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Is there anything unsavory about ProtonMail?

For some reason I have it in the back of my mind that they were at one point accused of being a honeypot for US intelligence because of their association with MIT. Probably complete BS, but maybe not. Are they as open source as they claim to be? Looks like they're on github. F-Droid seems to think they have some Google libraries or whatever that they use.

ProtonMail users, how do you like/dislike it?

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  • My experience has been fine. If you go into Proton Mail with the understanding that you're doing it to stop Google from data mining your email, and not for the sake of truly private/anonymous email, you'll have a good time. The aliasing feature is super nice as well.

    • What qualifies as being truly private/anonymous email in your book? Or does such a thing even exist?

      • Based on the reading I've done, it doesn't really seem like one exists - it's just not what email was designed to do. I'm not an infosec professional, but that's the impression I've been given by others in the field.

        • it's just not what email was designed to do.

          Email was designed decades ago, before the concept of data-mining even existed. It probably didn't occur to the creators how universally accepted it would be. Much less rampant.

          That being said, its' privacy is entirely dependent on who stores your data and whether they give a shit.

    • If you go into Proton Mail with the understanding that you’re doing it to stop Google from data mining your email

      You're not really stopping anything if most of the people you're emailing are still using Google or Microsoft :) Because they'll get a copy of your email then anyway. This is really the problem with email IMO. Well, one of the problems, a lack of sender authentication is another one.

      • I'm mostly just protecting the mountain of old stuff in my archives that I'm too much of a digital hoarder to delete. ;D

        a lack of sender authentication is another one

        This one is a nightmare. We spend bucketloads on DMARC shit in our department, only to still have loads of issues with email spoofing.

    • I can't get contact photos to display on PM. Tuta doesn't have this feature at all, but the fact that PM appears to, but doesn't work; well, it shouldn't, but little things like that drive me crazy.

      • Funnily enough, I don't know that I've ever even paid attention to contact photos (not that 99% of the people I email have would have them anyways.)

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