So, what is general concesus about Proton, is it safe or not? I dont use it because you need to pay for Bridge to use it in Thunderbird. Maybe I would use if it has a dedicated app.
It depends on what you want.
If you want a solution that makes sure your provider won’t be able to read your data?
It is sure safe for that.
Generally I would distrust any company claiming that our swiss privacy laws are worth a dime - in fact they are shit and among the worst in Europe.
Swiss intelligence laws actually force companies to cooperate in a much broader sense than even the national security laws in the US do.
And of course there is no judge involved and they can basically share the collected data with whoever they want.
It’s pretty great. Especially considering that you get a full ecosystem with Mail, Calendar, Drive, VPN and Pass.
I would also like to take this opportunity to shout out murena.io. They host open source cloud solutions. You get a Nextcloud with OnlyOffice and lots of other goodies and their pricing is pretty good
The people behind Murena are also the devs of /e/OS, a de-Googled Android OS that they also sell phones they pre-load it on. My one critique of it so far, owning one of the phones, is that I wish they would work on making it compatible with more well-known phone models available outside Europe. They sold this model I’m using, the Murena One (some Chinese OEM they slapped their name on), here in the US through their website, but I had to run around for two days trying to find a carrier whose service would work on it (or who would even try - eventually T-Mobile worked, the European-based carrier, what a surprise…) and I can’t get anyone to do repairs on it because it’s not one of the well-known brands. The case they gave me for it is essentially purely cosmetic, and only a week or so into owning it, I dropped it at a restaurant and it got a huge area of dead pixels at the bottom of the screen that nobody will fix because they can’t get a new screen for it. If I could install /e/OS myself on more than just the Google Pixel (paying Google to not have to use Android, fun…) that would be great and solve my problems.
As the mod of !c/e_os, I am so happy you brought this up. I use /e/ on my Fairphone 4, it’s great. The Easy Installer has come a long way, you should check it out https://doc.e.foundation/easy-installer
Edit: You can also check all the supported devices here
I’ve looked at the list. The only model that could give me what I’m looking for (5G, actually familiar to US-based carriers and repair shops) is the Pixel. I understand it’s not all the fault of the /e/OS devs since there’s factors like many bootloaders not being unlockable on US phones or other hardware complications, but I do get the feeling that the North American market does tend to be an afterthought. From what I can see, a majority of the list is either only available in Europe or will only work with very few carriers here, with lack of 5G capability being a big setback for carrier compatibility. That 5G requirement for many carriers really does hurt European based phone tech compatibility over here quite a bit.
So how would you sync your Proton Passwords with NextCloud, or with VaultWarden? Or actively sync them locally to be used with an open source app?
Oh, that’s right… you can’t. Proton will say… “Just trust our payloads bro! There is no way we’d ever deliver a modified payload to get your password. Sorry you can’t sync your calendar & contacts, just use our Windows apps.”
I wouldn’t? I suggested Murena as a Proton alternative. I don’t know if they have a password manager right know but you can always throw a KeePass database into your Nextcloud.
My sincerest apologies. I misread the thread and thought you were advocating for Proton, which IMO is a questionable company. Thanks for the clarification.
I use both. Proton fits most of my needs, Murena does the rest. I’m not attached to any of them though, if I’m given good enough a reason, I’ll drop Proton immediately
At least you’re open to moving on. I think keeping an open attitude in any scenario is prob the best option. For most people, I’d recommend they keep using whatever works for them. If you’re happy with Proton then switching may just cause frustration. However, if you’re very much security focused and also care about things like being able to access your calendars/contacts in the apps you want, then I’d prob suggest just using SimpleLogin for email with their GPG feature, vaultwarden for passwords (you can still use the BitWarden phone apps), and Nextcloud for Calendar/Contacts which also supports DAVx for mobile.
I do use the SimpleLogin aliases, it’s one of my favorite services they offer. Most of my web storage (which I barely use anyway) and calendar and stuff is all Nextcloud
So, what is general concesus about Proton, is it safe or not? I dont use it because you need to pay for Bridge to use it in Thunderbird. Maybe I would use if it has a dedicated app.
