Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Do you trust Proton? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by eddie_of_ny@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I've been using Proton Mail and VPN for a while now, and I'm just wondering how everyone else feels about them. I have this kind of inherent alight distrust of them just because they seem like they offer a lot for free and kind of have a Big Tech vibe about them, but there's nothing for me to really substantiate that distrust with, its mostly just a feeling. That being said, I do use their services as mentioned and they work pretty well, even on the free teir. So aside from that one instance where they gave that guy's info to the feds, is there any reason not to trust them with my data?

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[–] Kalcifer@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you trust Proton?

For starters, such a question is coming at it from the wrong perspective. One should have trust in the software -- if such sowtware is, indeed, trustworthy -- and not in the entity that created it. If one seeks privacy, then they should be of the mindset that every entity is malevolent.

[–] hanabatake@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol no. Are you going to audit all the code you use ? You need to trust some organizations to make the audit. You NEED to trust some entities

[–] Kalcifer@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Are you going to audit all the code you use ? You need to trust some organizations to make the audit. You NEED to trust some entities

While lacking in practicalicy, this is not a new idea. While It is certainly not impossible to have an entity that one can completely trust, I would just argue that such certainty is improbable.

What I'm trying to get at is that one shouldn't approach this question from an appeal to authority -- i.e. Proton is trustworthy, therefore all of their services must be privacy friendly, and secure. The russian proverb "trust but verify" comes to mind.