News
- Mullvad VPN's co-founder Daniel Berntsson donated 5M SEK to the Örebro Party
- Mullvad confirms the donation "is not part of Mullvad's values or mission"
- Örebro party's leader, Markus Allard, is known for controversial views
Daniel Berntsson, co-founder and co-owner of Mullvad VPN, has donated 5 million Swedish kronor (around $514,000) of his personal funds to the controversial populist Örebro Party.
First reported by local news outlet Flamman, the 2025 donation accounted for 72% of the party's total income last year.
"This is a donation from me personally," Berntsson told reporters, saying that he supports the party's anti-corruption stance. In a post on social media, Mullvad confirmed that it was a "private donation," which "is not part of Mullvad's values or mission."
The disclosure has sparked backlash online, with some users threatening to switch VPN providers. The Örebro Party and its leader, Markus Allard, are known for controversial populist stances, particularly regarding "remigration" policies.
Mullvad's responseSpeaking to TechRadar, Mullvad co-CEO Fredrik Strömberg confirmed that neither Mullvad VPN AB, its parent company Amagicom AB, nor its sister company Tillitis AB played any role in supporting the political party.
"Speaking for myself, I don’t like that he made this donation, and I know this view is shared by many of my colleagues. Speaking as the co-CEO of Mullvad, we will continue to protect the universal right to privacy," Strömberg said.
The firm also addressed the controversy publicly. In a statement posted to X, the team reiterated that Mullvad operates as a "political company" dedicated to fighting for freedom of speech, freedom of information, and the universal right to privacy.
Mullvad is a political company. We fight for freedom of speech, freedom of information and the right to privacy. These are firmly held values of the founders of Mullvad.Mullvad protects the right for people to express things we don't agree with. We protect the right of everyone…June 27, 2026
"We also live these values by being tolerant in our daily work," the post continues. "No matter what their other opinions are and no matter whether the founders or anyone else in Mullvad dislike them. The founders themselves fundamentally disagree on several important issues."
Mullvad said it would "gladly refund" any customers who choose to cancel their subscriptions or switch to another provider due to philosophical disagreements.
The news has attracted criticism, in fact.
One Reddit user said they "deeply regret recommending Mullvad to people over Proton," adding that they will personally switch to Windscribe.
Asked about users thinking of dropping their Mullvad subscription, Strömberg told TechRadar that people should feel safe using Mullvad regardless of their political affiliation.
Why is the donation so controversial?Defining itself outside the traditional left-right spectrum, the Örebro Party began as a local party in Örebro before launching its parliamentary election campaign this year.
Berntsson's donation appears to have been vital in elevating the party's campaign capabilities ahead of the upcoming election.
According to data collected by DonationWatch, 2025 was the most lucrative year in the party’s history, netting a total of 5.58 million SEK. For comparison, the party received just 202,000 SEK in total donations throughout 2024.
While tech founders are entirely free to hold personal political affiliations, this incident raises broader questions regarding the growing influence of tech wealth in political campaigns. It also forces a conversation about whether privacy-focused firms should be entangled with political groups—regardless of where they sit on the ideological spectrum.
Ultimately, the number of users who choose to cancel their Mullvad subscriptions in protest will serve as a strong indicator of how deeply the privacy-conscious community values neutrality.
- Android's earthquake warnings reached 11.4m Venezuelans last week
- The feature is now installed on 2.5 billion Android phones
- If you live in a country covered by the feature, it should be enabled by default
Since 2021, Android phones have come with a built-in earthquake detection feature — and according to Google's figures, it was able to give 11.4 million people advance warning of the devastating double earthquakes that hit Venezuela on June 24.
That number comes from the New York Times, with the early alert arriving up to two minutes before the earth started trembling. The first alerts were dispatched just nine seconds after the earthquake started underground, according to Google.
The system works by using the accelerometers built into Android phones to detect faster, milder seismic waves known as p-waves. This data is automatically anonymized and reported in the background to Google, and once there are enough matching reports, an alert gets pinged out to all Android users who might be affected.
Phones have to be stationary to qualify as earthquake detectors — measurements from phones on the move aren't counted — and the earthquake has to be a magnitude 4.5 or greater to trigger a warning. For more densely populated areas, with more Android phones in them, the alerts get pushed out more quickly.
In three specific US states — California, Washington, and Oregon — the Android warnings rely on actual seismic monitoring data from a network of 1,675 sensors that make up the ShakeAlert system, run by the US Geological Survey.
How to enable earthquake warningsSafety information is also included (Image credit: Google / Future)The Android Earthquake Alerts System is enabled by default on modern Android phones: to check from Settings, tap Safety and emergency then Earthquake alerts. You do need to be in one of the 98 supported countries though, listed by Google here, which include Australia and the United States.
How close you are to the epicenter affects the alerts you see in the event of an earthquake. The most serious warnings will break through any Do Not Disturb settings you've got in place, take up the full screen, and play a loud sound. If less serious shaking is expected, you might just get a normal pop-up notification.
As of last year, Google says the Android Earthquake Alerts System has detected more than 18,000 earthquakes worldwide, and sent out over 2,000 alerts. The feature means that at least 2.5 billion people worldwide have access to an earthquake early warning system, even if nothing is in place at the government level.
This isn't something you can currently get on iPhones however, not even with a Google app. What iOS can do is pass on official warnings from authorities, including for earthquakes: From Settings, tap Notifications, and you'll see toggle switches for Extreme Alerts and Severe Alerts.
It's not clear how many deaths or injuries may have been prevented by the Android warning system in the case of the Venezuela quake, but it seems millions got alerts at least a few seconds in advance that something was about to happen.