203 points

That’s refreshing to see in a world of ever increasing enshittification. Wish more companies move in this direction.

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28 points

Yeah, kinda makes you wonder as to why proton is adding A.I. features though.

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4 points

Maybe to keep pace with trends, and be able to put a check in that box amongst competitors

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50 points

I think it might be because AI (aka LLMs) is genuinely useful when used properly.

I use AI all the time to write emails. I give the LLM the email thread along with instructions like “I can’t make it Tuesday ask if they can do Wednesday at 2pm”

The AI will write out an email that’s polite and relevant in context. Totally worth it.

I think the problem is people/companies trying to shove LLMs where they don’t make sense.

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72 points
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I am not a fan of this. I see it all the time at work and it’s very obvious when someone has chatGPT write an email for them (it’s always such a sterile and yet overcomplicated writing style). If it’s a direct email to me, I tend to feel insulted that they couldn’t be bothered to write those 4 paragraphs themselves - it would have taken them 2 mins. There is a definite human disconnect going on in society at the moment, and its worrying.

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19 points

Then just write that.

I don’t understand why we’re having AIs verboseify simple information?

Why do many word if few word do trick.

How long until we start using LLMs to summarize messages over-verbalized by LLMs?

And offloading the accounting for context WILL bite you in the ass. If you can’t remember what a discussion was about and what needs considering, you’re no longer doing the thinking.

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54 points

Why not just write “I can’t make it Tuesday, can you do Wednesday at 2pm?”

Otherwise we just end up in this world.

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9 points

Non-profit doesn’t mean that no one makes money. But it does mean they pay less taxes. If the C suite is full of funders, you can pay them in bonuses.

https://www.charitywatch.org/nonprofit-compensation-packages-of-1-million-or-more

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2 points

This was a disappointing realisation about "Open"AI.

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3 points

It does mean that there are no shareholders and you have to be “limited in powers”.

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106 points
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This is what made me finally completely switch my email and docs to proton. I’m so close to being able to delete my google account now.

Well this and the docs live collaboration feature they recently added.

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6 points

I thought it’ll take many more years until the acquired Standard Notes

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3 points

90 a year though? That’s taking the piss. Notesnook has all their features and more for 49.99 And that’s on top of Proton’s main fee. That’s one option I won’t be taking.

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3 points

Is this the standalone annual price? I see 120$/y for all of proton’s premium products

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8 points

Switched mail and I’ll switch VPN once my old sub expires.

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5 points

Ya know, you may have just helped me finally make the full switch. Thank you

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4 points

I wish it worked in the (iOS) app or had its own. A browser only experience isn’t good enough for me to use it.

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-1 points
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Deleted by creator
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24 points

Switched from gmail to Protonmail and Outlook to Tuta.io and love it! Companies that put privacy and the individual first.

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4 points

How is spam filtering compared to gmail.

Afraid to switch as gmail spam filtering is excellent

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3 points

I’ve been using proton for a few months now with a yearly Mail Plus subscription and I have yet to receive an actual spam e-mail. Your experience might be different than mine since I take precautions not to invite spam in the first place, but even then, Proton looks to be doing an excellent job

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4 points
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I’ve been using Protonmail as my primary address for a few years now. I’m yet to have a single spam email make it to my inbox. In comparison, I use my gmail less and I’ve had a few blatant crypto scams make it to my inbox.

I’m not saying for certain that it’s better than Gmail’s, but that’s my experience so far.

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1 point

Honestly I’ve not experienced any on either of them!

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49 points

Good. Profit and privacy are mutually exclusive in this industry.

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3 points

That’s roughly the opposite of what the article says.

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8 points
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You mean record breaking profit and privacy. Edit: actually I bet drug cartels probably do both, at least some (\s)

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3 points

I would imagine any privacy measures cartels take are seen as overhead more than anything else

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16 points

Proton is still a for-profit company and has shareholders who expect to to make money. The change is that the largest shareholder of the for-profit company is now a separate non-profit organization. It is still a positive move, but not entirely what the marketing makes it seem.

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8 points

Didn’t they get shit recently for AI and crypto related decisions ? Did they backtrack on that ?

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-5 points
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Deleted by creator
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19 points

Do you understand what enshittification is? It’s a slow descent over a long period. You add optional, privacy-respecting AI now, and over time, (like a decade,) it becomes more shitty until eventually all your data is opted in to centralized data harvesting or wherever.

I’m an Unlimited paid Proton user, and these new trend worry me too. Enshittification is a slow process. I watched Google turn from “Do no evil” to what they are today, and I’m too tired to want to watch the same entire process happen again to Proton.

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3 points

Shouldn’t we worry of enshittification when we are on the verge of, or on the descending side of trajectory?

So far they added features in a way that keeps respecting users rights, without changing their business model (which is 90% of the reason why companies enshittify BTW). Just because these products have something in common with products of companies who enshittified doesn’t mean the same applies here.

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1 point
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That’s some big slippery slope fallacy. Privacy respecting AI was a highly requested feature, whether you wanted it or not.

Them adding an AI mail assistant that is completely private has nothing to do with them eventually not protecting user privacy. These things have nothing to do with each other.

AI is not inherently a privacy invading tool, its just that the majority of services offering it are free, hence them profiting off data.

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1 point
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Deleted by creator
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11 points

Even if they did, so what? We should not then recognise positive decisions?

If we don’t allow companies and people to make any mistakes, for fear of being forever scorned, then we’ll end up with either unprogressive risk averse companies that cannot compete against their peers, or a host of good companies that go bankrupt from the slightest misstep.

Personally I’m glad companies such as proton exist, and are prepared to take risks, as they are currently our best hope against the likes of Google and Meta.

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5 points

They did not. This is another marketing play

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