I saw this on the LA lines as well and it made me very uneasy and concerned.
I went down this road with NordVPN back in the day. There ads popping up everywhere was the beginning of a massive decline in services and questionable privacy practices.
Also Ubuntu and many other open source companies...
I'm love Mullvad, and hope very much this isn't the beginning of the end of one of the few trustworthy VPN's!