Online threats to children are real, but the headlong pursuit of age verification that we’re seeing around the world is unacceptable in its approach and far too broad in scope — and we simply can’t afford to get this wrong.
To be clear, parents’ concerns are valid and sincere. Few people would argue that kids should have unfettered access to adult material, to self-harm how-tos, to social media platforms that manipulate them and expose them to abuse.
But it’s the very depth of those worries that is being cynically exploited. Age verification as is currently being proposed in country after country would mean the death of anonymity online.
And we know exactly who stands to gain: The same tech giants who built the privacy nightmare that the internet is today.
He has a vested interest in saying that, but he’s right, and it would be awful
They have to comply with court orders. You can’t run a business and ignore the government and legal system; they will throw the book at you.
Don’t use proton to do anything that could be considered a crime in the EU.
It’s interesting what people expect of Proton Mail. I’ve used it for a long time but for only one reason really: their revenue stream is my subscription and not ads. I’ve never even given a second thought to all their encryption claims. Even with Proton Mail if I ever wanted to send a “secret” email I’d wrap the content in my own personal keys.
With respect to IP addresses of email logins, I’m surprised they ever claimed they don’t have logs. You’ve always been able to review the IP of a login through the web UI as far as I remember. Was the idea that that was also supposed to be encrypted?
Personally I’m OK with them complying with court orders, but I understand that “the definition of criminal is state defined” and that poses serious issues. It kinda seems like if you want to do something that could be considered criminal at some point in your life by your country you should consider something other than a 3rd party email provider for those messages. Signal would be a step up in that regard if you still wanted to use a third party.
It’s interesting what people expect of Proton Mail.
It’s quite mundane actually: people expect what they advertise on their front page.
Their advertising is a stretch at the best of times, and (as seen on my first link) so terrible that it needs to be removed at other times.
Lol, ok, fair.
I guess I see a lot of wiggle room in the marketing speak of their page and I haven’t actually “looked in to” Proton Mail’s claims in a loooong time. So I guess what I really wanted to say is that it’s interesting to me that people take that marketing at face value if they’re actually trying to maintain secrecy. I’ve always just taken it as a given that third party services aren’t particularly good at that, especially as they grow in complexity like Proton has. Signal has been easier for me to believe because of the singular focus and the reputation of the founder in the crypto community; although I guess he’s long gone.
“invest in crypto” Also Proton. Fuck Proton.
Time for a different internet then.
Another one. Or two.
well to be pedantic, this really affects the web, which runs in the application layer of the internet. since i am sure they arent going to require refrigerators to have id, the intetnet should remain open. we will just communicate over different protocols
Fuck proton and especially fuck the proton CEO.
How long before we get a Meshtastic style, decentralized internet?
While Meshtastic is great, I believe Reticulum has a more suitable approach for this: https://reticulum.network/
Man, parents not wanting anything to do with their kids’ upbringing will believe anything, huh. They’d rather offload any and all responsibilities to automation than spend one minute teaching kids how to protect themselves.
Then again, they probably don’t know, either.
I see this as more like the patriot act- gover ent and big tech are pushing to elevate concerns of “the children’s safety” to violate our privacy and sell data. Same way the patriot act is so you can “keep all the evil bad man terrorists” at bay but really it’s an excuse to violate our rights “legally” in the name of “safety”.
I have siblings like that. Literally never seen them parent. I’ve changed more of their kids’ diapers than I have seen them do, and I have no kids. It’s kind of irritating in an understatement kind of way. My poor niblings
But look at you, being the village, awesome job, stepping in and helping them grow up to be rounded little people. I have 7 niblings, and they’re all a mix of neurodivergence, I’ve been gathering them all and taking them to events and teaching them, playing with them, since day dot. Even though I have kids of my own. It’s so hugely necessary to be in the kids in your life, lives, like that. You can’t parent from an empty cup, and the ability to refill that cup has been removed from us. You taking that time, also gives time for the parents to recharge. You’re amazing, keep it up!
Which is WHY I SUPPORT it!
-Proton CEO who Endorses the Politicians MAKING this a Reality!
Anyone think that’s not the point?
Social media functions as a kind of gatekeeper for public interactions, not unlike credit scores, driver’s licenses, and college degrees. The absence of a presence on social media is not only socially debilitating (you’re cut out of the information stream for local events and public amenities) but a red-flag for college recruiters and employers. It’s much like how not using a credit card regularly in your teens/20s impacts your ability to access low-interest lending in your 30s/40s. Or not having a driver’s license interferes with your right to vote.
State officials have been searching for a kind of uniform, iron-clad, easily verifiable public ID for ages. Linking your online presence (a thing that you need for a myriad of daily tasks) to your ID becomes a pathway to this goal. Universal, non-transferable digital ID becomes a wicked two-edged sword as it both exhaustively tracks the “documented” individuals and neatly severs the “undocumented” from society.
Na bro social media is nothing like credit score. You’re totally fine not having facebook, all these municipalities have websites, you don’t need social media for anything.
And even credit scores, you just want it for like two years before buying a home, it’s no problem at all especially in contrast to the challenge of actually saving up enough money to buy a home.
State officials have been searching for a kind of uniform, iron-clad, easily verifiable public ID for ages
What are you talking about? People have been voting, paying taxes, applying for driver’s licenses, for ages online, they all have usernames and passwords with uploaded proof of ID for their online government transactions.
Na bro social media is nothing like credit score.
You might want to talk to folks in recruiting or HR. Everyone checks your social media history when they’re evaluating you.
