I've been subscribed to Proton Unlimited for a little while now and enjoying the services, but I also want to know what made other people choose Tutanota or Posteo over Proton. Was it cost? Transparency/security stuff? Location data is held? I'm exploring a lot of things in the privacy space and seeing what else is out there. Wanted to create this thread as a more recent post people could look at as well.
Proton CEO Andy Yen praised the Republican Party in a post on X, declaring that “10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys, but today the tables have completely turned.”
Under Yen’s leadership, Proton donates a sizeable amount of cash, and the benefactors are easy to find since non-profits must disclose donations. In total, I’ve identified over 30 organizations that received grants from Proton, and you can find a partial list here. Interestingly, they also made a few donations not publicized on that page (one was to a Hong Kong democracy org, which might explain why it was hidden).
Findings:
Not a single organization has ties to Republicans or conservatives.
Many of them are known to be liberal, for example, Access Now and Fight for the Future in the US.
There were at least 10 that also received funding from Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
In my research, I discovered that under Andy’s leadership, Proton has a giving pattern similar to George Soros, one of the Democratic Party’s mega-donors.
Re: Proton
https://x.com/andyyen/status/1864436449942110660
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/
EDIT: However, he donates to Liberal causes, who knows maybe he was signalling to the Trump admin like 95% of businesses
I knew someone was going to bring this up. So read this:
https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e
Small piece from the article:
Under Yen’s leadership, Proton donates a sizeable amount of cash, and the benefactors are easy to find since non-profits must disclose donations. In total, I’ve identified over 30 organizations that received grants from Proton, and you can find a partial list here. Interestingly, they also made a few donations not publicized on that page (one was to a Hong Kong democracy org, which might explain why it was hidden).
Findings:
In my research, I discovered that under Andy’s leadership, Proton has a giving pattern similar to George Soros, one of the Democratic Party’s mega-donors.
Also, look who's getting the next round of financing from Proton: https://proton.me/blog/2025-lifetime-account-charity-fundraiser
He's not a tankie. He's very liberal. There's no evidence he ever supported Republicans, let alone Trump.
...what