Thats not the same as promoting non-free network services that could have detrimental effect on a user's privacy.You mean non-Free or non-gratis? For me, non-Free is a deal breaker, non-gratis is not.
In comparison to the current flashplugin-nonfree package, they’re currently not promoting it? Not mentioning it in a default installation.
but the tracking would be catastrophic for users.Yes.
Endorsing VPN providers, when we know what an utter failure this model is for providing real anonymity or even the "privacy" they all claim, is saying to users that we think VPNs are safe to use - They are not and cannot. The CS Papers published on the topic and the anecdotal evidence floating on the web show this entire industry are snake-oil peddlers. All it takes is access to their servers with or without their consent and people's lives are ruined.Sure, it would have to be very fairly documented what we believe they can accomplish and what not. For example, for simple circumvention (not strong hiding) of censored Tor entries or websites blocking Tor, VPNs are still usable.
By the way, please feel free to add some VPN threat analysis if you we don’t already have it in documentation. Such as the paper you mention, we could quote some essential conclusions and link it. I am not sure where it fits best. All needs to be restructured anyhow. (https://phabricator.whonix.org/T125)
Maybe some page linked here:
Features, Advantages, Use Cases - Whonix
Or:
TorPlusVPN · Wiki · Legacy / Trac · GitLab
Or:
Whonix versus Proxies