this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025
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Privacy

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In an unexpected mask off "secure" email and VPN provider Proton took the stance of siding with the fascist MAGA Reps. Proton's services are no option for me and many others any longer. Let's collect and discuss alternatives (E2E encrypted email and VPN) here ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ‘‡

Always try to provide:

-Server location (jurisdiction)

-Governance

-Integrity/trustworthiness/transparency

-User experience/ease of use (grade 1 to 10, lets take Proton as a benchmark with an 8)

-Pricing and links

If you know alternative setups, feel free to share, too.

#ProtonExodus

Background: https://lemmy.ca/comment/13913116

Edit:typo

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[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 5 hours ago (4 children)

There are 2 kinds of companies:

  1. Evil companies
  2. Companies that are not evil YET.

What this means in this case is that only your own E-Mail server running on a Raspi in your own home can be considered private or secure in the long run. Unfortunately this is really really hard to do, which is the only reason i have not done it yet.
Personally i do not consider any E-Mail private, because E-Mail is not E2E-encrypted, and 99.9% of times one side of the conversation is going to be hosted on some shady companies servers.

Of course Proton delivers a great service, because they make an insecure protocol a little less insecure, and i personally use Proton mail. Unfortunately their closed-source nature makes it impossible to switch providers without abandoning their great software.

As for services like Drive, they can actually be hosted privately and securely on your own Raspi with stuff like NextCloud/OwnCloud.
For those that can't/don't want to self-host, i would recommend paying for a hoster that hosts FOSS software and contributes to it either with money or code. In that case you would probably loose E2E-encryption, but gain the ability to switch providers once your provider turns on you. In that case at least some of your money would continue to offer value to you by having improved the software you are still using.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 19 minutes ago

There a two kinds of large companies. There are a lot of family-run bussineses who aren't gonna become evil. (Unless of course their bought-out or something)

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

I think the only thing you can trust is software architecture - things like E2E encryption, zero knowledge architecture, auditable code etc.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

I only use Proton for Email and Calendar and self host everything else since I don't trust myself to run an email server properly.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago (2 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

"non-profit" is just a tax designation, and the companies are still money/profit-driven. I don't think non-profits are inherently bad, they're just working within the system for what they perceive as good. In the non-profit my partner works at, the CEO makes $421,968 / year. While not billionaire status, it's still 7x what my partner makes at the company. It's exploitative in the Socialist sense.

I'm just saying, being a "non-profit" (misleading term at best) doesn't necessarily mean the company is "good" or that the mission is "good".

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I dont see a problem with that. Its nonprofit. The money is going to a laborer, not to investors who dont do work for the org. People deserve salaries. $500k year is reasonable if the org is doing well.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I don't feel (and neither would a lot of Leftists) that a 7x salary for a CEO is fair. People deserve to be compensated for the work that they do, of course ... but does the CEO do 7x the work of other people in the company?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Nonprofits have to vote how they want to spend their excess income. The workers should just vote to have it distributed evenly amongst them.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 42 minutes ago

Not all have a voting structure.