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.

  • bold_omi@lemmy.todayEnglish
    286·
    17 hours ago

    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 insistance 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.
    • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      I also plan on sticking with Proton for now. It works well for me and I just migrated to it. I don’t have the time or energy for another migration right now. I also paid for a 2 year subscription, so I will use that time to eventually migrate to something different. I just need a break from that kinda work for a bit.

    • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
      10·
      1 day ago

      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.”

      If that suits your standards for security, you might want to reconsider your standards for security :)

      • bold_omi@lemmy.todayEnglish
        21·
        17 hours ago

        Yen should be fired. But what exists of their VPN codebase has survived some good audits so far, and I don’t have better options.

      • Imhotep@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        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

        • michaelalf@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          God damn it. What’s wrong with Mullvad now? They were my fallback when my Proton plan runs out.

          • goreverminski@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            22 hours ago

            Mullvad’s other co-founder gave half a million dollars to a small populist party in Sweden. Not as egregious as some other examples, maybe, but up to ya to see what you think.