In an unexpected mask off, “secure” email and VPN provider Proton took the stance of siding with the fascist MAGA Reps. Proton’s services are no option for me and many others any longer. Let’s collect and discuss alternatives (E2E encrypted email and VPN) here 🔐👇
Always try to provide: -Server location (jurisdiction) -Governance -Integrity/trustworthiness/transparency -User experience/ease of use (grade 1 to 10, lets take Proton as a benchmark with an 8) -Pricing and links
If you knowalternatives setups, feel free to share, too.
#ProtonExodus
Background: https://lemmy.ca/comment/13913116
This may sound drastic but really I think the only move for Proton is fire Andy. They’re a non-profit, the board need to step in. He has single-handedly cost the company both current and potential customers by just not being smart enough to keep his mouth shut. This makes him an idiot, and an idiot as CEO is not a good look (see: anything musk)
Damn dude. I swear I can’t wait for AI to program everything so I don’t have to keep track of the shitty things people do because we are a shit species.
There are 2 kinds of companies:
- Evil companies
- Companies that are not evil YET.
What this means in this case is that only your own E-Mail server running on a Raspi in your own home can be considered private or secure in the long run. Unfortunately this is really really hard to do, which is the only reason i have not done it yet.
Personally i do not consider any E-Mail private, because E-Mail is not E2E-encrypted, and 99.9% of times one side of the conversation is going to be hosted on some shady companies servers.Of course Proton delivers a great service, because they make an insecure protocol a little less insecure, and i personally use Proton mail. Unfortunately their closed-source nature makes it impossible to switch providers without abandoning their great software.
As for services like Drive, they can actually be hosted privately and securely on your own Raspi with stuff like NextCloud/OwnCloud.
For those that can’t/don’t want to self-host, i would recommend paying for a hoster that hosts FOSS software and contributes to it either with money or code. In that case you would probably loose E2E-encryption, but gain the ability to switch providers once your provider turns on you. In that case at least some of your money would continue to offer value to you by having improved the software you are still using.I’ll still continue using proton, as I haven’t seen them staying from their goal just yet, but I’d love to see some alternatives non the less.
Uggghhh I just upped for two years. Fucking asshats are all caving to the orange fuckhead. Probably off to Europe somewhere.
Ask them for a cancellation and refund. Don’t explain the reason, just say you changed your mind, make up some excuse if they ask.
Why wouldn’t you tell them the reason?
Get the money back first, then say the reason. Don’t wanna bring up politics in case they wanna be a douche and deny refund.
Right, good point.
Or, do bring it up and if they’re a douche, contact your credit card company and have them issue a chargeback to the company (which costs them money). I’ve done this before to shitty companies that tried to deny legitimate refunds, it works.
I believe they offer refunds if you cancel within 30 days.
Maybe not the contribution that you’re looking for, but going to tell you this story regardless.
I am Swiss, and used to be a former diplomat at the Embassy of Switzerland in the United Kingdom. My colleagues and I had organized an evening on cybersecurity, where we showcase what Switzerland has to offer. I invited stakeholders such as:
- Dreamlab (really cool company, should look them up if you don’t know of them)
- NCSC (Swiss National Cyber Security Center)
- Some Swiss cyber regulator; and
- Proton
Firstly, when speaking with the CEO of Dreamlab, he ushered a statement; upon me saying I’m a huge Proton fan and subscribed to all services - “they are lying to your faces”.
I was curious, so I spoke with the regulators and NCSC delegates, they said that Proton has been involved in a handful of leaks - some that were made public, some behind the scenes.
When I spoke to Andy, having told him that I grew up in Canada, I asked him what his plan was for North America. His response: “I will gladly take their money, but never open up shop there - too many national security services that come knocking on the door”.
Now I see that (on the Proton page), that they are looking for a few US based positions for Marketing and Growth - going against what we discussed a few years back. In all honesty, I still have a Plus subscription with them, but beginning to questions a lot more things regarding security and ethics at Proton. Guess I’ll just self-host in the future. Trust no one but yourself with your personal data.
