I’m thinking of configuring a VPN in my router so that all traffic runs via Mullvad, just trying to consider if there are any downsides to this?
If I buy Mullvad via the onion site with Monero, obviously there’s no link to me, and they appear to keep no logs, as has been tested. In any case I trust them to keep no logs more than my ISP and government.
I do already have ProtonVPN but it’s attached to my debit card details, my email address, and name etc. No need to give them all my traffic too.
I know I can still be tracked by browser fingerprint and IP but I’ll be one of many users using the same Mullvad IP and I also employ adguard DNS, anti fingerprinting on my browsers etc.
My threat model is generally removing as much passive data gathering and tracking as possible, corporate or state. My threat model does not include active investigation from the law enforcement or state
Router-level VPN is going to be more difficult to configure and cause more problems than just having it on all your devices. There are some games where online play just refuses to work if connecting through a VPN. Some mobile apps are the same. When a website blocks your currently selected server, and the usual solution is switching to another server, that’s going to be more difficult and more tedious when it’s configured at the router level. In addition, if you do something like using a self-hosted VPN in order to connect remotely to a media server on your home network, that becomes more difficult if your home router is on a different VPN.
If you’re trying to keep local devices in the building from phoning home and being tracked, a PiHole or router-level firewall might be a better solution. I think if you’re running a pfsense or opnsense router and are a dab hand with VLANs then maybe you could get what you’re looking for with router-level VPN, but it’s a huge hassle otherwise. Just put Mullvad on your computers and phones and call it a day.