Proton is AI-pilled and calls caution "loser thinking".
Proton should be a careful steward of its users' privacy. Based on this account, it isn't. Journalists should think twice before using it.
Link: Manifestos, Fear, and ‘Loser Thinking’: Inside Proton’s AI Reckoning, by Joseph Cox at 404 Media
Proton is a service based in Switzerland that offers encrypted email, file storage, calendars, and more. It markets itself as a privacy-oriented alternative to Google Workspace, based in a neutral territory that is generally outside of the jurisdiction of the United States. I’ve generally been glad that it exists — but stories like this give me pause.
“Our reporting also paints a picture of Proton that is likely very different to the public’s perception of a company with a goal of carefully protecting privacy: one that in reality is barreling ahead with AI as quickly as possible so it can achieve the explicit goal of more annual revenue.”
CEO Andy Yen comes across as a bully who is pushing his staff to adopt AI as quickly as possible in order to maximize Proton’s revenue because its ARR was slipping. That’s not an approach you would hope a security-oriented, encryption-based organization would take.
This follows an unwise decision to praise a Trump nomination at the beginning of his second administration. Yen said it wasn’t intended as a political statement. I don’t think that he’s necessarily a Trump supporter, but it was part of a series of incidents that follow a troubling pattern: an action that undercuts Proton’s brand and stated values, followed by defensive excuses. It suspended journalist accounts at the request of a cybersecurity agency and then called the outcry “blown out of proportion”; it handed over the recovery email address for a Catalan activist, an iCloud address that led to Apple providing their full personal information, and said its hands were tied.
And then there’s this:
“Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton, had a message for an employee in the company’s security Slack channel who urged the company to at least take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live. “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” Yen wrote in the channel at the end of August. “Stop thinking always of how to be slower, and focus more on how to be faster.””
Services like Proton need to exist. Privacy is an important prerequisite to democracy: it protects journalists, activists, vulnerable communities, and everyone’s ability to live well and with dignity. But it’s a serious business. A move-fast culture of bullying that apes startup-land and calls caution “loser thinking” does not instill confidence, and implies it’s only a matter of time before something much worse happens.
