Proton

Didn't the CEO of Proton lick the Trump boot recently?

yet another reason to use mastodon, because they can't control it yet.

Can you even use Reddit if you’re running Proton’s VPN? I know Reddit has been actively blocking other VPNs (eg Mullvad) for some time.

I was an apologist for Proton during the whole Andy Yen commentary mess, but this is a really sus choice for Proton to be making.

All that matters under capitalism is growth. I wonder if the thinking here is that Proton has already captured all the geek/privacy enthusiast crowd that it's going to, and Andy Yen's social fuck-up basically killed any future expansion in that space, so this is part of a pivot to new markets and abandonment of areas they know they aren't going to win back.

If so, I'd expect to see Proton making expanded ad buys targeting preppers, libertarians, sov-cit types and other "I'm being watched!!" kooks.

Looks like I'm leaving Proton. Fucking hell, not even a year ago I migrated from Gmail

On Mastodon, Proton is held to a higher standard. That’s why they left for the dumb masses instead.

Makes me glad that I procrastinated on switching over, I guess I’ll just ride out my current NordVPN subscription and switch over to Mullvad?

Almost makes me afraid to ask the community, what exactly is wrong with Nord? 😅

It's as if with each passing day, Proton wakes up and chooses to wear a slightly different red flag for a cape than the one they wore yesterday. I'm obviously being hyperbolic here, but I'm also a bit upset with myself for having decided to get an annual subscription with them last November.

I've heard good things about Mullvad for VPN and Tuta for mail. I've got my own domain that I can start using with whatever mail host I land on.

I'm in the U.S. What other mail providers are people using, and what other VPN providers should I be considering?

I wish VPS providers didn't commonly block email ports. Self hosting seems like the only way to stay in control

I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I'm kinda done with them. Anyone have any suggestions for a mail provider? I'm not yet willing to self-host that.

Funny how they didn’t make actual post on Mastodon, but just silently edited their profile to say they left Mastodon? That’s pretty cowardly.

Yet another reason to not like Proton.

Honest, stupid question: Why exactly is this such a big deal to so many of you? (I don't use Mastodon.)

This ain't a fucking airport

Guess I made the right choice to leave Proton.

If you're looking to shake up your email provider in the wake of this, I highly recommend getting a custom domain name, whatever provider you choose. Cloudflare sells domains at cost. Get a not-embarrasing .com of your own, and then you can move email providers in future without losing continuity. Proton allows exporting .eml files, which you can then import into your next provider. Or just keep in cold storage and declare email bankruptcy. Once you have a custom domain, you can use unique emails for all your services by setting up a catchall address. This will at least impede credential stuffing attacks, and let you know who sold/leaked your address if you do get spam.

I personally left Proton a month or so ago after the last bit of drama, in part out of principle, but also because their offering is just really expensive for my use case: I just want email, on a budget, with reasonable privacy. Plus I was tired of not having IMAP support and being locked into their clients. Moved to a Zoho business account (for now) and have been happy for the $12/yr. I already had a domain name, but they typically run <$20/year too.