I’ve been a paid Proton Unlimited customer for several years now and aside from a few small complaints, I’m generally very happy with the services I’m paying for. I agree that there is too much focus on “sidequests” like Wallet and Meet before core products are fully rebuilt and meeting expectations. I agree that Linux versions and some feature implementations are taking a long time. However, I have a fully functioning suite of Mail, Drive, VPN, Calendar and more that meet 95% of my needs. To be fair, I’m sure the zero-access/zero-knowledge encryption aspect makes development much more difficult.
If you’re worried about political affiliations/interests, I’ll give you that Andy Yen has made a few worrisome comments. I’m not sure what to do there. Assuming there aren’t repeat occurrences, I’m satisfied with their statement about the French political figure sponsorship.
If it’s the FBI cases and subpoenas, it comes down to understanding the difference between privacy and anonymity, and knowing what strategy is required to achieve actual anonymity.
So why (especially on Lemmy) is there so much Proton hate/relunctancy? Eager to hear some non-biased, fact-driven thoughts here!
It’s a good company now. But that company makes money from its products (and the CEO makes money this way). So they can fund their politics and further it off the backs of consumers.
It’s not about the products themselves. It’s about voting with your wallet. It’s sort of the same as Chick Fil A. People don’t hate the food. It’s very good quality. They pay their workers very well and the business is fine. But people don’t want to fund the political/ideaological leanings and lobbying of the person who owns it.
It’s also sort of the same as Harry Potter and JKR. Most people aren’t worried about the books. Instead they care about giving JKR money to further her ability to lobby against and help others destroy the rights of LGBTQ people (Trans people specifically).
At the end of the day it was never about their services for some of us and all about the political leanings of the CEO who outed himself and then changed what he said to “fix” the record when presented with proof contrary to his belief. Trying to rewrite history to repair your public image because you said the quiet part out loud isn’t okay.
What did he say that showed his “leanings”? From what I understand, he only commended one thing that he thought Trump did well. Not that he thought Trump was a good person or anything.
Maybe I’m forgetting the exact quote and my memory fails me. 😅 But yeah, I chose Tuta specifically because of the political thing. I just can’t remember that there was something specifically that showed him as a Trump supporter in general.
Let me go back and find the screenshots. This could take awhile. Bare with me.
Edit: This may be a crapshoot (I screenshot everything like a mad man).
Here’s a post with links to archived records of what happened.
https://lemmy.world/post/24301835
https://lemmy.world/post/24344212
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/
So far as I can remember this wasn’t about comments that supported Trump. It was about Republicans being “the party to hold big tech accountable” and also make progress on public issues.
People in the reddit comments came with both popcorn and receipts and then he edited those original comments and got called out for that. Then there was a whole official statement that was problematically political while claiming the company is politically neutral and the fact that as the CEO he used the proton official account for his original tweet which kicked the whole thing off.
Altogether it was badly handled.
Definitely. Thank you for digging all that up for me.
Yeah I think I’m good without Proton. Matter fact I might just delete my free tier account.
Helpful response - thanks!