Why are we linking to 3rd party articles with no sources rather than just the horse's mouth?
this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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Technology
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Do we like Proton? I never know which VPN company I can truly trust.
They're increasingly divisive I'd say. For me the fact that they rage-quit mastodon after a stint of bad publicity is all I need to know. If they were truly dedicated to a better internet they would be committed to stand up against big tech everywhere, not just wherever there's money to be made from it. I'm migrating away from my proton mail account.
I get my VPN from Surfshark. Not because I necessarily trust them, but because it's cheap and they don't insist on doing anything else than just being my VPN provider. And I trust them more than Proton at this point, anyway.
Don't let me ruin your good time, but my experience with Surf shark:
Used surf shark for about 3 years around pandemic timeframe. Had no complaints (other than it drained my phone battery super fast - didn't test empirically, but seemed somewhat worse than other VPN providers). I was unemployed for a while, so took the opportunity to cut expenses; tried to drop my surf shark subscription. It was a HUGE pain in the butt. I forget the process, but iirc, you had to use their help chat to get the number for cancellations, they kept me on hold for ~10 min, then had a long winded questionnaire ("were required to ask you these questions before proceeding") asking why I was quitting, then made an offer for discounted months before letting me unsubscribe.
Its my understanding regulations have changed such that that's not allowed anymore and also that most VPN can elations are about that bad anyway, but still, wanted to share my experience. Lol, suppose so long as you never quit, you won't have to deal with all that.
Ah, yeah, that sucks. In Europe you can always cancel by just not paying for a subscription, so I've rarely had experiences like this. Only time it happened to me was when I had been stupid enough to have a New York Times subscription (gah) and decided to end it. Huge pain in the ass.
With Surfshark I bought a two-year subscription without automatic renewal, so I get what I paid for and then it's done. But I'm sorry to hear about their bad business practices—it goes well with the overall sleazy look of their website. Hopefully I'll find something better by the time the subscription period is over. :)
Thanks for letting me know! I try to avoid any company that doesn't have open source software as the core of their business strategy, but with VPN that's a bit tricky.
do you have a more current preference/recommendation?
I suspect Mullvad would be a popular choice, but it's quite a bit more expensive. As I rarely use VPN (I hardly every do anything where it's necessary), I'm a bit on the stingy side personally.
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I use Proton because they are no longer a "VPN company". They are slowly rolling out a suite of privacy tools that compete with Google's Workspace (or whatever the hell they're calling it these days).
If you want a "VPN company" I would recommend Mullvad.
If you don’t need port-forwarding, Mullvad is the best choice IMO. Eggs in a basket as well, if you already use other Proton products but don’t want to lock yourself into one vendor for everything.
If you're buying an annual plan, Mozilla resells Mullvad for cheaper. Monthly, buying direct is cheaper.
Also, I assume, but don't have any evidence, that buying from a reseller is a little more private due to separation of billing and services.
If you use Mullvad you get a token instead of an account. It's not linked to any email address. You can then pay directly to this token using crypto. You can even send cash in an envelope. If you use Tor to get a token and pay, you're as private as can be.
The thing however is that VPN providers can always see what IP address is using their service. So however private your account and payment is, in the end you always have to trust the provider that they are not logging IPs.
If you are buying from Mozilla, then both Mozilla and Mullvad have access to information. This means that buying from a reseller is less private by default.
Good idea budget wise. Mullvad doesn’t require any information from you though, except your payment info. And even then, you can pay by cash or crypto if you really want to purchase anonymously.
Not even sure anymore. Ceo recently said Trump is great.
This is not completely fair or true statement - though it is not too far from truth.
Proton Mail has long positioned itself as an apolitical company, dedicated solely to safeguarding user privacy. That’s why many were surprised when CEO Andy Yen posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the political landscape in the U.S. had shifted, stating, “10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys, but today the tables have completely turned.”
This was earlier this year. So sure its up to interpretation.
So... He's an idiot, is what you're saying.
I remember there being a little more to it, but I don't have receipts. They did fairly reasonable PR explanation which lowered my concern a little - but some doubts stayed with me for sure.
I recall him saying he was not american so it doesnt matter what he said. Which annoyed me cause then why open mouth?
That being said its more than understand the ceo is not the only voice in company and it was January 2025 so I may have outdated information if this stance is even relevant.
That quote was the crux of it. IMO Yen was foolishly only looking at the situation through the lens of which party would be less of a barrier to Proton's business and interests in user privacy at that point in time. But the community very harshly (and rightfully so IMO) corrected him with regards to the bigger picture of corruption and cronyism and greed rampant in today's GOP and how shortsighted it would be to trust them at all.
Proton as an org was pretty burned and officially walked it back and said they would refrain from allowing individual staff (CEO included) from making those kind of political statements that could be interpreted as representing the business.
I think that's the right response, because he certainly fucked up. That doesn't make them evil, but it does cause me concern around their awareness of the shifting US legal landscape.
That doesn't make them evil, but it does cause me concern around their awareness of the shifting US legal landscape.
Doesn't make them necessarily evil. But yeah, overall I'd agree with you on it. I'm certainly in my guard since then though.
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Proton Mail has long positioned itself as an apolitical company, dedicated solely to safeguarding user privacy. That’s why many were surprised when [Jan 2025] CEO Andy Yen posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the political landscape in the U.S. had shifted, stating, “10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys, but today the tables have completely turned.”
This statement quickly went viral, leading to further controversy when Proton’s official Reddit account reinforced Yen’s sentiment. The now-deleted post suggested that Republicans were more inclined to take on Big Tech monopolies than corporate-aligned Democrats. However, within hours, Proton removed all traces of these remarks from its social media platforms.
Proton? No.
Yeah, that mess was quite disappointing. I'm still waiting for them to make a clarifying statement on it. I suppose removing it and just not getting further involved in politics is at least "better" than continuing to double down.
I'm actually hyped for this. A privacy-first alternative to google cloud. I still prefer to self-host all my stuff, but this is WAY more accessable to my less tech-savvy friends
Now all I need is a way to save stuff to my Proton Drive without it needing to sync to a local device...
Privacy first, yes, but who are Proton and can they be trusted? The amount of times they have responded with an immature or unprofessional reaction is too many to believe they are not going to sell or fuck with the data.
Privacy first for the authoritarian mindset is a walled garden, like Apple. They want to prevent anything from connecting or working with stuff because "security" and meanwhile harvest data about you.
Your criticism may be valid (I'm not familiar with any controversy), but if they are as bad as you say, do you have a better alternative?
I just moved from Google, so thus far it has felt like a significant improvement for me.
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Cryptpad?
Anybody?
No?
My go-to online suite, but their spreadsheets, documents, and presentations have some big limitations as they use embedded OnlyOffice.
Not the exact development route I wanted them to take, but def pleased they're doing something to improve existing services.
Definitely better than the whole (ongoing?) Proton Wallet ordeal.
With Proton Sheets, Proton Drive now becomes a true alternative to Google Drive.
Lol, okay Buddy, y'all still have a long way to go on that point.
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It'd odd that they don't have a Linux version of proton drive.
I've been waiting for this!... I have a couple of personal spreadsheets with Google but that's it.
Now I can completely move to Proton (not the best but at least better) and spend my day filling and removing my Google Drive with garbage tehehehe
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