TechTakes

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[–] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (11 children)

I'm pretty happy with Tutanota all things considered. There are some tradeoffs back and forth between the two, but I think it's neat they run on renewable energy. And they're very focussed on being open source which I also appreciate.

Maybe an option worth looking into. They're also encrypted (though I wish either them or proton had an option not to be) and have a free tier)

Hope you find what you're looking for!

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[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 50 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

Eamonn Maguire, author of the Proton Scribe announcement post, responded to my tweet with this: https://x.com/EamonnMagu14645/status/1814062340863651965

We built this as an opt-in alternative to the non-privacy centric options on the market.

Our goal is always privacy by default, we want to make that possible in the GenAI world too given the number of businesses already using it, and the privacy risks other options pose.

We built this as an opt-in alternative to the non-privacy centric options on the market. Our goal is always privacy by default, we want to make that possible in the GenAI world too given the number of businesses already using it, and the privacy risks other options pose.

[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 23 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

not sure how legit that account is, actually. It's not the one I @'ed - this one was created in Jan 2024 - either it's his low-key alt or a bot

perhaps his plausible deniability account.

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[–] self@awful.systems 19 points 2 years ago (1 child)

do you get banned from twitter if you call him a fucking asshole?

I’m working on a more detailed reply on mastodon but to be honest, I’m pretty sure he didn’t read the original post

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[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 18 points 2 years ago (1 child)

it all stinks so much. He calls it "opt-in" but the official description of that opt-in is:

If you try to use Proton Scribe, you will be prompted to chose between local and server-side. So, technically, it's not active until you decide how, and if, you want to use it.

as you can see here: https://mastodon.social/@protonprivacy/112807462045101580

there is opt-in and then there is dangling an expired hotdog

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[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 45 points 2 years ago

the usefulness of any feature should be measured in how deep you can bury its "opt-in" option in the settings pages without hurting its adoption

[–] cordlesslamp@lemmy.today 42 points 2 years ago (25 children)

Great, just as I've decided to switch some services to Proton (mail and VPN).

Now I'll have to reconsider this decision.

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[–] MBM@lemmings.world 34 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Right after this I spot the announcement post on my front page, in !protonprivacy@lemmy.world. I'm surprised just how positive the comments are.

[–] mii@awful.systems 32 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Same, tbh. I went on their subreddit expecting a shitstorm but the announcement sits at like 85% upvotes with mostly positive replies.

What kind of bizarro world have I stumbled into?

At least the top-level comments seem to be split.

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[–] self@awful.systems 33 points 2 years ago (1 child)

between that thread’s activity pattern and how hard they tried to fudge the numbers on their own survey to make this feature look popular: boy there’s a lot of stank on this one

but hey here’s some worrying shit straight from the Proton team:

Our business audience was the most interested in a writing assistant, this is why we started gradually rolling it out starting with Business and Visionary plans. We will look into making it available to more users at a later date!

so there’s something utterly fucking obvious for the “it’s only for business users” posters to consider; they’re doing the same frog boiling shit that all LLM fuckheads do.

I’m tempted to crosspost David’s article and my mastodon thread to that community, since Proton hasn’t really replied otherwise, and they seem plenty active there answering softball questions and removing posts. I don’t look forward to the Kagi-level shitstorm in my inbox afterwards though

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[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 22 points 2 years ago

the thing about this is a "writing assistant" doesn't have to be integrated into the email product. It could be a product in itself. If the "business audience(?) was the most interested in a writing assistant" you've got a fucken great standalone product opportunity on your hands. A Proton-certified LLM writing assistant that is magically better and more secure than anything else out there is not something you coyly slip into the email client and nudge everyone to use.

It doesn't matter what reasons they have for doing this. Their method of deployment says more than enough to me. They know it's off-script and they know they want their fucken "audience" to do the marketing for them.

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[–] gencha@lemm.ee 15 points 2 years ago

Reddit content is paid/generated content. It is literally part of their commercial offering to customers that they can expertly deceive their users. It is an advertising platform and you use it to try and force a public image.

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[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 33 points 2 years ago (1 child)

The good news is I barely use Protonmail (or email at all, for that matter).

The bad news is I have a fucking Proton account. Fuck.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems [S] 36 points 2 years ago

they're still least worst, but "oh the fuck no" is the correct reaction

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[–] ssm@lemmy.sdf.org 25 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (29 children)

"Pro privacy" company that cucked to the state to get a climate activist arrested (against their privacy policy that they sneakily change after the fact) are actually a bunch of typical corporate grifters that sell out their userbase to promote shitty llm garbage? Nawwwwwww. Say it ain't so! It's like every week or month after I argue about these shitty fake privacy companies with idiots in c/privacy I recieve massive vindication. Maybe this is my sign to become a man of faith.

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[–] Banshee@midwest.social 28 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

I'm also sick of hearing about Swiss privacy laws. Their intelligence service got busted covering for a US and German spy front operation in Switzerland. If it happened once, I promise it has happened before and since.

Edit for those who can't click: a front company in Switzerland sold fake encrypted communications services around the world for years, possibly decades, with the assistance of Swiss intelligence agencies.

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[–] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 2 years ago (1 child)

it's as if swiss privacy laws are only useful for big time, pre-crypto, old school money laundering

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[–] AcausalRobotGod@awful.systems 24 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Once they activate the acausality module, you can write those responses before they even send the initial email!

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[–] alansuspect@aussie.zone 20 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I went to Proton for the explicit reason I didn't want Google scanning all my docs. Glad I moved away from them now, hopefully Fastmail doesn't do the same.

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[–] Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 2 years ago

Oh for fucks sake. I don't use their email but I don't want to have to switch VPN service AGAIN.

[–] geography082@lemm.ee 17 points 2 years ago

Never rely on multi services products from a company. I know it’s more practical but you get the real benefits of having spread services.

[–] Diurnambule@jlai.lu 15 points 2 years ago

Rhaa fk, enshitification... I don't want to host my emails...

[–] barkingspiders@infosec.pub 14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

tbf it's only in the business plans and some of the legacy lifer type plans, but yeah, wildin

[–] self@awful.systems 24 points 2 years ago

just a little violation of my trust for the company I pay for privacy and encryption services. as a treat.