Leaving Proton Mail

25 pointsposted 6 hours ago
by speckx

20 Comments

hnaw

3 hours ago

This article is clearly written by someone who doesn't understand how encryption works.

> What happens if I log out of all my proton accounts, travel to the other side of the globe, walk into the first library or internet café I find, and log on to mail.proton.me with my username and password?

The keys are encrypted to your password, that's how you can access your data maintaining E2EE.

j_leboulanger

3 hours ago

That's exactly what I was telling myself, this guy doesn ot understand a word about encryption

qwerpy

3 hours ago

Don't be fooled by the technical-sounding article that leads with software/licensing/product-related rationale but buries the real reason:

> After one too many PR scandals though, there was one that I just can't stomach as well as the rest. Which is... The CEO being a Trump man.

These are starting to pop up on HN (another example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49585161). Outright political posts get flagged here so the new tactic looks to be pretending to make a decision for technical reasons.

JuniperMesos

2 hours ago

I was disappointed to learn that the article from 404 media about a "Proposed Nuclear AI Data Center" in Ypsilanti, Michigan wasn't actually a data center with an on-site nuclear power generator, just one that Los Alamos is partially funding and will use. Anyway I think the concerns of everyone opposed to data center construction in Ypsilanti mentioned in that article are stupid, I consider 404 media to be poltically hostile to my interests for writing about it with that editorial stance; and certainly linking to it doesn't make me more inclined to view Protonmail unfavorably.

Citizen_Lame

2 hours ago

Is this satire, it's hard to tell these days on the Interweb? Or are you simply thick as a brick? Very confusing.

Gangway0829

2 hours ago

Can you elaborate on why you think the OP is incorrect? The hit piece on the Ypstilanti data center is quite an embarrassment for any honest news reporter.

tamimio

6 minutes ago

Here’s some shocking facts: emails aren’t anonymous as a protocol, neither private too, stop trying to find an email like that. VPN as the commercial service isn’t anonymous either, there’s always a “trust us” factor, and in this ever changing world, your policy should be always zero trust. Neither proton, nor mullvad, nor signal, none of these popular platforms provide the anonymity and even the privacy you are expecting. If the protocol itself wasn’t designed with anonymity, privacy, and security in mind, everything follows is just marketing and maybe worse, a honeypot.

LennyHenrysNuts

2 hours ago

There was me, scanning away trying to find actual technical reasons and then...

Bang. It's political.

Opinion discarded.

3stacks

an hour ago

An additional factor for me leaving was the board member (Rosemary Leith) who was part of the WEF. It seems to me that Proton has been co-opted

sosodev

2 hours ago

Maybe Proton’s copy needs some work, but another page on their website very clearly explains that emails aren’t encrypted when an email leave the ecosystem. Because, as the author points out, they can’t be.

Also, I hate Trump too, but a broken clock is right twice a day. It’s possible to agree with some of the things he says while not being a “Trump man”. Why should we be surprised that the company founded on anti big-tech principles would have a founder who is against big-tech?

I think too that the only way to escape AI-written code in software products is to have written every line yourself. Which is obviously impossible because you’re not going to bootstrap the operating system.

anramon

35 minutes ago

Slop article for justifying sloppy political stances.

metalman

3 hours ago

There was a brief moment when the Proton CEO published a whole self agrandizing article with pics of himself and the wifey and what selfless people they are, and how she had her own identity and everything, that and all about the servers sitting inside the swiss alps underground, but hey it was free, still is a free add for email services with an almost completely non functional email service behind the adds. I still use it for certain technical things, but it's broken for everday use in the free version The whole thing has the hink, hink with grue, almost like it's google with a different skin. I now have my own web space and email, which is half broken right now, but that suits me as whatever does get through is more work and other time consuming stuff than I can handle

pogue

3 hours ago

What specifically is broken?

claaams

6 hours ago

Disappointing. I'll need to find an alternative. I was hellbent on leaving google so I didn't care where I went.

aryonoco

3 hours ago

Moved from Proton to Fastmail a couple of years ago and couldn’t be happier.

3stacks

an hour ago

I also made this switch a year ago, in part because I'm Australian and so is Fastmail. I miss some of the Proton bells and whistles, and my visionary plan had some great inclusions, but Fastmail is great. I just use the web app on my graphene phone and it works fine

Sath52

6 hours ago

Honestly, the older the email service, the better. Drop Proton Mail.

d3Xt3r

6 hours ago

> The CEO being a T***p man

That's really all you need to know. If you can't trust the CEO (who is also the founder btw), you can't trust his crew. If you can't trust the crew, you can't trust their products.

That's all there is to it. If you're still using Proton products, you're basically admitting that you're a T***p supporter.

bbg2401

3 hours ago

That’s really not how personal endorsement works.