I really didn’t have money on Proton crashing and burning as a trusted community partner and company due to leadership AI psychosis this rapidly.
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@mrclark
I have been using Proton but also been looking for alternatives wherever possible.
Ente, for photos (if I could afford a bigger server, I would self-host it),
CryptPad for storing, editing and sharing documents online,
Tuta for mail and calendar (not yet but soon),
Wireguard for VPN, and
Joplin for notes.
CryptPad, Wireguard and Joplin I self-host them.Ente technically uses AI but it's locally run, to recognize faces in the pictures. It's not an LLM or generative, as far as I know, so I'm fine with it. Plus, it's totally optional (opt-in). The other apps, nothing that I know of.
@Mx_Shankly Have you looked at Zimbra? Personally I run my own domain but my company (Symas) uses Zimbra. Not coincidentally, Zimbra is a heavy user of OpenLDAP...
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@hacks4pancakes It tells me how jaded I am that I read the comments he made and had to re-read the article to see what's controversial or out of the ordinary for execs.
@jsmall I mean everything is terrible in 2026 but this is noteworthy ugly.
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I really didn’t have money on Proton crashing and burning as a trusted community partner and company due to leadership AI psychosis this rapidly. It’s incredibly disappointing and a huge loss.
@hacks4pancakes sounds like he has AFP - AI FOMO Psychosis.
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@hacks4pancakes fuck this ceo, like with a rusty pole.
“Perception is more important than truth, the truth doesn’t matter if you don’t win on perception.” - CEO of proton
nice.
@tootbrute @hacks4pancakes yeah that just jumped out.
Bonus points if someone literally brings in a printer and vibe codes an app that starts printing resumes
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But thinking about it, the red flags were there.
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I started my migration to Tuta (Yes, I have heard there is some AI usage there) yesterday. I was in the midst of the next leg of said migration when the story broke over my Mastodon feed.
I've since cancelled my subscription. -
... I finally hit the bottom of the article that I can read without being a paying subscriber to 404media.
There's _plenty_ before the "fold". Take the time to read this. This disease has grabbed a hold of leadership and the C-suites all over the country and, I assume, the world.
@401matthall non-paywall version https://archive.ph/TkxiO
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If you use and particularly, pay for anything they make, you need to read this. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen even in the 20s.
🫠 I don’t think they’re recovering without the board removing executive leadership. https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
@hacks4pancakes
Gods, I've been a proton user since 2020 I think.
I wasn't bothered as much by the stupid ass takes on right wingers "pro privacy stance" but calling pentesting loser thought when *the product I am paying for is a security product* is a line.
"I don't care if the helmets work! We just need to get our helmets out there to beat big helmet for selling unsafe helmets!"
Fucking seriously guys? -
@sasutina13 @hacks4pancakes Question: my college girlfriend was using it in Madison, WI in 2002. Which warning signs did she not see?
@dave_cochran I am unaware of any problem at that time.
IIRC, it was not as well known as it is now.
Whatever was going on was likely overshadowed by the furor over Mega.
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@hacks4pancakes
Gods, I've been a proton user since 2020 I think.
I wasn't bothered as much by the stupid ass takes on right wingers "pro privacy stance" but calling pentesting loser thought when *the product I am paying for is a security product* is a line.
"I don't care if the helmets work! We just need to get our helmets out there to beat big helmet for selling unsafe helmets!"
Fucking seriously guys?@nagaram there were red flags.

I didn’t expect full Idiocracy in one go
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@mrclark
I have been using Proton but also been looking for alternatives wherever possible.
Ente, for photos (if I could afford a bigger server, I would self-host it),
CryptPad for storing, editing and sharing documents online,
Tuta for mail and calendar (not yet but soon),
Wireguard for VPN, and
Joplin for notes.
