I’ve had it up to here with Proton.

I’m an Unlimited subscriber, but even so I receive promotional ads in the Proton VPN app for Android (e.g., “Limited time offer…” or “x% off…”), which is something I find distracting and weird, since my subscription is active. These promotions don’t always appear in the app, but it was really bad around the turn of the new year. It made me feel like I was using some sketchy crapware I accidentally downloaded from the Play store vs. a legitimate VPN app.

Let me make this clear: I am not talking about emails! I know how to manage emails, but for some weird reason, it’s all anyone ever responds with. If one more person replies with information on how to manage email subscriptions, so help me…

I am specifically talking about promotions that appear to be baked into the app itself and are indismissable and perpetually visible within the app. (See my examples above, if you’re still confused by what I mean. I wish I’d taken screenshots last time it happened.)

Another issue I’ve had with Proton is that occasionally I will receive popups on their web site that entirely obstruct the screen and have no way to bypass them. Here’s an example of one advertising Proton Pass, that has no x button and nothing to click except “Start using Proton Pass now,” which is not something I want to do!

If you check my comment history, you can see multiple instances of my asking the Proton fediverse account (I think they’re on Mastodon) about these things, and every time without fail, they reply telling me how to manage email subscriptions, which (to be clear) IS NOT AT ALL WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT, IN FACT I WAS VERY EXPLICIT ABOUT THIS.

So I finally contacted them via support. Here’s what I said:

How can I disable notifications for promotions on your web site? (See: https://i.postimg.cc/FsvxM5CH/proton-Copy.png)

How can I disable notifications for promotions in the Proton VPN app for Android?

I’m not talking about emails, but about the “50% off now!!!” or “Try our new product!!!” style advertisements that I keep seeing.

I am a subscriber to Unlimited, and I do not want to see these self-promoting ads from Proton.

Let me just quote this one more time. I said:

I’m not talking about emails

So here’s the response I got:

I … I can’t fucking believe it.

I’ve sent one last message about this, but I don’t feel very hopeful at this point. If they replied with something like, “Unfortunately, we don’t allow users to dismiss promotions,” I could probably live with that … but this total dodging and ignoring simple questions is a huge red flag. Do I trust these people with my privacy when they can’t even answer a simple question?

Fortunately, all of these services have viable alternatives, so if they are unable to answer me this time, then farewell to Proton. I’m sick of this shit.

Edit: PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME ABOUT EMAIL PREFERENCES

  • 🔗 David Sommerseth
    2•10 months ago

    @LinkOpensChest_wav @helenslunch

    I’ve done the self-hosting of e-mail for over a decade. But it got so annoying and troublesome in the end it was a delight to migrate to Proton (because of all the spammers making this whole e-mail infrastructure a nightmare).

    Incoming e-mail is still doable for self-hosting. But outgoing is getting incredibly hard when you’re a tiny actor; you get blocked by all these larger mail providers (gmail, hotmail/outlook.com, yahoo) and your just lucky if you’re able to get in touch with anyone willing to look into the issues. Most times you get a mail template back claiming a bad IP address/range reputation (despite being able to document it several years back). The worst one even claimed I did aggressive marketing spam (which would be absurd for the handful users I served, used it for private emailing). And then they close the support ticket and ignore you.

    Proton is definitely big enough to fight back such abusive behaviours by these large actors.

    • Mario_Dies.wavOPEnglish
      1•10 months ago

      Fair enough. I think it’s disgusting how these big tech companies seize control of these systems.

      Also, have you tried Skiff mail? I actually like it more than Proton. It lets you create 4 (I think) aliases for free.

      The main Proton services that will be hard for me to replace are the VPN and drive.

      • 🔗 David Sommerseth
        1•10 months ago

        @LinkOpensChest_wav

        There are few alternatives to Proton Drive. Filen.io is the closest one in features. But it’s a small company, so it development takes time.

        Another alternative is Tresorit. Feature wise it is far beyond Proton Drive and Filen, with more advanced sharing possibilities. But it’s quite expensive, closed source and uses Azure under the hood on the server side.

        Filen and Tresorit are the only ones with Linux apps. Proton Drive can be accessed via rclone, but that is quite slow tbh.

      • 🔗 David Sommerseth
        0•10 months ago

        @LinkOpensChest_wav

        Regarding Proton VPN. That is probably the only consumer VPN service I’m willing to give some trust. But consumer VPNs are in general questionable services. They promise a lot more than they can really deliver.

        Since I trust one of the ISPs I use where I live, I host my own VPN server there and use that instead. I would even claim that you probably get a more reliable with the same type of privacy if you just use a VPS host in a trusted country and set it up as a VPN server for only your own stuff.

        This one is worth a read: https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

        VPNs do have a purpose, when used correctly and for the problem a VPN was designed to solve. Consumer VPN services generally falls out of that scope.

        So I use Proton VPN only when my direct access to my own VPN server is inaccessible. And I use Proton VPN to get through restricted networks, so I can get a connection to my own VPN server (double tunnel/tunnel in tunnel).

        • Mario_Dies.wavOPEnglish
          1•10 months ago

          Doesn’t setting up your own VPS take some level of technical skill? I have virtually no expertise in stuff like that, and even reading about it goes way above my head.

          • 🔗 David Sommerseth
            1•10 months ago

            @LinkOpensChest_wav

            Yeah, some. You need to learn some new tools, like ssh, command line usage and how to keep the system up-to-date. That’s the bare minimum. Then it’s good to learn a bit of network firewalling, to secure the host better.

            Then you need to deploy a VPN server. OpenVPN Access Server is easily installed and can help settings things up reasonably quickly. The unpaid install allows you to have 2 devices connected at the same time.

            Alternatively, there is the Cloud Connexa service. That will function a bit more like the Proton VPN Secure Core when fully set up (you can can connect from your devices from a different region from your VPS’s location). You run a few commands on your VPS which the Cloud Connexa wizard setup guides you through. The free plan here includes 3 connected devices (in your case VPS + 2 devices).

            With both alternatives you can install the OpenVPN Connect app on your devices, provide the username/password/otp for the account you’ve created in Access Server or Cloud Connexa, and you’re basically ready. The Connect app downloads the proper config file and you can connect just as the consumer VPNs.