I Do Not Recommend Proton Mail
a year ago
- #privacy
- #review
- Proton Mail's initial appeal was its privacy-focused, community-supported alternative to Big Tech, but it received €2 million in EU funding, raising questions about its independence.
- The Proton Mail Bridge, essential for integrating with desktop email clients, is unstable and poorly supported, leading to frequent technical issues and data integrity concerns.
- Proton's mobile apps are inferior to popular IMAP/SMTP clients, with the Calendar app being particularly clunky and lacking integration with the mobile OS.
- Proton failed to notify users of DNS configuration issues, leading to lost emails, highlighting reliability flaws in their service.
- Proton's credibility was damaged when it handed over IP logs to Swiss authorities, contradicting its no-logs policy and raising ethical concerns.
- Proton's transparency report shows a significant increase in complied-with orders (10,368 in 2024 vs. 3,017 in 2020), suggesting a shift in their stance on privacy.
- Proton's marketing tactics, such as claiming UN endorsement based on a single UN staff member's mention, are misleading and disingenuous.
- Proton employs upsell and lock-in tactics, such as making it difficult to remove domains or addresses and restricting the use of @pm.me addresses on free plans.
- Proton has a pattern of over-promising and under-delivering, with basic features like email forwarding and SMTP submissions taking years to implement.
- The author concludes that Proton Mail is not a reliable or ethical choice for businesses or privacy-conscious users, recommending alternatives that are more honest and transparent.