Summary

Proton Mail, known for its privacy-first email services, faced backlash after CEO Andy Yen praised the Republican Party and its antitrust stance.

The company initially posted and deleted a statement supporting Yen’s comments, later claiming an “internal miscommunication” and reiterating its political neutrality.

Critics question Proton’s impartiality, particularly as it cooperates with Swiss authorities on legal data requests.

Privacy advocates warn that political alignments could undermine trust, especially for Proton’s users—journalists and activists wary of government surveillance under administrations like Trump’s.

  • Kanzar@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    “If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

    -Desmond Tutu

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 days ago

    Swiss company says “Nazi’s aren’t so bad.”

    The more things change the more they stay the same.

    When they say they’re “neutral” lets not forget what “neutral” meant during World War II. It meant making a fucking shitload of money at the expense of the rest of Europe.

    Also, the geography of Switzerland is how they were able to convince Germany to not invade. A few US Nukes dropped from the sky make their geography a moot fucking point this time around.

    • wax@feddit.nu
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      4 days ago

      Same. Considered getting a domain for my email, but ended up just switching directly to the protonmail domain. Regretting that now.

      • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        Getting your own domain is the best thing you can do, regardless of provider - it means they can’t lock you in anymore.

        • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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          4 days ago

          I gotta get a personal domain just for email, I don’t really want my personal life mixed in with our small business domain; both due to the nature of the products and because I don’t want to dox myself on either side of the work/life gulf. It’s a shame too, because I am actually proud of our garage business.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Signed up last month because I had something to protect. Looking into Tuta. Anyone know a comparable free vpn?

    • warm@kbin.earth
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      4 days ago

      While the comments were not welcome and left a sour taste, we are blowing it a bit out of proportion here.

  • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
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    4 days ago

    Yep, I moved to tuta the day Andy decided to out himself as a MAGA dipshit. The only way I’d go back is if he resigned. At the absolute minimum Andy Yen has shown extremely poor judgement in claiming republicans are the party concerned with people’s digital rights and I do not trust Proton under his leadership. That tells me he fundamentally does not know what he’s talking about.

    As a side note, If anyone’s looking for a VPN alternative, I highly recommend Mullvad.

      • blakenong@lemmings.world
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        4 days ago

        If your goal is basic mail, with standard features, Tuta is great. The free option is more than enough for an anonymous email.

        If you want to pay a little you can move your domain over and get a bunch more features.

        If you appreciate a simple interface, Tuta will be perfect. They have apps for desktops and phones as well as web.

      • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
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        4 days ago

        Commenting so I can come back to this because hell if I’m going to remember to check it if I just save the comment.

        Thank you for your assistance on the matter.

      • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
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        4 days ago

        It seems like a good alternative but I honestly haven’t used it enough over the last two weeks to feel comfortable recommending it to people yet. Sorry I can’t be more helpful, but there’s a free tier so there’s no downside in giving Tuta a shot for a bit.

  • MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    My renewal of proton VPN is entirely dependent on who the ceo is when it’s time for me to renew.

    If fuckface is still there, I’ll move on.

    I’m fickle that way.

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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      4 days ago

      For VPN there’s mullvad, for email there’s posteo, for storage I recommend signing up with disroot, for password storage I’d recommend KeePass or BitWarden/VaultWarden depending on your threat models and needs

    • Let's Go 2 the Mall!@lemmy.world
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      I went with mailbox.org for mail, contacts, calendar. Keepass+syncthing for passwords. Still looking for VPN and file storage. I’ve been trying out nextcloud but there is a learning curve to host your own.

    • ctag@lemmy.sdf.org
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      I’ve tried Proton mail and couldn’t get comfortable with their UI. Have been on Fastmail for two years now and it’s been excellent.

      • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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        I’m back with Fastmail too, after having quit to go with Proton a while back. I never ran into a single email where the recipient was encrypted, so I’ve come to see the whole encrypted email shtick as mostly marketing.

      • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        I tried proton and I couldn’t get into using their service since it kept asking for personal information. I ended up not using it.

  • diegantobass@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Welp… Just paid them 80€ for a year and was in the process of migrating my gmail accounts to it. I guess I just lost 80€ and I’m migrating to somewhere else then…

      • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        And also during that discussion with their support team, state your reason for leaving. That will get a lot more attention than the rest of us whinging online where we can easily be ignored.