CryptPad, Wireguard and Joplin I self-host them.Ente technically uses AI but it's locally run, to recognize faces in the pictures. It's not an LLM or generative, as far as I know, so I'm fine with it. Plus, it's totally optional (opt-in). The other apps, nothing that I know of.
@Mx_Shankly @mrclark @hacks4pancakes you probably haven't seen it yet but tuta is definitely trending here for their recent AI embrace announcement.
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If you use and particularly, pay for anything they make, you need to read this. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen even in the 20s.
🫠 I don’t think they’re recovering without the board removing executive leadership. https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
@hacks4pancakes at this point I think we’re in a “self preservation” phase where these tech leaders don’t even believe in a benefit that will come from it anymore, but they got duped and wrote big checks so there better be a return on that investment or they’re forsaken to a golden parachute
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I really didn’t have money on Proton crashing and burning as a trusted community partner and company due to leadership AI psychosis this rapidly. It’s incredibly disappointing and a huge loss.
@hacks4pancakes got me thinking about hosting my own webmail but i'm terrified of spam
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I really didn’t have money on Proton crashing and burning as a trusted community partner and company due to leadership AI psychosis this rapidly. It’s incredibly disappointing and a huge loss.
@hacks4pancakes proton had already kicked itself previously, just when i was about to switch to them...
this is just me looking at them going "nice to break BOTH your kneecaps now"
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@Mx_Shankly @mrclark @hacks4pancakes you probably haven't seen it yet but tuta is definitely trending here for their recent AI embrace announcement.
@fullywoolly
I had no idea. Thank you for bringing it up. -
after not doing enough research I moved my email to proton a couple of months ago . . . fuck!
@cgsines @hacks4pancakes Just plumped for the joy of running my own a couple of weeks ago. It was that or proton. Looks like I dodged a bullet.
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@hacks4pancakes got me thinking about hosting my own webmail but i'm terrified of spam
@hacks4pancakes also forcing privacy minded users to fork money to use offline mail clients or use a js web ui is not a good look
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@mrclark
You were probably asking Lesley, as some others did. If I'm out of place, I'll go ahead and shut up.Otherwise, if I may add my personal experience: I think, regardless of what platform we choose, we shouldn't "put all our eggs in one basket". That's what Google, Microslop, and now Proton have taught us (not saying they're all the same). That way, if we find out the software we're using is in any way corrupt, the damage is more containable.
@Mx_Shankly @hacks4pancakes @mrclark Easy to say, but changing email addresses is not a trivial undertaking. That's not about all eggs in one basket. It's that email switching costs are very high.
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@hacks4pancakes
Gods, I've been a proton user since 2020 I think.
I wasn't bothered as much by the stupid ass takes on right wingers "pro privacy stance" but calling pentesting loser thought when *the product I am paying for is a security product* is a line.
"I don't care if the helmets work! We just need to get our helmets out there to beat big helmet for selling unsafe helmets!"
Fucking seriously guys?@nagaram @hacks4pancakes Same. I'll be looking for an alternative, but I'm not looking forward to the experience of changing my contact details at N services

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If you use and particularly, pay for anything they make, you need to read this. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen even in the 20s.
🫠 I don’t think they’re recovering without the board removing executive leadership. https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
@hacks4pancakes I'm so glad I left a few months ago. It just got to the point where it became impossible to ignore the growing list of problems
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after not doing enough research I moved my email to proton a couple of months ago . . . fuck!
@cgsines @hacks4pancakes there were some red flags before, like Andy's praise of JD Vance and the trump admin a couple years back, but they did a rough apology that allowed some face saving.
Seems like in the last couple of years he has gone gone full meltdown, likely from his silicon valley pals.
The bullshit about "perception is more important than truth" and his desire for the company to flip to a "996" culture (9am to 9pm, 6 days a week) means its sick to its core. The raw disrespect of "thats loser talk" to his devs about actually testing AI is just the fuckest of fuck yous that I'm sure resonates real well with his core customer base, software engineers.