OG title: We need to talk… about the Proton ecosystem
Ecosystem is a trap. It lures you in with the promise of convenience, only to lock you inside a walled garden. Like Google and Apple. They start with a good product, but then force you to use the whole suite to get the full experience. This is dangerous.
Ecosystems are concentrating all of your data and your digital life in the hands of a single entity. An entity that grows so large and powerful that it will start making compromises against your rights only to find more ways to profit or protect their business. The larger the ecosystem, the bigger data harvester it becomes. It becomes a bigger target for hackers and the more products it offers the more data it has to give to the surveillance state.
We know that the big tech does this, because their only moral value is the shareholder value. [4] But when a private company starts quacking like a duck in the steps of the big tech, it should worry us the same way. That company is Proton. The maker of the most renowned privacy products that have always been meant as ethical alternatives to the big tech.
Today, Proton resembles more and more the ecosystems of Google and Apple than it does its noble origins of fighting the big tech. This is a problem. It’s a problem for your privacy and it’s a problem for the whole community. But you probably never of heard of this perspective, because none of this is talked about enough. There is a reason for this.
You see, most content on Proton you’ll find, is coming from sources that are sponsored or affiliated with Proton. And I know how lucrative Proton’s deals are, because Proton even tried to pay me. Of course, I refused their offer, because taking their money would incentivize me not to recommend against Proton products. I am uniquely positioned to give you a nuanced critique of Proton and how to solve this problem.
Some good points to be said. I find the overall argument a bit weak as it is mainly one of user erorr of sorts. Btw THO has some pretty good back log of videos on privacy; check out their stuff on burners phones and anonymizing yourself at a protest.
They’ve been known to respond to legal requests to log IP adresses of the users of their VPN. I wouldn’t trust them.
No matter what any company says if they get an order to log a user’s up they’re following it.
i stopped trusting them when their ceo voiced support for trump.
Andy Yen (the CEO) supported one single choice trump made, because he felt it would be good for little tech and bad for big tech. He never stated he supported trump or even the republican party as a whole. The whole thing got blown out of the water by redditors attacking the comment with no regard to context because every single thing a republican (and especially trump) does has to be evil, even if it’s good for us. Ignoring the fact that Proton has publicly criticized trump on a number of occasions and donates millions to liberal organizations.
Here’s a great analysis made with sources and reasoning provided throughout the whole thing, with the author ultimately concluding that they believe Andy is far more likely to be a liberal than pro-trump or MAGA. Again, with actual sources and reasoning rather than one context-less tweet.