the traffic that is monitored. As wiht any law that supposedly is against "terrorism" they always, I mean ALWAYS, will be used for other stuff. It is too convinient for the government not to use this easy way of monitoring its citicens.

Remember the bank crisis in Island? The brittish government used the terrorist laws to freeze Island banks money, not regular law - the terrorist law that they promised would only be used against "terrorists"

Sure we have The Piratebay and alot of torrent sites, but that is only because the people behind them are too smart for the Copyright industry. Not because sweden is "free". There are laws that supposedly prevents the copyright industry to do everything what they want, but the courts isnt too bothered about a slip here and there And the copyright lobby is constantly spamming politicians to change the laws in their favor. Sooner or later they (politicians) always gets tired about the spamming and makes the ordered laws.. My guess is that it is only a matter of time before the Copyright industry gets hold of the data that is collected to counter "terrorism".

So, if there are any free countries out there, beware. Sweden is not as free as they want to portray them selves.

 

Well it seemed too good to be true.

I could say some stuff but because 'politics' isn't allowed we'll have to skip that.

Isn't Sweden the country that went after Assange for the USA ?

As Steve from Xerobank used to say, US allied states are not 'safe'.

Which leaves

 

Sweden has implemented the EU Data Retention Directive but the law does not apply to VPN providers.

And even a normal ISP subject to the law must only log 6 months. In the US, there was a bill called H.R 1981 which would have imposed a much longer data retention obligation on the industry.

Pick your poison, the EU with data retention of 6 months, or the United States and Australia with one year.

 

Mainly because, unlike most other European nations, Swedish providers/server operators are willing to turn a blind eye to petty offenses like DMCA complaints. The culture in general has more of a pro-P2P mentality, evidenced by the fact that Sweden is home of TPB (and Wikileaks), and even has a legitimate political organization known as the Pirate Party.

Sweden also has good quality broadband infrastructure, meaning they have the capacity to handle large amounts of P2P and web traffic. The same holds true for the Netherlands, where I'd estimate that probably close to 90% of all VPN providers have at least one dedicated server with either Leaseweb or Ecatel - mainly because they're cheap, fast, and reasonably P2P-tolerant.

With regard to court orders and such, Sweden is a member of the EU and are bound by various international cooperation agreements/treaties, so of course they are going to investigate major crimes just as any other member country would. This shouldn't really come as much of a surprise to anyone. I doubt any knowledgeable blackhat, illicit pornographer, or other serious troublemaker would actually consider Sweden as a data haven for criminal activity, because clearly it is not. But for those who are merely looking to do safe P2P file sharing and/or have generally good privacy protection, then Sweden is a fine choice.

 

And you are recommend using what country?

 

I don't recommend anyone.

 

FRA Surveillance doesn't apply to non-Swedish sites. Check Mullvad's site for more info. There is a check box in their client that deals with this...they tell you *not* to check it if you aren't in Sweden.

If there are no logs, there are no logs, and as has been said above, these laws don't apply to VPN or Email providers.

You have to trust someone. The alternative is to "surf in the clear"...no thanks. Info from Sweden is still harder to get, than info from Brighthouse, USA.

PD