It depends on what you want. If you want a solution that makes sure your provider won’t be able to read your data? It is sure safe for that.
Generally I would distrust any company claiming that our swiss privacy laws are worth a dime - in fact they are shit and among the worst in Europe. Swiss intelligence laws actually force companies to cooperate in a much broader sense than even the national security laws in the US do. And of course there is no judge involved and they can basically share the collected data with whoever they want.
It’s pretty great. Especially considering that you get a full ecosystem with Mail, Calendar, Drive, VPN and Pass.
I would also like to take this opportunity to shout out murena.io. They host open source cloud solutions. You get a Nextcloud with OnlyOffice and lots of other goodies and their pricing is pretty good
The people behind Murena are also the devs of /e/OS, a de-Googled Android OS that they also sell phones they pre-load it on. My one critique of it so far, owning one of the phones, is that I wish they would work on making it compatible with more well-known phone models available outside Europe. They sold this model I’m using, the Murena One (some Chinese OEM they slapped their name on), here in the US through their website, but I had to run around for two days trying to find a carrier whose service would work on it (or who would even try - eventually T-Mobile worked, the European-based carrier, what a surprise…) and I can’t get anyone to do repairs on it because it’s not one of the well-known brands. The case they gave me for it is essentially purely cosmetic, and only a week or so into owning it, I dropped it at a restaurant and it got a huge area of dead pixels at the bottom of the screen that nobody will fix because they can’t get a new screen for it. If I could install /e/OS myself on more than just the Google Pixel (paying Google to not have to use Android, fun…) that would be great and solve my problems.
As the mod of !c/e_os, I am so happy you brought this up. I use /e/ on my Fairphone 4, it’s great. The Easy Installer has come a long way, you should check it out https://doc.e.foundation/easy-installer
Edit: You can also check all the supported devices here
I’ve looked at the list. The only model that could give me what I’m looking for (5G, actually familiar to US-based carriers and repair shops) is the Pixel. I understand it’s not all the fault of the /e/OS devs since there’s factors like many bootloaders not being unlockable on US phones or other hardware complications, but I do get the feeling that the North American market does tend to be an afterthought. From what I can see, a majority of the list is either only available in Europe or will only work with very few carriers here, with lack of 5G capability being a big setback for carrier compatibility. That 5G requirement for many carriers really does hurt European based phone tech compatibility over here quite a bit.
So how would you sync your Proton Passwords with NextCloud, or with VaultWarden? Or actively sync them locally to be used with an open source app?
Oh, that’s right… you can’t. Proton will say… “Just trust our payloads bro! There is no way we’d ever deliver a modified payload to get your password. Sorry you can’t sync your calendar & contacts, just use our Windows apps.”
I wouldn’t? I suggested Murena as a Proton alternative. I don’t know if they have a password manager right know but you can always throw a KeePass database into your Nextcloud.
My sincerest apologies. I misread the thread and thought you were advocating for Proton, which IMO is a questionable company. Thanks for the clarification.
I use both. Proton fits most of my needs, Murena does the rest. I’m not attached to any of them though, if I’m given good enough a reason, I’ll drop Proton immediately
At least you’re open to moving on. I think keeping an open attitude in any scenario is prob the best option. For most people, I’d recommend they keep using whatever works for them. If you’re happy with Proton then switching may just cause frustration. However, if you’re very much security focused and also care about things like being able to access your calendars/contacts in the apps you want, then I’d prob suggest just using SimpleLogin for email with their GPG feature, vaultwarden for passwords (you can still use the BitWarden phone apps), and Nextcloud for Calendar/Contacts which also supports DAVx for mobile.
I do use the SimpleLogin aliases, it’s one of my favorite services they offer. Most of my web storage (which I barely use anyway) and calendar and stuff is all Nextcloud
It is about as safe as trusting Apple at their word to protect your privacy.