Andy Yen’s values are incompatible with Proton’s mission. He advocates for poor security practices, supports fascists, and he verbally abuses his subordinates. As such, I can no longer in good conscience continue to financially support a company with such terrible leadership.
Unfortunately for me, my subscription just renewed last month on a multi year plan, but it does give me time to browse for and experiment with alternatives.
If you’re able, I encourage you to do the same and cite Andy Yen as the driving factor for your decision. We can’t let these tech bro fascists destroy what little semblance of privacy we have left.
Did Andy Yen do something stupid again? I think I’m out of the loop.
EDIT: Just saw it. Ugh. Why can’t we just have nice things not run by jerks?
I just finished a long process of degoogling. Don’t tell me I have to deproton now. Ugh.
I keep seeing folks mention that at least it is a good and secure service why should I leave? this should be why: via: https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton, had a message for an employee in the company’s security Slack channel who urged the company to at least take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live. “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” Yen wrote in the channel at the end of August. “Stop thinking always of how to be slower, and focus more on how to be faster.”
His values have been incompatible with Proton’s mission for some years now. Proton hasn’t deviated from their mission however so I’m fine using their products until they do.
I incidentally agree with the guy that handwritten code is practically obsolete in this age of llms. Typewriters and hard copy markups are also practically obsolete in the age of word processors yet some of the best and most prolific writers use them exclusively.
Give people options and let them choose what works for them. So many CEOs have a hard time with this concept.
I had already made my mind when he called trump’s administration something like “the people’s party”. I’ve been a client since forever, renewing every 2 years during sales, but not this time.
And now reading more about what kind of person he is, ultra capitalist boss talking about “loser” mentality… What a cunt. Reminds me of musk
company’s security Slack channel urged Proton to at least take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live. “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” Yen wrote in the channel at the end of August. “Stop thinking always of how to be slower, and focus more on how to be faster.” Yen added, “stop lovingly handcrafting all our code and use AI more.”
“Unfortunately for me, my subscription just renewed last month on a multi year plan, but it does give me time to browse for and experiment with alternatives.”
I walked away from a 2 year proton subscription after using them for only 6 months
Proton are why I would never sign up to a vpn subscription ever again.
Hah! Did cancel early in the day before finding this. I was a bit more blunt about reason: “Your psycho CEO”. Found ‘tutamail’ that seems to do what I need (backup email basically if my server is out) and luckily didn’t have anything on proton yet.
They must have gotten so many of these.
I also cited their insane CEO in my cancelation.
I’ve deleted my Proton account 2 years ago with the reason “I’ll self-host from now, but I might return one day.” … I’m tempted to re-register, and delete my account again with the reason “No, I really won’t”.
I cancelled it, but unfortunately I pre-paid for 2 years and there’s still a long way to go.
Same boat, but at least they’re getting the message.
What should I use instead of Proton for email?
Literally any centralized service that advertises privacy is either a honeypot or it’s going to become one eventually, as soon as the feds knock on the door of whoever hosts it.
Italy had Autistici/Inventati and Trump decided to declare them a terrorist organization and to threaten debanking. That’s what happens to anyone who doesn’t comply with the surveillance state. And apparently Trump has extrajudicial power over vassal states because why not? The entire world is a LARP. People have morals and values and ethics right up until Visa and Mastercard say “no”; then they’re revealed for who they always were…
Infomaniak - ikmail really happy with it
I have less of an issue with his desire for more AI use at the company than I do for the whole “you are an idiot if you disagree with me” vibe and making everyone re-interview, seemingly for a job they already have and have been doing successfully up to this point. That sort of way of managing and doing business is just immature and childish.
Since my multi-year membership isn’t up for another year I am not planning to completely pull out yet. But the CEOs actions have put a stop to my willingness to further entrench myself in their offerings for now. When renewal time gets closer I will decide if I want to walk away completely or keep the mail and calendar services and pull back on the service plan I do end up renewing.
Personally, I will stick with Proton for now because they are the least fascist option I have found for my use case that suits my standards of security. As such, I would not consider myself able to cancel my subscription.
But I do deeply dislike their CEO, Andy Yen, and will send a complaint regarding his conduct and recommending his removal. He is a danger to his own company’s mission and to Proton’s user base.
I agree with everything you said in this post. I will add that:
- Proton’s insistence on using Electron applications for their “standalone” apps is a major issue as well.
- I recommend using LibreOffice instead of their rather trashy office suite.
- Lumo also needs to go. Ethical software cannot be developed with—or in support of—LLMs.
Yea it’s a swamp. Mullvad’s co-founder Daniel Berntsson is a fasch blockhead too.
I’m leaving protonvpn and thinking about a local VPN provider. Non profit, more expensive, only one country (the provider’s).
Which won’t fit most people’s needs, but for me it’s 99% of what I need.
Also I hope being a small organization the IPs won’t be blacklisted as much. Using a VPN full time in the last 2 years has become increasingly annoying.
My fallback was Mullvad, but yeah not really an option anymore. I’ve used Azire, much smaller but kinda similar, it worked ok. Could go back. I’m open to suggestions
Does this count or is was this too aggressive? I’ve been known to be a little too angry when it comes to things like this.
It feels pretty balanced, to me. Nicely done.
On line 4 you opened quotation marks at ‘"re-interviewing’ but never closed them. For that reason, I am afraid it is a failure and must be re-written.
Ahh shit
If anything, it’s not aggressive enough! Everyone is so apathetic about everything compared to 20-30 years ago. Between the rise of Fascism and the cost of living, life has never been shitter yet no one seems to give a fuck. Why aren’t we rioting and revolting until shit stops sucking so god damn much!? Where is everyone’s passion!?
I’ve been on this planet for four decades. It used to not be this way! People used to care! Now it seems like all of society has become emotional zombies, and if you dare to step out of line and speak up about some injustice, you get labeled as “crashing out”. It’s such fucking bullshit! I’m not crashing out; I’m pissed the fuck off that the world is run by evil men and no one is doing anything about it!
Oh I like you
I agree. However, I think the best ways to fix Proton are to send endless complaints until Yen is removed or to establish better competition with stronger morals.
Never trusted Proton and was getting a lot of criticism whenever I mentioned it. Glad I trusted my instincts.
Yea, the amount of people that were sucking off proton when the mullvad shit hit the fan a couple months back was insane. Apparently proton’s brand of fascist leadership is fine. If you tried to point it out, you were brigaded with proton fans trying to “debunk” you.
Tell me about alternatives that are less dependant on fossil energy sources.
posteo
I almost went with them, only issue last time i checked you couldn’t use your own domain name.
They had good reasons, something to do with German law, but for some it’s a dealbreaker.
