this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024

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Proton

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Empowering you to choose a better internet where privacy is the default. Protect yourself online with Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive. Proton Pass and SimpleLogin.

Proton Mail is the world's largest secure email provider. Swiss, end-to-end encrypted, private, and free.

Proton VPN is the world’s only open-source, publicly audited, unlimited and free VPN. Swiss-based, no-ads, and no-logs.

Proton Calendar is the world's first end-to-end encrypted calendar that allows you to keep your life private.

Proton Drive is a free end-to-end encrypted cloud storage that allows you to securely backup and share your files. It's open source, publicly audited, and Swiss-based.

Proton Pass Proton Pass is a free and open-source password manager which brings a higher level of security with rigorous end-to-end encryption of all data (including usernames, URLs, notes, and more) and email alias support.

SimpleLogin lets you send and receive emails anonymously via easily-generated unique email aliases.

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Proton VPN now available without creating an account (Android) (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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from the team:

Hi everyone,

As you may know, Proton VPN has repeatedly proven effective anti-censorship tools, allowing people to find trustworthy news sources and access obstructed content.

To make Proton VPN’s anti-censorship features even more accessible, we made it possible to log in to the Android app without creating an account. Now you can log in and use the Proton VPN Android app for free without entering any credentials (i.e. you can “continue as guest”):

Together with the constant expansion of our infrastructure (over 6000 servers in close to 100 countries), we believe that this will help our privacy-first VPN service reach those who need it the most more efficiently than ever.

Thank you for your support,

The Proton Team

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 9 months ago (1 children)

proton's having a full on glowup

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

U think this is sus?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

Thank you for your service.

As long as proton ain't glwoing!

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Is that sustainable?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Why wouldn't out be? Proton has always had a free tier, this just makes it easier for free users to connect to a vpn

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because nothing is free.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Proton's free plan is supported by people with paid plans

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Yes, but the root of the question is whether this is sustainable, or will it get shittified, when "too many" people jumps on the free tier.

Will it get more expensive for the paid tier?
Are they going to get rid of the free tier?
???

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago

The free tier servers are finite resources and usually much more busy/ slow. Proton isn't guaranteeing fast speeds or availability, and all of their free offerings have always been done in a sustainable way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They're transitioning to a non-profit organization now. While non-profits have their own problems, and it doesn't make them exempt from enshittifying, it removes the profit incentive to do so.

In other words: I'd give them a little more credibility when it comes to this sort of thing until they give us a reason not to. I'm hopeful that they can be a positive force in the industries that they are in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Same. I'm really rooting for them to stick it to the big internet usurpers. And they are doing a stellar job so far.

I'm just really can't get excited about companies offering free stuff, that costs money to run. Stepped on that rake one too many times.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What they mean is normally when something isn't being paid for, you are the actual product. It's why people should never use free password managers, for instance.

Proton may be unique in that the free tier might actually be exactly what it says it is: A product for you. Not a product OF you.

I'm already interested. Anywhere I can get more information that is not on Proton's website?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

@Xanis @DesolateMood
Sure!

Tuta.com
Privacyguides.org
EFF.org

Additionally, Proton Pass and Bitwarden are both well respected, open source, password managers that are Freemium products.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Proton has offered free plans for all its products for the last 10 years.

If it wasn't sustainable, I think we'd have noticed by now.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Well, userbases tend to grow.

If it wasn't sustainable, I think we'd have noticed by now.

Exactly the opposite.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Yes. Because they're either making a profit from your meta/data, or it's a promotion that ends as myriads of "free" services did before it

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (8 children)

I pay for it so you can leach off of it. Go ahead. If you feel they did a good job, then consider subscribing.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Proton has been offering free services for 10 years now. And they don't profit from your data, so your assertion is false.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Because they're either making a profit from your meta/data

They recently changed to a nonprofit, so that's not it

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago

Based

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

Huge fan of Proton and their services. I use the VPN and two Proton email accounts. Very helpful, easy to use, and the free versions aren't horrible garbage.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

LET'S GOOOOOOOO

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

Remember if a service is free then YOU are the product.

Edit: 🤡: no you don't understand I like this company, so there's no way they would ever do something underhanded like literally every other company ever 🤡

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Proton recently became a non-profit organisation.

This commitment means that they work for the people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh my sweet summer child.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Do you also use the same argument for libre software?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Comparing a completely offline software to a VPN that literally routes all your internet traffic through their own servers is completely apples to oranges.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Fair enough. My only gripe was with that umbrella statement. You are right that with these perpetually online SaaS companies, one must carefully assess their threat models

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

I'm feeling a bit cynical about this as well, despite their great reputation. Free never really means free in 2024. There's always a catch...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is not the case with Proton. Paid subscriptions effectively subsidize free users.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (5 children)

They also subsidise the CEOs salary. And when him, his successor or someone else high up in the company decides that's not enough for them, that treasure trove of consumer information is going to be awfully tempting to sell if they aren't already.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

And how are they supposed to sell consumer information that's end-to-end-encrypted?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

That's awesome!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

I really love all of the proton products...

Except their VPN. I'm sorry, but their servers trip CAPTCHAs and cloud flare warnings more than 95% of the time for me no matter where I connect from. I really wish it wasn't like that because it makes the Internet fucking awful to use

Mullvad will just keep getting my 5/month on top of my proton sub, I guess...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Does Proton VPN not work in China? I’m trying to use it for the first time on iPhone, both directly and via my already-known-good VPN (Mullvad) but I can’t get the first connection to make an account started either way.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

You need to go to settings and under protocol select stealth. The other connection types are blocked in China.

Mullvad doesn't work here at all.

The most widespread one is Astrill, though it's quite pricey. Used to be the only one that works consistently; but Proton is a decent alternative.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Is proton vpn working in china? Im travelling there soon.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Tldr, probably not. Proton has an article saying no, but that article is older than their new Stealth protocol which was built to work better in anti-vpn environments.

I would also read this article which has some information you may find useful.

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