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submitted 3 days ago by otter@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world

It says that "100% of the proceeds will be donated" and I recognize a few projects in their list that are worth supporting. While this still feels a bit like an ad, I thought it was newsworthy + something that the Fediverse would be supportive of?

Please share if you see any issues with this, and I can edit it into this post (or take down the post).

Full details on the link in the post, summary:

Join our charity fundraiser before it ends on January 5th

Since 2018, with support from the Proton community, we have financially supported non-profit organizations that share this vision, donating over $3 million to fuel a growing movement for a better internet. For this year’s fundraiser, we’re giving away 10 Proton Lifetime accounts, our most exclusive plan that gives you the most storage and all the features of all our current and future products, forever.

Starting today, you can enter the raffle to win a Lifetime plan. 100% of the proceeds will be donated, along with a $150,000 matching contribution from Proton. Raffle tickets are on sale from now until January 5 at 11:59 PM CET. We’ll announce the winners the following day.

Recipient details:

A portion of the funds will also go to a few organizations from past years, such as Tor, GrapheneOS, and others, as many nonprofits have seen drops in donations and are struggling to reach their budget goals.

this year’s recipients:

  • Freedom House
  • Free Software Foundation Europe
  • Law for Change
  • Ada Lovelace Institute
  • Nothing2Hide
  • Free Press Unlimited
  • The Tech Oversight Project
  • Open Data Institute
  • OpenStreetMap
  • Ladybird
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[-] bloup@lemmy.sdf.org 151 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I remember one time I criticized proton for positioning itself as community oriented while still being a for-profit corporation. I pointed out that as long as it’s a for-profit corporation, it would have not have any financial or legal incentive to continue pursuing its mission if it ever achieved a certain level of market share. But then several months later, they actually announced that they were going to put their money where their mouth is, and transition to a nonprofit structure.

I think that proton is perhaps the greatest example at the moment that to oppose capitalism does not mean you have to be opposed to free enterprise, and people should always think about this sort of thing when they listen to any kind of business leader try to convince them that it’s actually really important that they be allowed to cash out whenever they want.

I can’t imagine that their set up is perfect, but I definitely am going to have to give this offer serious consideration.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 7 points 2 days ago

The big difference is that they're not publicly traded. Stocks are the root of all evil.

[-] independantiste@sh.itjust.works 32 points 3 days ago

Proton is still a for-profit company, the change that happened was that the for-profit company was no longer owned by a single or multiple people (that can sell it whenever they want). Instead now proton is owned by the non profit that can't be sold

[-] padge@lemmy.zip 25 points 3 days ago

Is this similar to how Mozilla is set up?

[-] independantiste@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 days ago

Pretty much yeah

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 days ago

Proton isn't opposing capitalism though, it's filling a niche created by other organizations' poor privacy policies. Them being nonprofit doesn't change that, it just places certain restrictions on themselves.

[-] bloup@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 3 days ago

First of all, I did not say that proton is opposing capitalism. I said that to oppose capitalism does not mean you have to be opposed to free enterprise. As in, you can be opposed to an economy comprised primarily of capitalist institutions without being opposed to the concept of free enterprise. Proton is simply an example of such a business, which can be used as evidence for the fact that it is entirely possible to start businesses in a free market economy which are actually interested in solving problems as opposed to using the existence of problems as a vehicle to enrich a class of shareholders.

Second of all, “it’s filling a niche created by other companies’ poor privacy policies” is essentially nothing more than a restatement of the second sentence I wrote, which I will repeat here: “I pointed out that as long as it’s a for-profit corporation, it would have not have any financial or legal incentive to continue pursuing its mission if it ever achieved a certain level of market share.”. You’re right that them adopting a nonprofit structure doesn’t change that, but it does change their ability to sell out their customers at the discretion of a class of shareholders, unlike any business which is owned by private individuals.

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[-] AtHeartEngineer@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Being for profit as a legal entity doesn't necessarily mean they will exploit every angle they can to make a profit. When a company has to answer to shareholders, like when they go public or sell private share to raise capital, that's when it becomes a real issue. It really depends on their bylaws and who's running the organization otherwise.

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[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

As an owner of a competing email service, I’m primed to dislike Proton, but god damn, I just can’t. They’re an awesome company. I hope that in the coming capitalistic hellscape (wait, we’re already in a capitalistic hellscape), Proton is able to defeat the 70% market share behemoths of Gmail and Exchange.

I’m really glad to see they’re supporting Ladybird too. That’s such a cool project.

[-] squid_slime@lemm.ee 5 points 3 days ago

Which provider if you don't mind sharing?

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 17 points 3 days ago

It’s https://port87.com/. I’m still working to make it ready for business use, but it’s ready to use as your personal email. It’s really good for keeping your email organized, which is something I’ve always struggled with personally.

