Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/40877
Email is inherently insecure. If you want or need secure communications, that's what software like Briar, Matrix, or Signal (yes despite some drama).
Secure emails can always be done manually with PGP and will be a lot hardier than trusting an organization that gives away subscriber payments to Western-backed coup attempts and color revolutions.
Protonmail doesnt ask me for a phone number and is also relatively popular so i wont look like an outcast using it, if temp mail doesnt work proton does. email is insecure and shouldnt be used for anything confidential
whats so bad? the screenshot doesnt tell me whats so bad about protonmail. and the "market speak" is the same kind of marketing proton is known for, atleast since ive been using it, and as far as the posts suggests nothing related to the encryption at a technical level has changed.
The takeaway is it's upholding of color revolutions and nationalist movements.
Contrary to what many people in the West say, everything has politics to a degree, whether it be explicit or implicit. This thinking is unfortunately very prevalent in tech communities. The cries to keep politics out of things simply does not make sense; ambivalency and apoliticalness is a form of political expression which, in its nature of "not caring," gives way to the dominant political ideology of the ruling class and it's state power over society.
In this case, claiming to be for "privacy" and "activists" while citing explicitly money being funneled into pro-capitalist and nationalist movements pushed for by the ruling class, is hypocritical and is the result of what I said above. It shows their true colors and how untrustworthy they are, where their allegiances lie with the ruling class. Their upholding of Western capitalism means they cannot be trusted with actual liberation movements of the masses, of privacy from the insidious arms of the State, and actual freedom for the many.
The takaway is that Protonmail and anyone who pays for their services is an active terrorism enabler in Hong Kong and Belarus. I'm surprised they don't fund Islamic extremists in Xinjiang too after hearing that.
be the change you want to see. live right and be happy enough and successful doing so that people want to emulate you, be like you. teach without words. people who preach are generally the biggest hypocrites. stop telling others to do the right thing and just do the right thing yourself.
I collect free email addresses and use them like file cabinets to segregate online activities. Friends get one. Websites get another, etc. High security isn't needed.
Probably best practice when it comes to email privacy.
In 1998, someone did a finger search on the email server I was using and it returned my personal info. The lack of privacy at the time horrified me. I started a website dedicated to privacy. That attracted visits from every branch of the Federal govt. It also attracted stalkers trying to negate what I was advocating. I keep multiple layers between my online activities. You'd be amazed at how persistent people can be to silence you for having a difference in opinion to them. The layers don't give me more privacy, but they do shine a spotlight on stalkers. One anonymous email provider posted on his site... If you plan on doing anything illegal, be aware that the FBI visited him daily and he was on a first name basis with the agents.
Right, so having to comply with swiss laws to log IP after the request by swiss authorities (otherwise the company is gonna be persecuted for it) and saying "We support activism" is all you need to step away from proton as a company. Ok, you do you, but i know for a fact i'm not using Signal which is a glorified SMS messenger and has literally same encryption to Proton, Matrix which is badly designed, and Briar (never heard of it). So how do i send job applications? How do i register to forums? Sorry having an email is good and convenient, if your intent is to break the law, please stop using widely known services. (Breaking the law doesn't not inherently make you a villain, governments can be evil, however consequences happen people).
if your intent is to break the law, Even in Russia, people can go to jail for blasphemy. i think I've heard of similar cases in Australia and the UK, but maybe not just based on blasphemy, but race or voicing the wrong opinion. 'Right' and 'wrong' have changed and will continue to change throughout history.
Protonmail has its place, but it is good to be careful about what you say in certain places. Chances are high that if you wrote some unpopular (for the times) opinion or admitted to an unpopular act that your kid or even grandkid might be more likely to also share those views. So, I'd say you are putting your progeny at risk by sloppily voicing opinions or acts.
I wonder if they support ALL activists, or take sides, or if they choose which ideologies should be cancelled or supported. The last thing I want is to support technocrats.
You can't be entirely sure, but their plain outward support for these nationalist movements means they're at odds with their opposition, Hong Kong/China & Belarus/Russia. For the former, the Hong Kong protestors were clearly a guise to attempt to destabilize China. The latter is slightly less obvious as Belarus isn't socialist and Lukashenko isn't a communist, and the protests weren't entirely nationalist, but it was co-opted in an effort to further Western imperialism given Lukashenko's dismissal of giving into neoliberal measures that benefit the US et. al..
And given everything I've seen from them is also in English, it means they cater entirely to Western audiences and obviously hyper-focused on English speakers, who will all fall under the umbrella of US hegemony more so than most. Yet they were incredibly quiet during the BLM protests in the US last year, making zero effort to proclaim they're on the side of activists that aren't funded by the US. There's no mention of siding with the activists fighting the continued attempts to destabilize China, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, etc. - and that's all recent.
Overall it's very suspicious. They cannot be trusted to provide encryption and security given their agenda easily made clear.
Use an email from a domain you own. That gives you the most flexability in jumping ship after stuff like thus happens without tearing your social connections apart. Many email providers support importing custom domains, and you can always self host using an open source encrypted email server, too. Use a reputable privacy friendly registrar that requires the least personal information and doesn't display that info in the WHOIS.
I'm in a rut where I use Protonmail but really want to switch, but I've had the email for years now and all of my acquaintances and collegues know me by it. I don't pay for Protonmail, never have, so hopefully I'm not contributing to their "investments", but when I finally get my act together, I will probably buy a domain name and spin up an email on that instead of simply going to the next provider-linked email address.
Custom domains where what I used to move off gmail years ago, it makes it so easy to switch, and it's why I could never consider posteo (unless they now allow for custom domains). Just point it to the new provider and import old mail and you're good
Based as fuck underrated. Wish I had thought like this a long time ago.
Imagine walking away from a product, that wasn't designed to be secure, because it isn't secure lmao
Imagine walking away from a dumpster fire because it can burn you.
Probably the most inaccurate and low effort comparison, but okay.