There's an option in Settings > Dashboard > Email Subscriptions where you can chose what kind of emails you want from ProtonMail. I only kept the "Proton company announcements" (1 email per quarter) active. So, I didn't even know what you were talking about when I read your complaint. You should do the same, if everyone block their newsletter they'd probably be happy to stop writing it.

I highly encourage the Proton company to support Ukraine, or issues of global importance such as climate change.

You are an email and VPN provider who should focus on improving and innovating in those fields.

Your opinions on matters of politics, current events, and international affairs are irrelevant outside of where it pertains to email and VPN services.

Just because you can give your opinion doesn't mean you should, keep your opinions..... private and secure.

I could not possibly agree more with John S. Leave the politics out. If you don't support liberty and free speech, I don't support you.
Thanks,
Have swell day

Go woke, go broke as they say....

I'm fine with a privacy-focused company explicitly saying their political views. It would IMO be a far greater problem if they did give and didn't state their political engagement.

Plus, since it's in the open if you disagree, you are free to stop using their products if you feel those views don't align with yours, the same way I boycott companies giving money to anti-LGBT or promoting disinformation.

I do agree, Proton should be neutral like Switserland, it would certainly do the company credit.

I'm someone who prefers to have politics *generally* kept to one's self. For reasons demonstrated by this very thread --people get upset very easily.

However, as others have pointed out, everyone and every business has some kind of view, bias, leaning, etc.

So another way to interpret Proton's newsletter declarations is that they are being completely transparent.

Wouldn't it be interesting if all businesses declared where their money goes? (Perhaps there are other reasons businesses would rather their customers not know ...)

@Dach Alright, I'll cede a few things to you here. I can see how my comment came off condescendingly and I have no right to "instruct" people. My points on their business strategy are in fact speculative and should have "couched" it as such. And I'll leave my original post for the sake of accountability.

I don't quite understand how you can agree with my point about them being privacy advocates while also criticizing how I am bringing up politics in a space that should be apolitical... my point is that privacy *is* political along with being Proton's business. If that's true it would follow that they should be lobbying in these matters (IMHO).

It is certainly debatable whether Ukraine and Covid are the right channels for fighting for privacy; I argue that it is directly related.

To sum up: I think privacy is political, therefore Proton should not pretend to be politically neutral, and they ought to advocate for causes which they feel advance the agenda of privacy.

I am in life a very political person, however I keep that stuff to myself as it can be extremely divisive. Political opinions of tech companies have driven me off their platforms. I want a quality email service, drive, calendar, and vpn are nice too, but email is my concern. Stick to those. You can be opinionated, just don't bring it to work, and don't inject it into your services. The money I pay to ProtonMail I would expect to go to developing services and maintaining infrastructure.

With the exception of advocating for advancements in privacy, I disagree with you BrianD. I don’t detect any sarcasm in your post and you certainly didn’t mark anything as such, so I’ll assume you miss the irony of your post in this particular thread? Perhaps it is merely my misunderstanding based on your word structure/choices but I take your post as, “Hear ye these facts peons who cannot possibly grasp such matters.”

Your very pontification and willingness to instruct others as to what their reality, and their position on this matter should "try" to be, are some of the very elements of obnoxiousness that makes politics so exhausting to me of late. As does your presumption to “explain” to us all, with an apparent tone of certainty, the reality of what Mr. Musk and Proton are actually up to. I could possibly appreciate your business investment/strategy SPECULATION had you couched it as such, but you didn’t, did you?

Great job <sarc> bringing politics to the very thread requesting exactly the opposite. Not wanting to see Proton ruined, or divert from what I wish their focused mission would be, does not mean I, "probably need a new platform." I’m happy to have Proton steer clear of this arena in total and focus on delivering a rock solid, private email platform, in lieu of becoming an email/political lobbying entity.

Few things:

1. There is no such thing as neutral, not in this space at the very least. And Proton never claimed to be value neutral, their entire platform is built on advancing human privacy. That is a political stance. If you actively dislike this stance, you probably need a new platform.

2. Donating/not donating to any cause is a strategic political and business driven decision. Elon Musk doesn't go out of his way to fund StarLink in Ukraine because he's an altruist with a heart of gold. Proton going out of their way to support Iranian citizens who need VPNs right now pays long term financial dividends along with supporting their policy goals.

3. So when you say keep your money to improve services... that's what they are doing. Improving a product is not all about how many features get rolled out per year, advancing related, impacted causes is investing in the future and functionality of this platform. Next time Proton announces a donation, try to see it as such.

I agree with John S. No politics No virtue signaling. No bias, left or right. Keep the main thing the main thing. Thank you.

+1 To John S.

I pay for the product, I don't care about the political belief / virtue signaling of Proton.

Also kinda sad that a lot of the request are from people wanting more free things for the free plans.

Stop using our money for funding things outside of Proton and don't waste it on freeriders.

PLEASE DO NOT STOP WITH "POLITICS"!!!
With the new digital era the attacks on the free speech, democracy, and privacy (wich are are closely related) become more and more stronger, sophisticated, and infamous. Unfortunately even in so called democratic countries we can see more and more censorship. But there still exists some social controll, the possibility to fight back... In the rest of the world there is a much worser situation. You risk very much (sometimes even your life) if you publicly oppose to the dictatorship and endless human stupidity and cruelty. I am very glad that Proton supports the free speech and democracy, and other right issues. And very sad that there are such users. Since those Ukrainien children killed by the Russian fascists did not do any "politics" and still are dead because of idiot fascist bullshits...

Keep your money to improve your services.

If you care about a cause, hire people who are concerned about this cause so they can have a job and feed their families.

Everyone has an agenda, it is the new way of marketing by forcing people to choose sides - conquering through division. Terrible idea - using a customer base to purchase a product and support the company and in turn selling their data or information for purposes outside of the product intention. The user is paying for company marketing and branding without realizing it.

Make a great product. Support the customer base. Stick to the plan.

I agree. Politics is what is making me leave google. Please don't go woke.

A service dedicated to privacy and free speech must also publicly oppose forces that seek to limit those very principles.

John is right. Tech services should be neutral. Any tech service which take sides is a dishonest dealer and a threat to free speech. The irony of theoretically defending "democracy" ideals by eliminating the ability of others to disagree with you.

There's more to freedom and democracy, Proton, than are dreamt of in your (MSM-based, US-centric) philosophy.