Exactly, i dont have them so they can’t. It can only hurt you if you have embarassing stuff.
i dont have them so they can’t
“Please provide any social media as part of your application”
“Haha. Well, guess what, dipshits. I don’t have any. Checkmate!”
Sound of resume hitting the bottom of the trash can
Well idk somehow ive stayed employed my whole adult life, including one fortune 500 company so i guess im really lucky
Hey, it’s the Internet. You can aim higher.
Say you’re the CEO next time.
Clearly this man is a genius.
Proton Mail Says It’s “Politically Neutral” While Praising Republican Party
lol
The nightmare trap of the Two Party System is that you can look at one party cozying up to Big Tech (Obama in 2009) and conclude the other party must be reflexively in opposition.
Trump was fully surrounded by Thiel goons before he’d even left office in '21. And the relationship only got tighter with his Elon Musk Bromance. But hey, if you’d just elected Kamala Harris and
Liz CheneyTim Walz to the White House, I’m sure nobody would be talking about how much of their cabinet was stuffed with Silicon Valley cutouts.It’s not like a cartel of trillionaires can buy up both parties at once, right?
Sort of, but my point is he made a specific point of praising a demented rapist and lauding the pedophile party as heroes. Silicon Valley cutouts that support Democrats commit the unforgivable sins of praising diversity or working to solve climate problems. They’re not surveilling hospitals for ICE. This guy loves trump because he believes trump has any opinion or knowledge of tech monopolies.
Tone deaf doesn’t cover it. If he sold shoes, it’d be one thing. But he jumped head first into the cesspit for no reason other than he believed it.
And so, even though our opinions on age verification coincidentally align, he can fuck right off.
he made a specific point of praising a demented rapist and lauding the pedophile party as heroes
He made a point of praising a President’s pick for the Antitrust Division of the DOJ. He didn’t praise Trump and he certainly didn’t praise pedophilia.
Slater’s tenure at DOJ was short-lived and unremarkable. So feel free to mock Yen on those grounds. But this has dick all to do with Epstein. It has nothing to do with the bloated ICE budget (which received bipartisan approval) or the assorts nightmarish cabinet appointments, many of which enjoyed supermajority support in the Senate (Rub’em All Out Rubio was appointed unanimously ffs).
he jumped head first into the cesspit for no reason other than he believed it.
He’s a Tech Goon and Trump had a ton of Tech Goons on his team. These people aren’t partisan, they’re corporate lemmings. By 2028, I’m sure Yen will be lining up to brown nose the incoming Dem administration. By 2032, he’ll be back on Team R, shocked at how the party that did everything Tech wanted has betrayed his customers again. Oh, and incidentally, insisting that the only way to protect yourself from Mean Old Big Government is by upping your Proton License to Double Super Secure.
And so, even though our opinions on age verification coincidentally align, he can fuck right off.
He’s endorsing the poison so he can sell the antidote.
He didn’t praise Trump and he certainly didn’t praise pedophilia.
Disagree. “Great job Mr. president!” is praising trump, and praising trump is praising pedophile protectors. It’s noteven a big leap, or unconfirmed rumors. We have multiple witness accounts to his actions and nothing has been done - legally- following the initial release of many documents.
It has nothing to do with the bloated ICE budget (which received bipartisan approval) or the assorts nightmarish cabinet appointments, many of which enjoyed supermajority support in the Senate
Also disagree. Eighth-graders know what trump is about. Andy Yen knows what trump is about. Corruption, fascism, incompetence. Yeah let’s send a hoo-rah tweet to my (whatever # followers)
(Rub’em All Out Rubio was appointed unanimously ffs).
Yeah that’s disgusting. Although I assumed he was just stupid and corrupt, not flat out evil as has revealed himself to be.
These people aren’t partisan, they’re corporate lemmings.
He’s both. There’s no non-partisan support of trump, he’s made sure of it.
By 2028, I’m sure Yen will be lining up to brown nose the incoming Dem administration. By 2032, he’ll be back on Team R, shocked at how the party that did everything Tech wanted has betrayed his customers again.
Yeah, that’s probably right, but all the reason I’m kicking him to the curb now.
Anyone who could not see that Trump was going to extort business for his own personal gain was clueless to Trump and his cabinet of blackmailers.
Anyone of color giving support to White Nationalists is fucking insane and shows a complete lack of understanding of current US politics.
Yeah, but the vast majority are so far beyond clueless they voted for him, again.
“Veah ahh yo pay puz?”
This moron is also a MAGA appologist and enabler. I left Proton for other alternatives. They want to claim they are “politically nuetral” well if you really were you wouldnt be commenting at all on politics would you?
I must have missed a bunch. I only recall him saying he liked trumps pick for one role.
And afaik that was it. It has been blown out of proportion many times since by people forming opinions based on headlines. If there was anythung else I’d like to know too though
Oh no, there was much more.
Proton’s official Reddit account posted “Here is our official response,” stating “Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.”
Thanks for sharing, I don’t think this is much more. Corporate Dems are an issue and I wish I was in the timeline where Bernie became president. Saying Republicans are better (in 2025) is either extremely naive or insane. Either way, it does not give me the faith I would like to stay with Proton long term. Posting official stuff, pulling it back, now claiming neutrality… confidence is eroded enough.
I have the Duo plan until mid next year and see it as my inbetween from iCloud to self hosting most of my services. Currently trialing Mullvad for the VPN and it can keep up with Proton easily.
Proton VPN and Mullvad will likely have different use cases.
How so? They have differences under the hood, but so far I’ve used them the same way I would any VPN
