Andy Yen’s values are incompatible with Proton’s mission. He advocates for poor security practices, supports fascists, and he verbally abuses his subordinates. As such, I can no longer in good conscience continue to financially support a company with such terrible leadership.
Unfortunately for me, my subscription just renewed last month on a multi year plan, but it does give me time to browse for and experiment with alternatives.
If you’re able, I encourage you to do the same and cite Andy Yen as the driving factor for your decision. We can’t let these tech bro fascists destroy what little semblance of privacy we have left.
Unfortunately I can’t send a message by cancelling. Fortunately it’s because I already saw their CEO was a fascist-supporting duck dickwad who only paid lip service to privacy/security in the name of profit (so I went with different companies for my VPN/email/etc needs).
I have two things to add:
- You all rock. Thank you for all the migration suggestions, and tips.
- Fuck Andy Yen, of course.
I was on day 21 of my 30 day guarantee on a 2 year subscription. I have cancelled and requested a refund. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
I keep seeing folks mention that at least it is a good and secure service why should I leave? this should be why: via: https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton, had a message for an employee in the company’s security Slack channel who urged the company to at least take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live. “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” Yen wrote in the channel at the end of August. “Stop thinking always of how to be slower, and focus more on how to be faster.”
I think they’re thinking of how to be securer dumbass. Which is probably smart considering everyone and their uncle is using AI to find vulnerabilities everywhere they can these days.
His values have been incompatible with Proton’s mission for some years now. Proton hasn’t deviated from their mission however so I’m fine using their products until they do.
I incidentally agree with the guy that handwritten code is practically obsolete in this age of llms. Typewriters and hard copy markups are also practically obsolete in the age of word processors yet some of the best and most prolific writers use them exclusively.
Give people options and let them choose what works for them. So many CEOs have a hard time with this concept.
You definitely don’t code if you think hand written code obsolete.
Yeah, LLMs can code something (in particular something that has existed), but ot does it in an extremely inefficient whackadoodle way. Hell it can’t even do a simple web page (not even a whole site) without going insane on the amount of div containers it makes. I remember once it made 5 div containers for what was easily possible to do by just changing width=400px instead of 700px instead.
And that’s just HTML and CSS! With a high end model!
And you think is a good idea to let it touch something that requires security and slimness???
Using it is like fixing a car engine by strappimg on another car engine to the hood of the car and connecting from there. Yeah the car runs now but…
Did Andy Yen do something stupid again? I think I’m out of the loop.
EDIT: Just saw it. Ugh. Why can’t we just have nice things not run by jerks?
This time at least was just tech bro AI crap, not fascism crap. Progress??
I had already made up my mind when he called trump’s administration something like “the people’s party”. I’ve been a client since forever, renewing every 2 years during sales, but not this time.
And now reading more about what kind of person he is, ultra capitalist boss talking about “loser” mentality… What a cunt. Reminds me of musk
company’s security Slack channel urged Proton to at least take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live. “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” Yen wrote in the channel at the end of August. “Stop thinking always of how to be slower, and focus more on how to be faster.” Yen added, “stop lovingly handcrafting all our code and use AI more.”
I just finished a long process of degoogling. Don’t tell me I have to deproton now. Ugh.
I was going to use them to de-Google.
Then he did stupid shit and I passed on going proton.
Then I considered:
If I'm going to de-google, just to throw all my shit on another company I have no control over, what in the fuck is the point?Host your own for what you can/want to.
Seperate the things you don’t wish to self host and put them with companies you like for the time being.
If one of them becomes awful, you’re only moving one service.
Self hosting is down the line for me, for sure.
I literally just started the process of Google -> Proton, so I feel you. In terms of personal privacy it’s a step in the right direction…I’m not going to self host or anything too complicated so I think that’s the balance for now. Glad others are able to put some pressure on them to do better though!
Fuck Proton!
“Unfortunately for me, my subscription just renewed last month on a multi year plan, but it does give me time to browse for and experiment with alternatives.”
I walked away from a 2 year proton subscription after using them for only 6 months
Proton are why I would never sign up to a vpn subscription ever again.
Hah! Did cancel early in the day before finding this. I was a bit more blunt about reason: “Your psycho CEO”. Found ‘tutamail’ that seems to do what I need (backup email basically if my server is out) and luckily didn’t have anything on proton yet.
They must have gotten so many of these.
I also cited their insane CEO in my cancelation.
I’ve deleted my Proton account 2 years ago with the reason “I’ll self-host from now, but I might return one day.” … I’m tempted to re-register, and delete my account again with the reason “No, I really won’t”.
I cancelled it, but unfortunately I pre-paid for 2 years and there’s still a long way to go.
Same boat, but at least they’re getting the message.
What should I use instead of Proton for email?
Tuta seems pretty based.
TBF, i haven’t looked in a few years, i don’t send a lot of emails, and virtually none of it is private.
Literally any centralized service that advertises privacy is either a honeypot or it’s going to become one eventually, as soon as the feds knock on the door of whoever hosts it.
Italy had Autistici/Inventati and Trump decided to declare them a terrorist organization and to threaten debanking. That’s what happens to anyone who doesn’t comply with the surveillance state. And apparently Trump has extrajudicial power over vassal states because why not? The entire world is a LARP. People have morals and values and ethics right up until Visa and Mastercard say “no”; then they’re revealed for who they always were…
Infomaniak - ikmail really happy with it
I have less of an issue with his desire for more AI use at the company than I do for the whole “you are an idiot if you disagree with me” vibe and making everyone re-interview, seemingly for a job they already have and have been doing successfully up to this point. That sort of way of managing and doing business is just immature and childish.
Since my multi-year membership isn’t up for another year I am not planning to completely pull out yet. But the CEOs actions have put a stop to my willingness to further entrench myself in their offerings for now. When renewal time gets closer I will decide if I want to walk away completely or keep the mail and calendar services and pull back on the service plan I do end up renewing.
