this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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It's also worth pointing out the fact that they offer free services; most likely, your data is their real product. That's to be expected with, say, a social media platform, but a VPN? That is a HUGE security threat. I'm just waiting for the proton security leak. The amount of sketchy data will be choice.
Proton's revenue comes from paid subscriptions.
They still offer free services, though.
It makes sense to if they want their encrypted email magic to be useful. A paid user can instruct a contact to make a free proton mail account in order to have secure communication with them
Payed for by subscriptions. Protons free offerings (namely, the VPN) are severely crippled. The free tier VPN is almost trial like to sell you on the full product. I also haven't seen any of those youtuber sponsored -95% off deals other VPN providers have. Proton's pricing isn't exactly cheap which signals they do sell it at actual market rate instead of offering a cheap service which may or may not be subsidized by selling your data.
Nah, fair. Just based on the way Venezuelans described it to me, it seemed ubiquitous on the free end. I'm probably biased. I have no idea what their consumer demographics are, especially outside of the US.
No. They're a non profit with a specific mission to further the enhancement of provacy. Under Swiss law they're legally obligated to adhere to this. Which means they can't collect user data willy nilly and sell it.
Also, it wouldn't make sense for a non-profit organization to profit from selling user data.
I worked for multiple non-profits that made a profit. That's not how this works. It's not the function, it's the cost.
The bottom line is that Proton does not collect your data to sell it for profit.
Why wouldn't they? Especially after the lasafare opinions expressed by their CEO.
They legally can't. Period.
Non-profits make profit all the time. The key difference between a for-profit and a non-profit is that a for-profit company takes that money and gives it to its owners, and a non-profit is legally required to reinvest that money in its organization or missions.
Of course, non-profits can also do shitty things like nepo hires with vastly inflated salaries, throw parties and extravagant galas for "fundraising" and spent almost nothing on the charity aspect.
This is why lots of rich fucks setup their own "philanthropy" organizations. They can dump their wealth into tax free and pay themselves and their heirs ungodly sums while paying for villas/jets/etc from the untaxed non-profit.
Switzerland is not the us though
Correct? Those two are indeed separate countries with separate laws.
My explanation of the above was just a general breakdown about how nonprofit and for-profits differ. It was certainly US centric, if that's your critique.
How about you go read about the foundation before making any judgements.
https://proton.me/foundation
I'm well aware of the foundation, and the fact that they have left him on the board with zero consequences or controls.
Stating your ethics and then not enforcing them makes the statement pointless.
If your want to be hard headed about this, that's your problem.
Yan isn't the only guy on the board of directors. The others are pretty fucking credible and knowledgeable people on the topic of privacy. They all make the decisions togetherness. And im pretty certain they'll have the last word and steer Proton in the right direction.
And again, no, it's not because they have a free tier that they'll collect and sell your private information. That goes against the core value of Proton and its directors.
Is it only me or is there some bandwagon effect on Proton hate these days?
I get it that everyone, me included, thought that sucking up to donald is a shit move, but that's about it. Proton is good.
Totally. People are exaggerating. Proton really is a good service and the only real answer to Google where you have everything under one account.
"State your ethics and then stand by them" is being hard headed?
When the above is a bar too high for you to reach, that's a you problem, mate.
You said
Explain to me what ethics did they not enforce?
Hint: none.