this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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Privacy

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Copied from the reddit post:

Hi all, last night, a post from last year from my personal X account suddenly became a topic of discussion here on Reddit. I want to share a few thoughts on this to provide clarity to the community on what is Proton's policy on politics going forward.

First, while the X post was not intended to be a political statement, I can understand how it can be interpreted as such, and it therefore should not have been made. While we will not prohibit all employees from expressing personal political opinions publicly, it is something I will personally avoid in the future. I lean left on some issues, and right on other issues, but it doesn't serve our mission to publicly debate this. It should be obvious, but I will say that it is a false equivalence to say that agreeing with Republicans on one specific issue (antitrust enforcement to protect small companies) is equal to endorsing the entire Republican party platform.

Second, officially Proton must always be politically neutral, and while we may share facts and analysis, our policy going forward will be to share no opinions of a political nature. The line between facts, analysis, and opinions can be blurry at times, but we will seek to better clarify this over time through your feedback and input.

The exception to these rules is on the topics of privacy, security, and freedom. These are necessarily political topics, where influencing public policy to defend these values, often requires engaging politically.

The operations of Proton have always reflected our neutrality. For example, recently we refused pressure to deplatform both Palestinian student groups and Zionist student groups, not because we necessarily agreed with their views, but because we believe more strongly in their right to have their own views.

It is also a legal guarantee under Swiss law, which explicitly prohibits us from assisting foreign governments or agencies, and allows us no discretion to show favoritism as Swiss law and Swiss courts have the final say.

The promise we make is that no matter your politics, you will always be welcome at Proton (subject of course to adherence to our terms and conditions). When it comes to defending your right to privacy, Proton will show no favoritism or bias, and will unconditionally defend it irrespective of the opinions you may hold.

This is because both Proton as a company, and Proton as a community, is highly diverse, with people that hold a wide range of opinions and perspectives. It's important that we not lose sight of nuance. Agreeing/disagreeing with somebody on one point, rarely means you agree/disagree with them on every other point.

I would like to believe that as a community there is more that unites us than divides us, and that privacy and freedom are universal values that we can all agree upon. This continues to be the mission of the non-profit Proton Foundation, and we will strive to carry it out as neutrally as possible.

Going forward, I will be posting via u/andy1011000. Thank you for your feedback and inputs so far, and we look forward to continuing the conversation.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago

Assuming Andy Chen isn’t American, this is understandable:

“It should be obvious, but I will say that it is a false equivalence to say that agreeing with Republicans on one specific issue (antitrust enforcement to protect small companies) is equal to endorsing the entire Republican party platform.”

But it’s extremely tone deaf to Americans who live within the two party duopoly in the US, and who are sensitive to the fact that you can’t really be a compromise between the two (as politics stand, currently)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

So, we just believe that Proton, being buddy-buddy with Trump, isn't going to turn around, and stab us in the backs?

Call me "skeptical".

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 hours ago

"Here at Proton, we believe that all life is sacred, thats why we gave the IP addresses of pregnant teens who are planning to get an abortion"

(even compiling the user client yourself won't protect against IP logging, also, external emails arrive at proton servers in plain text)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

proton is cia
proton is cia

it's modern crypto AG

[–] [email protected] 18 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Literally none of this matters and its all just noise. American politics and Americans themselves are insane.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

a post from last year from my personal X account suddenly became a topic of discussion here on Reddit.

You mean last month right.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 13 hours ago

this is the most "i think my userbase are idiots" statement anybody could make. like do you think we dont know how time works andy? fuck you

[–] [email protected] 16 points 17 hours ago

Yeah, last year, 2024. Stupid way of intentionally phrasing it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 16 hours ago

Yeah, I pay for Proton to try it out. I was liking it but this guy bending the knee to someone like trump is a huge red flag. I won't be renewing my subscription!

[–] [email protected] 43 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

we refused pressure to deplatform both Palestinian student groups and Zionist student groups

Insane equivocation. One of those is a national and ethnic group; the other is a political movement whose pet project is currently on trial for genocide... "we refused pressure to deplatform both Jewish student groups and National Socialist student groups"

[–] [email protected] 9 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I think that's the entire point of the comment. They are impartial even to evil. They respect privacy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 hours ago

Impartial to evil is... Well, just evil.

If I walk past a person beheading 3 people who have done nothing wrong, and am able to in fact stop it, and don't... I'm just as fucking evil as the guy doing the beheading.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 13 hours ago

i agree with you, but the company has now invited scrutiny openly by allowing a) andy to make this tweet (personal accout or no) and b) andy to make a follow up statement using the proton reddit account. people have a distaste now, so expect to see everything you say and do to be overanalyised.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 14 hours ago

“we refused pressure to deplatform both Jewish student groups and National Socialist student groups”

They are a Swiss company, yes.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

He should not have @'d Trump. By doing this he is explicitly calling for the incoming administration's attention and signalling he's willing to play ball and bend the knee. Also nice try at obfuscation saying the tweet was from last year, jackass.

Additionally the company account doubled down on his messaging. I think dems suck too, but both sides are not the same. What kind of Swiss crack are they smoking to be able to pretend that the administration that created permanent tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, that I subsidize with my tax dollars, is a friend of the little guy? Or how about the administration that seated the court that bulldozed the right to privacy, while state courts pass censorship laws under the guise of child protections?

The guy is talking out both sides of his face and he's an asshole. While I don't think this is indicative of Proton's services per se I am no longer a paying customer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

IDC as long as they are not bending their knees to European countries that the EU hasn't yet kicked out. But mainly I don't care because I'm not American.

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