Does Proton really support Trump? A deeper analysis (and surprising findings)
Does Proton really support Trump? A deeper analysis (and surprising findings)
I've seen this posted a couple of times in comments, it seems like a reasonable investigation in to the recent shit storm
I usually actively avoid engaging in anything to do with US politics as it's pointless getting depressed by an awful situation I have zero control over; this post is not about fueling arguments or making us all feel worse, just determining if a useful tech company has gone to shit (TL;DR: probably not).
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It's important to note two things:
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Even if he doesn't matter, or hell, commented in favor of the other political party. As a company that represents itself as politically neutral fails to do so when the head of company uses official company account to be political.
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It is important to note. They are not private and secure. For example, they have handed info to to authorities before. Meaning they broke the 2 main reasons to be with them.
Complying with government data requests is NOT the same as collecting information for profit. A company cannot just decide to not comply with the local laws where they sell their products, or else they would risk getting banned in that country. Proton just like signal or any secure service will have to provide all of the requested info they have on you when demanded to. The point of using Proton and other secure services is that the actual important information (contents of your emails, drive elements, etc.) are encrypted, so even if they give the information, it will be useless. Proton isn't sold as an anonymity service, but as a secure one. I've seen this whole debate and from the beginning it's been stupid and uninformed takes that criticize just to criticize without any understanding of how being present in a foreign market works
Complying with government data requests is NOT the same as collecting information for profit. A company cannot just decide to not comply with the local laws where they sell their products...
This is technically true, but... The privacy oriented person will drift towards products that cannot violate their privacy. Or, if that is not possible, towards products that push back against orders that are unlawful or unethical.
When Andy Yen and Proton Official published their multiple social media comments, this looked dangerously close to signaling fealty to a foreign government, which is not something I am interested in seeing.
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