Maybe not the contribution that you're looking for, but going to tell you this story regardless.

I am Swiss, and am a former Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA / EDA) employee. My colleagues and I had organized an evening on cybersecurity, where we showcase what Switzerland has to offer. I invited stakeholders such as:

• Dreamlab (really cool company, should look them up if you don't know of them)
• NCSC (Swiss National Cyber Security Center)
• Some Swiss cyber regulator; and
• Proton

Firstly, when speaking to a delegate of one of the above listed (don't feel comfortably sharing publicly which one), he ushered a statement; upon me saying I'm a huge Proton fan and subscribed to all services - "they are lying to your faces".

I was curious, so I spoke with the regulators and NCSC delegates, they said that Proton has been involved in a handful of leaks - some that were made public, some behind the scenes.

When I spoke to Andy, having told him that I grew up in Canada, I asked him what his plan was for North America. His response: "I will gladly take their money, but never open up shop there - too many national security departments that come knocking on the door".

Now I see that (on the Proton page), that they are looking for a few US based positions for Marketing and Growth - going against what we discussed a few years back. In all honesty, I still have a Plus subscription with them, but beginning to questions a lot more things regarding security and ethics at Proton. Guess I'll just self-host in the future. Trust no one but yourself with your personal data.

been using https://migadu.com/ for a few months now and its pretty great

I've been using Posteo for email since 2020. Love it. Mullvad for VPN.

I think I would wait for changes in their mission and policies before I start moving anything.

Wow!

Of all companies, this is one I didn't expect.

Damn.

Trump's terrible politics aside:

1. the Republican party is pushing legislation which requires you to identify yourself to view porn

2. you can get around this with a VPN

3. proton is a VPN (nonprofit, but still).

I'll be switching email providers when I can... I can't remember when my subscription ends.

Misinformation. OP is advocating that you shoot yourself in the foot.

The CEO said something silly on Twitter which revealed either that (a) he shares an exceedingly banal opinion with literally half of America or (b) he's not above a bit of preemptive sycophancy to advance his (positive) anti-trust agenda.

There's nothing particularly scandalous in the offending tweet:

• Implying that the Democrats are now "the party of big business" is arguably true (and very boring)
• Implying that the Republicans now "stand for the little guys" is dumb but also arguably true, unfortunately - the working classes swung to Trump in the recent election while the Democrats are fast becoming a party of high-earning elites (which is why they lost)
• Saying that the antitrust actions began under Trump I is, well, true

Proton is not owned Zuck-like by its CEO. It's controlled by a foundation with other stakeholders on the board, including the inventor of the Web himself. In its niche it is still by far the best option. Ditching it for a nebulous non-existent alternative because the CEO expressed a dumb and extremely commonplace opinion is just silly and self-defeating.

PS: to be clear, OP is peddling misinformation because it's not true that "Proton took the stance" of anything. It's the personal opinion of the CEO that's at issue. It's a major distinction. I find it disappointing that people interested in privacy would have such little respect for a private individual's right to have their own thoughts.

PPS: to be extra clear, my comments are about the post above, not stuff that people are reading elsewhere. But the substance stands. See discussion for detail.

Currently exploring my options, thinking of switching to Tuta. It sucks because I literally just paid for a Proton annual plan, looking if I can cancel it and get (part of) my money back...

Phew! For a moment I thought you were talking about the steam compatibility thingy.

I own and operate https://port87.com/, and in no way am I even close to right wing. I don’t call myself a liberal, and get offended when people do, because I’m a leftist.

It’s not ready for business email yet, but it’ll work for your personal email.

Abandoning the Proton subscription now. How stupid and irresponsible. In fact, are running away from all your principles.

I'm currently on Tuta, because I can't imagine Mail without a free tier. It's run out of Germany(EU). Its 3€ a month for the normal tier, free takes away most features. Like Proton, you need to use their (OSS)-Client, for encryption reasons. It's currently growing and I hope they don't go crazy anytime soon.

I was looking at Posteo, but I don't want my entire internet identity to be gone, if I ever can't pay for it.

I will continue to use Proton and their services, not because I support or endorse any political decisions from the CEO/board members (and I don't), but because they provide open source, secure, and private software that I love.

This is no different than arguing about using GrapheneOS based on the behavior of the maintainers.

If a car company in Germany complemented Hitler on his paintings, would it be still fine to buy their cars? And what if they were a really great car company and only mentioned how cool Hitler's paintings were and nothing else?

I sort of feel like if I am cool with Proton's statement, then I also am cool with trans people and Latino people and Gazan people being treated poorly, and I'm not actually cool with that.

It's unfortunate, because despite Proton not accepting XMR and logging IPs when they promised they wouldn't and doing other questionable practices, they have a lot of great services. But now, it's like if I'm using their services, I'm sort of spitting on the grave of every trans person who ended their life out of shame, spitting on the grave of every dead Gazan who simply didn't want to die, and being disrespectful to all the cool Latinos out there who have been degraded simply out of racism.

:-(

I've said it in another thread: German users should consider posteo as a green, safe, and affordable (1€/M) alternative. https://posteo.de/de