Summary

Proton Mail, known for its privacy-first email services, faced backlash after CEO Andy Yen praised the Republican Party and its antitrust stance.

The company initially posted and deleted a statement supporting Yen’s comments, later claiming an “internal miscommunication” and reiterating its political neutrality.

Critics question Proton’s impartiality, particularly as it cooperates with Swiss authorities on legal data requests.

Privacy advocates warn that political alignments could undermine trust, especially for Proton’s users—journalists and activists wary of government surveillance under administrations like Trump’s.

  • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    Yep, I moved to tuta the day Andy decided to out himself as a MAGA dipshit. The only way I’d go back is if he resigns or gets forced out. At the absolute minimum Andy Yen has shown extremely poor judgement in claiming Republicans are the party concerned with people’s digital rights. That tells me he fundamentally does not know what he’s talking about, and I do not trust Proton under his leadership anymore.

    As a side note, If anyone’s looking for a VPN alternative, I highly recommend Mullvad.

      • blakenong@lemmings.world
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        2 days ago

        If your goal is basic mail, with standard features, Tuta is great. The free option is more than enough for an anonymous email.

        If you want to pay a little you can move your domain over and get a bunch more features.

        If you appreciate a simple interface, Tuta will be perfect. They have apps for desktops and phones as well as web.

      • Been using the free tier of Tuta for years now with zero issues. The only thing is they delete your account after 6 months of not logging in (the timer resets every time you log in). Pretty sure that only applies to the free tier, though.

      • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
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        2 days ago

        It seems like a good alternative but I honestly haven’t used it enough over the last two weeks to feel comfortable recommending it to people yet. Sorry I can’t be more helpful, but there’s a free tier so there’s no downside in giving Tuta a shot for a bit.

      • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
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        2 days ago

        Commenting so I can come back to this because hell if I’m going to remember to check it if I just save the comment.

        Thank you for your assistance on the matter.

    • Skabby73@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Same. It’s little more difficult to say goodbye to simplelogin when my partner and I have like 150+ aliases and the subdomain use is SO convenient. Trying to eventually move the family to Addy.IO

      • FirstCircle@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        I just signed up for the cheapest paid Addy plan and so far I’m very impressed, especially since it seems to be a one-man show. The docs are good which has been a huge help, and the user dashboard website is easy to grok.

    • sudneo@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      He didn’t say that though, he thinks Republicans are the party more likely to fight for “small tech” against big tech in the antitrust space. You can still consider this bad judgment but it’s purely an opinion that he motivated from his point of view with a few data points.

      Digital rights are an indirect benefit that may derive for breaking big tech monopolies, but nothing was mentioned.

      Edit: for those downvoting, this is factual. Just go check the tweet and the reddit comments he did. If you want to be pissed at someone at least choose what that person did or said.