Proton is transitioning towards a non-profit structure | Proton
proton.me
To ensure our mission always comes first, Proton is transitioning to a non-profit structure and formalizing our promise of people before profits.
  • sasquashEnglish
    107·
    5 months ago

    wow this is very good news. I always feared that at some point some billionaire ass will buy Proton. That will be impossible now.

  • Zachariah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    96·
    5 months ago

    Proton’s mission has always been unique. Most companies are created to be sold, and they achieve that by placing profit above all other considerations. For most businesses providing “services” to the masses, the easiest way to profit has been to misuse user data and engage in surveillance capitalism to the detriment of society and democracy. At Proton, we have intentionally taken a different path to achieve a more difficult mission. We want to remake the internet in a way that is private by default and serves the interests of all of society, not just the interests of a few Silicon Valley tech giants. In short, we want to create an internet that is able and willing to defend freedom, no matter the cost.

  • Zozano@lemy.lolEnglish
    691·
    5 months ago

    Andy is my hero. He wanted to create an ecosystem to rival Microsoft and Google, without their bullshit.

    Since conception, his mission statement was to work for the people who supported Proton’s dream, and now he’s ensuring that dream doesn’t get fucked with by people with bad incentives.

    LEGEND

  • SorteKanin@feddit.dkEnglish
    441·
    5 months ago

    This is amazing news. I’ve been thinking about switching to Proton for a while now. Think this may just be the drop that makes me do it.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.worldEnglish
      23·
      5 months ago

      Swapped to their mail from Google finally about a year ago, it was a pain in the ass, but have been slowly removing myself from the google ecosystem.

      • Veraxus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        5 months ago

        Exactly the same here. It’s not perfect… it’s slow, it doesn’t work with your mobile mail client… but it’s better than the supervillain levels of evil that Google is pushing out.

            • maruudn@lemm.eeEnglish
              6·
              5 months ago

              Ah I guess I didn’t think of that use case, it being the Proton app. I think I read somewhere it’s possible with the Windows client, through their Bridge software. I haven’t had the need to use the Proton client for other email accounts personally.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nzEnglish
    431·
    5 months ago

    Most companies try to earn community trust through words but proton put it all out on the table.

  • sigmaklimgrindsetEnglish
    11·
    5 months ago

    The comments here and technology community on lemmy.ml vs the ones that on the technology at lemmy.world thread sure were an interesting contrast when it was first posted…

    But anyways, this is great news.

  • Jungle George 🌴@lemmy.worldEnglish
    155·
    5 months ago

    What Mozilla should’ve been.

    An organisation with products people want to pay for. Instead they ended up as a shill for Google with a CEO more concerned about her paycheck than actually making good products 😞

    • piracysails@lemm.eeEnglish
      22·
      5 months ago

      You mean 3-4 million for a non profit CEO are too much?

      Think about her constant worrying about users not donating enough for her goal of constant raises without offering any actual value…

      If we all donate 20% of our monthly salary to Mozilla by the next year she could reach 5m.

  • nycki@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    5 months ago

    If they enable IMAP for all accounts that’d be awesome. I’ve been reluctant to use their mail system in case it just becomes another lock-in.

    • piracysails@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      5 months ago

      Yes, not being enable to integrate with the system both Linux and Android is what is bothering me the most.

      • SunRed@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        But isn’t this exactly what the Protonmail bridge is for? I don’t use Proton myself (self-hosted Mailcow) but afaik Imap doesn’t support public keys/PGP the way Proton is using it, hence one needs the bridge to use normal Imap clients like Thunderbird.

        • piracysails@lemm.eeEnglish
          4·
          5 months ago

          Sure, but this is only for mail, not even calendar. Also, they do not push on flatpak which limits availability.

          Contacts cannot be synced on Android. Drive is nonexistent on Linux and I do not think it is a work in progress project yet. Drive cannot sync folders on Android either.

          These are basic features…

      • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        72·
        5 months ago

        Their customer service is trash to begin with. Took em days to reply to my email saying I wasn’t able to log in to my account cause it said it didn’t exist, then I tried to make an account with the same username and it said it was already taken. Both can’t be true. Their reply was literally, ticket has been closed please email again if you still need help.

      • PlexSheep@infosec.pubEnglish
        42·
        5 months ago

        Features. Their Mail doesn’t work for me because I want SMTP and IMAP. Their cloud storage does not do Linux and can’t be automated, their applications just seem rushed

          • PlexSheep@infosec.pubEnglish
            2·
            5 months ago

            *encrypt

            That is wrong. STARTLS exists, besides imaps and smtps are a thing. I don’t see any reason to do the weird bridge thing.

            Bridge exists and works on a desktop but IMO it just does not make sense to add a proxy server running in my own device. Besides, I cannot use it (properly) on headless devices, especially with virtualization. Using a proper mobile client is completely not an option for mobile devices.

            Community versions of bridge exist, but none are officially supported. I could change the source of the original bridge to host it on my server (not just on the loopback interface, which is literally hardcoded).

            Besides, there is no calendar or contacts sync. Birthdays don’t get added to the calendar. Many more things. Their ideals are admirable, their email hosting just works for what features they offer (even custom domain), but it does not adhere to standard email stuff and features you find literally everywhere. For some users that may be okay but I decided its not okay for me.

              • PlexSheep@infosec.pubEnglish
                1·
                5 months ago

                Okay, I that makes sense, but still IMAP and SMTP are the standard. At least let me self host bridge on my server.

                The only real solution would be PGP, but that has a pretty bad usability.

  • menas@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    422·
    5 months ago

    Well, It wold be reassuring if they would say at least “sorry” for giving IP address of eco-activists to the french intelligence. If only they earn money, but they did it for free. It’s an improvement, but it’s still not enough