I’m quite angry at this. I’ve used Mullvad VPN without any obtrusive ads, with a clean interface that worked very well.

I stumbled upon a new Proton plan and decided I’d pay and sign up to give it a go to meet my growing needs. After turning on my computer, I’m greeted with a massive pop up advertisement that takes up ~30% of my screen. While scanning settings, I do not see an easy way to disable these promotional ads.

I feel like I’ve gone back in time and am using Norton software that I got with my HP Pavilion Windows XP pc.

I did a quick Internet search and see there’s a Reddit post from a year ago where a user complained about the same thing, but no solution was provided. If I find anything I’ll update this post. But right now I’m quite angry, and I’m venting because this is my first reaction to seeing this crap. I’m paying for a service and the last thing I want to see are pop up ads.

I’m going to have a serious think about whether or not I should cancel my subscription and instead just keep my Mullvad.

EDIT:

I finished checking Proton VPN’s settings and there is no option to disable promotional ads. I’ll contact Proton support and see what they advise. Will revert after I hear back from them and complete the Support interaction.

EDIT 2: I posted a reflective comment below, but I figure I’ll update this post. I first made this post shortly after I woke up, and my reaction was anger. Now that it’s been some time and I have had breakfast, my coffee, and been at work for a while, I realise I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I’m more disappointed than angry. I get it if Proton wants to have a pop up that appears once around the Black Friday sales day, which is fine. But at least Steam lets me disable pop up promotions. Why can’t Proton? If they won’t add a toggle to disable those, then fine I get it - but I only want to appear once. Or at least embed a banner in the Proton app, or just have an “Offers” button. I pay for a service, I don’t want pop ups as I personally feel they’re hostile to the User experience. Why should that feature exist when Mullvad’s UI is seamless, intuitive, and has no pop up ads? Anyway, I’m an adult and I reacted like I’m still a kid. Need to learn from this type of thing and be a better person - sorry, I’m having a reflective introspective moment here that no one should care about except me ha ha.

EDIT 3: Another user recommended I submit a feature request to improve Proton, which I have done so.

Here is where I posted and voted on my idea request:

“Add Settings toggle to disable pop up promotional ads from Proton (e.g., Black Friday promo)” - https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/932836-proton-vpn/suggestions/48959543-pop-up-notifications-in-the-proton-vpn-application#comments

And here is another idea request I found from someone else who posted something similar a few weeks ago on oct 14th, although their request is to just disable pop up ads entirely:

“Pop-up notifications in the Proton VPN application, specifically those promoting Proton Duo” - https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/932836-proton-vpn/suggestions/48959543-pop-up-notifications-in-the-proton-vpn-application#comments

I think the suggestion here is that if you’re a Proton user and if this bothers you, it might be worth commenting and voting on my idea request to help with visibility to the Proton dev team.

I’ll post a final update once I complete my support interaction with proton support.

  • Sunny' 🌻
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    57 hours ago

    Completely understand your frustration with this… This isn’t their first rodeo when it comes to these popup sales either… I know there have been multiple other posts about this here on Lemmy previously. Anyway keep us posted, I’ve done my part and upvoted the uservoice post 👍

  • HubertManne
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    2814 hours ago

    I think your first reaction was fine. Putting up with these things is part of the enshitification to me. companies want customers then keep them happy and don’t make them angry.

    • @CatZoomiesOP
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      1013 hours ago

      Yeah I mean I guess you’re right. I just don’t like to be angry. I want to get to a point where I can have a more measured reaction and be emotionally more mature when things bother me.

      The root cause of the issue is certainly justified of course! I don’t want pop up ads! I said good bye to those things in the Windows XP days. Come on, Proton, what are you doing? Let us opt out

      • HubertManne
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        612 hours ago

        I understand that. I feel the same way but also feel like the way everything is going is making it harder and harder to keep cool.

      • trainsaresexy
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        155 seconds ago

        I appreciate the updates. I’ve been in the same place. It’s all small beans but on top of everything else in life these little things can put me over the edge. Proton has an aggressive advertising model and it’s turned me away from their products.

    • @[email protected]
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      513 hours ago

      Called it a few times before and its getting increasingly obvious with every month. Proton has entered the spiraling slide into enshittification.

  • DarkThoughts
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    812 hours ago

    That must feel shitty, especially since it costs twice as much as Mullvad.

    • Jin
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      12 hours ago

      Comparing apple and oranges. One has more services

          • DarkThoughts
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            -511 hours ago

            That’s just the ones you can get for free anyway. The proper ones cost all extra.

            • Jin
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              21 hour ago

              They all have a free tier, even the VPN. Can’t say the same for mullvad, which only does one thing. Of course proton cost more.

            • @pathief
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              35 hours ago

              They all have a free version. Proton Pass is seriously worth paying for since it offers unlimited alias.

    • @CatZoomiesOP
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      315 hours ago

      Good point. I’m not sure how to do that I only use Lemmy in the Fediverse, but when I get some downtime I’ll consider looping in their official Mastodon account (I assume this is their official account).

      Meanwhile I’ll await eventual response from the Support ticket I filed with them.

      • Jerry on PieFed
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        315 hours ago

        I believe in Lemmy, in replies (but not in the original message), including a Fediverse ID sends the reply to that address. So I hope they’ll come take a look. Yes, it’s officially their account.

        I agree with your annoyance. Good luck!

    • @CatZoomiesOP
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      1015 hours ago

      That’s the plan! And my first reaction today when I made that post was anger. After I’ve had breakfast and a coffee and am working (don’t tell my boss I’m on Lemmy), I realise I’m overreacting.

      My first response shouldn’t be anger, but it’s just frustrating and I hate ads, especially when I pay for a service.

      Now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’m really just disappointed. If this pop up appears once during the Black Friday era - fine, I get it. They want to make money. But I’d rather have a small banner appear in their VPN app or an “Offers/Promo” button. I just don’t want pop ups and I refuse to accept that when their competitor, Mullvad, doesn’t do that.

      Sorry, I’m just having a reflective moment and I decided I’d do that in the comment to your comment ha ha. :)

      • @[email protected]
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        511 hours ago

        That’s totally fair. I had the same pop up appear today and yes it’s really no big deal and quick to just close but we absolutely should have the option to not get promo ads especially that appear on our desktops in a huge panel. A small note in the apps is fine if out of the way.

        It is also fair to do this if the user isn’t paying for the service currently. Then ads are expected. But if I have an active sub, I should not be getting ads forced at all.

        Side note though, I am glad I saw this ad as I was thinking of switching from just vpn to ultimate as I started switching my emails over to proton and would also like the drive storage. So this will come in handy. Do you know when the promo ends?

  • @[email protected]
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    -2215 hours ago

    Its advertising you a plan because its a free thing, they just advertised the reduced price of the full version for the product you use for free. Just click it away.

    • @CatZoomiesOP
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      15 hours ago

      “Its advertising you a plan because its a free thing, they just advertised the reduced price of the full version for the product you use for free. Just click it away.”

      I’m a Paid subscriber of Proton. Not a free user.

    • @[email protected]
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      18 hours ago

      I’m an Unlimited subscriber and I’ve gotten ads. Has nothing to do with using the free tier.

      • @[email protected]
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        06 hours ago

        Yeah never seen any of them since I subscribed. But I also use mostly the Linux stuff.

        I have a enterprise plan.