You,…are being a spaz,…that’s all it is. An immature brat for no reason other than someone has a different view from what you believe.
for some of us, particularly queer, black, trans, women, immigrant, and indigenous people, the stakes are higher than “i don’t personally agree with the ceo of proton.” our lives are being endangered both by the new admin’s policies as well as the emboldened cult associated with it.
this is not a “spaz” (offensive term by the way, so thanks for that) or brat move. it’s simply us doing what people always say to do: voting with our wallets. this move is bad for a lot of people. i’m thrilled for you that it’s not bad, but i ask you to see us saying it is bad not as your enemy, but as people who are vulnerable asking you to take a longer look at the bigger picture
No, you are an eternal enemy that causes open warfare, a fight to the death.
*The Right:* The market should be free to decide.
*The Market:* Decides
*The Right*: OUtrAgEOuS
tell me, are your human rights personally challenged by the trump administration? mine are, and I would like to maintain what rights I have now
There is not any kind of “human right” that is unversally recognized. You can’t depend on other people to approve of your existance. If you will not defend people you despise because of their views, you have no right to demand that other people have suty to care if you live or die.
That’a OP chock as a customer, bootlicker
He doesn’t like something and he is making that change. You are the one being immaut twat about it
We aren’t in an age anymore where differing political opinions are harmless. People aren’t debating mere tax policies anymore. Wake the fuck up.
Yes you are describing the intent of a boycott.
That guy prolly thinks that boycotting israel should be a felony lol
The -40 votes on this brings the happy.
Phew! For a moment I thought you were talking about the steam compatibility thingy.
If that proton goes nazi, I am going straight to the farm
I thought they were talking about the elementary particle—I was afraid we’d have to find some other way of manifesting our physical existence.
Aww man! AGAIN?!?
Yo so question for y’alls: what’s your opinion on using custom domain (for portability) vs masked emails?
Rn I have my main emails on my personal domain, and then I have masked emails going through [email protected] for more anonymity + segmenting (err i mean just being able to disable a certain address individually) . But watching all this reminded me that if I decided to move away from fastmail, i’m much more locked-in this way. Do y’alls use a custom domain for masked email as well? The one thing I don’t like about that is that it’d be so easy to connect multiple accounts based on domain, so anonymity is probably kinda broken.
Trump’s terrible politics aside:
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the Republican party is pushing legislation which requires you to identify yourself to view porn
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you can get around this with a VPN
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proton is a VPN (nonprofit, but still).
I’ll be switching email providers when I can… I can’t remember when my subscription ends.
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is tuta the new pick for custom domain email?
Mailbox.org is another good one.
I was considering them until I found out they allow the re-registration of previously used addresses. If you don’t log in for a year or so, someone else can take over your address and potentially gain access to various accounts you’ve registered with it.
Interesting. Not having this fucked me on tuta.
I hadnt signed into tuta for some years, then I learned they killed my account. I had another service tied to that account, which wouldn’t let me login without an OTP sent to the email on file. I tried to re-register the account on tuta, but they refused. So I lost access to both accounts :(
FYI, Posteo will never delete your account, and will still let you log in and receive emails even if you stop paying (you won’t be able to send emails until you pay the $1 a month again).
They apparently will only recycle your address if you explicitly delete your account yourself.
I don’t know about “the pick” but it was mine. Six months ago I looked around and decided to stay with Tuta for now. Encrypted email + calendar, on my custom domain, is all I need though. Ymmv
I only need email but they seem decent and much cheaper for multiple custom domains. They were one of the options I looked at before I signed up for proton and looks like they’ve improved a lot since, too
I think I would wait for changes in their mission and policies before I start moving anything.
Stop switching to every new “cool” and “encrypted” service every time the previous one disappointed you a little bit. This is not helpful neither for your time, nor for privacy community overall. We should lean on most developed and best platforms we have right now (Proton, Signal etc.) and get everyone to switch. Unless we know we have market dominance, dispersing our efforts is futile.
And yep, answering your question, Tuta Mail is fine
I’ve been very happy with disroot.org, but you have to do your own encryption (I use Thunderbird).
I think I pay $10 per year for 5 GB, but they have a free plan.
Abandoning the Proton subscription now. How stupid and irresponsible. In fact, are running away from all your principles.
