this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2025
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Privacy
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Stop posting protonmail you bozos, what kind of person only needs a single email tied to a phone number? Preposterous. I won't even bother bringing up them putting some idiot climate activists in jail since I know "privacy" to redditors means posting about GDPR and turning your brain off
Tuta is allegedly okay (we're not international drug traffickers so we can pretend other (European) people's computers are trustworthy bc we don't need them to be usually) but it doesn't have imap, so you just use it as the recovery email and then use some other generic free disposable privacy email w imap
And this is before even getting into their recent scandal with their VPN service.
I won't touch that shit with a 39 ^1^/~2~ft poleeee~๐ต
What scandal?
the French government used interpol to request the swiss government to request proton to hand over the ip address of a French climate activist
is this the 2021 incident? i heard about that, i thought something new was ment
(Rant) But kind telling that everytime i hear about stuff like this it is somehow an activist who fights for climate change or like in italy with the whatsapp spyware, people who save refugees in the open sea.
And not the mass murder terrorists or child rapists they claim the survailance tools will be used on.
I feel like this was more recent, but it could be that I read it recently. Theres an official response from proton regarding this incident if you want to learn more about the situation.
One benefit of using proton is because your emails live in Switzerland and your data is subject to their laws around data privacy. From what I know, that doesn't protect you from criminal investigation, but it does protect your data from non government agency requests and data brokers.
The climate activist I'm referring to was squatting in high rises as protest, which is against the law in france. France used interpol to communicate with the swiss government in order to get more information about their suspect. The official response from proton covers more about this incident, and I think it's likely they had no idea what this climate activist was doing.
Privacy unfortunately does not mean youre free to commit crimes, or even that your personal info is safe from police inquiry. That is anonymity, not privacy.
Although I don't agree with protons decision to remove wording around logging IPs in their terms of service, it's disingenuous to think that proton is somehow complicit and is "tracking down activists". From my perspective, they were following the law, as messed up as the law is.
Lol i didnt even hear abt it im running off old animosities ๐
But proton doesn't need a phone number? You can just do a captcha. I would never use an email that asks for a phone number. Or even a phone.
They began demanding my phone number after I signed up without it. Not sure why. Was years ago tho
That's the same trick discord pulls btw it's shady
I wonder if it's by region. Are you outside EU?
They want your IP or your phone. Use a VPN IP or TOR and they'll require a phone number. That's been my experience at least. I don't trust them.
Hmm. That's not been my experience. I've been using proton with VPN with no issue. But yes, as you say, if that's your experience, it's shady. I would stay away from them were I in your shoes.