It’s behind a waitlist right now, but I send out invites about once a week.

[-] squid_slime@lemm.ee 7 points 3 days ago

Good job, I'm with tuta and am super hesitant to switch since ctempla dropping the ball 3 years ago else I'd ask for an invite. But honestly need more indie providers like tuta, ctempla and proton.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I completely understand. One thing I’m working on right now is custom domain support, so that you can either use yourname-labelname@yourdomain.com or even just labelname@yourdomain.com. That way if you ultimately decide to switch providers, you wouldn’t have to change all your email addresses. I’m hoping to have that available within the next few months.

[-] viking@infosec.pub 2 points 3 days ago

That's pretty much how addy.io works, I think their technology is also open source? At least free for selfhosted use, I never looked into the license itself.

Just had a look at your service and it sounds quite compelling. I'm just wondering how the "not a bot" sender confirmation works - would they essentially get an autoreply where they have to solve a captcha, click on a specific link or whatnot?

I'm curios how that works with senders that aren't individuals but e.g. services I'm signing up for.

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[-] brlemworld@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

How is this patented? I had a professor show us how to do this in college.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

The patented part is that you can have multiple email addresses for the same user, and a subset of them can provide challenge-response screening to filter automated messages. The patent is publicly available on the USPTO website.

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[-] Pharceface@lemm.ee 31 points 3 days ago

I really hope Ladybird is able to eventually become a strong alternative browser engine to Chromium.

[-] hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 10 points 3 days ago

only for it to be a safari wrapper on ios…

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 14 points 3 days ago

Hopefully not in the EU.

[-] squid_slime@lemm.ee 11 points 3 days ago

All the service! Who ever wins gets storage, key wallet, VPN and email. Thats pretty fucking good.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 20 points 3 days ago

Cool. I bailed on Proton for Tuta because the value wasn't there for me.

I'll be buying a ticket to support the various orgs, and I'd definitely use the lifetime sub if I somehow won. It's cool of them to offer it.

[-] j_bender@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 days ago

How does your experience with Tuta compare to Proton? Was it a good move?

I think so. Initially it was pretty rough, but they've been actively improving things, so it's better now. Once they finish implementing labels (soon?), I think it'll have everything I need.

Some downsides:

  • must use their client - not an issue for me, but could bother others; their app isn't as nice as proton's IMO
  • no extra apps, just email and calendar
  • no good way to export data - they're improving this, but it's still a pain

The reasons I switched are:

  • cheaper family plan - I'm currently the only one on it, but I could add more accounts for €3/month
  • 3 custom domains - I currently use two, one for family and friends, and the other for online spam; I could probably use aliases, but I want it to be easy to switch if Tuta does anything I don't like; I'd have to get the top Proton tier for that
  • I didn't actually use the other services anyway - I tried the VPN, but I honestly prefer Mullvad anyway, and I don't need VPN always right now

That said, Proton ultimate is a decent deal if you commit for 2 years. I just decided I'd give Tuta a shot and they're pretty reasonable.

[-] Rookwood@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago

I wish Tuta supported throwaway email addresses. If it did it would be nearly perfect.

I DIY it with my custom domain.

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[-] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 33 points 3 days ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

sdfhjlaks;fjlk;asfjkl;sfjakl;

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 25 points 3 days ago

Right now we need organisations fighting for software and media freedom more than ever. The unholy alliance of big corporations and far-right politics is just getting going, and if we don't have alternatives to communications run by unethical corporations we'll be driven into silence while they control all messaging. So this seems like a worthwhile donation.

[-] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Just a reminder for anyone concerned about potential FSF involvement that Free Software Foundation Europe has no ties to FSF or Stallman.

[-] spegin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

I'm out of the loop what is the issue with the non EU FSF and Stallman (I assume this is about Richard?)

[-] 0x0@infosec.pub 2 points 2 days ago

Probably something about toenails

[-] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 22 points 3 days ago

Got my tickets a few days ago, hoping for a win!

[-] dditty@lemm.ee 14 points 3 days ago

Just got one myself! 🤞

[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago

It’s a great idea for a way to encourage donations to these projects.

[-] padge@lemmy.zip 13 points 3 days ago

I bought a ticket, thanks for the post. I don't expect to win, but it'd be cool if I did and it's a good excuse to send $10 to some cool projects

[-] endofline@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago

I've once bought lifetime service - couchsurfing. It didn't stick foe less than 1 year. I have second life time account for 2600 magazine but still I'm skeptical to "life time" promotions

[-] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 4 points 3 days ago

Plex lifetime has lasted me a long long time, maybe around 10-12 years, so even if it somehow stops now it's more than made up for what I paid for it

[-] M33@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 3 days ago

life time subscriptions always gets cripled as time goes by, to the point they become useless. Like forcing you to top up, or even worse to abandon and get a monthly plan for new features.

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this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
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