That is exactly how real life works. Look at privacy software that has anything like mass adoption (Signal, Proton, Brave Browser, etc.), the common thread is convenience and/or interesting features. People in privacy community just cannot wrap their head around the fact that people want to live their lives, not keep maintaining 10+ backup methods and have weird hacks to just use things they wish to use.
Convenient privacy with good features and UX is the way.
Iāll flip - we need the advocates to screech and yell, cause no one else is, even if I donāt 100% agree. Advocates donāt necessarily make software either, and itās unfair to assume they should just do it. Cryptography is also really damn hard, and every private communication system has to get that right, on top of a good UX. I donāt agree with the fuss of adding a Zoom button for Proton, but I agree that we need people with firm stances and understanding of privacy to shape an idea of t he most ideal direction to go, and hopefully that has some impact.
Based on Protonās How to add Zoom meetings to event invitations | Proton , all it does seems to be 1. set up feature flag to show / hide the buttons, 2. write an API to call the meetingID and PIN, 3. Include meeting info with the join button in invitation template and 4. A few more tables in DB to cater the new fields
While 2 varies between each 3rd party provider, 1/3/4 should be basically the same (with separate toggle for each provider, maybe).
The number of moving parts seems minimal and most of the bugs should be easily be swept during UAT for this relatively simple feature, as the number of possible scenario is really not that many.
I can understand your point. But why not working on core features? We STILL donāt have contacts sync, real contacts integration, no birthday sync, no offline feature and so on.
Proton really lost their focus - and does not find itās way backā¦
oh this hurt my soul on the relatability xDDD
Proton also has a partnership with Airalo where they each offer discount codes for the other service Proton on Instagram: "Stay connected, stay private šš Airaloās affordable eSIMs cover 200+ destinations- you can get online no matter where your adventures take you. Pair it with Proton VPN for secure, private, and unrestricted access to the web. Hit the link in our bio and enjoy 30% off Airalo eSIMs until Feb 15." I get why Proton are targeting business users (lot of money on the table) I just hope it doesnāt get in the way of personal privacy, but Iām starting to get a bit nervous as an Unlimited customer.
I can understand you.
Proton links to Zoom vs. mailbox.org developed and introduced OpenTalk!
I think this speaks for itself.
That is one way of āback it up with numbersā, I see. Come on!
I mean, app integration points cannot be remotely as privacy invasive as an OS (especially one thatās been repeatedly pwned), but arenāt we not focusing on it because ā¦ reasons? Configuring privacy settings in mainstream applications (e.g. WhatsApp) - #6 by jonah
Proton is integrating with an industry leader. Just as how Firefox builds and runs on Windows, can run closed source plugins (including Zoom), but that doesnāt make their mission as a organisation, imo, less privacy-centered.[1]
Personally, this move looks like Proton is going mainstream, which usually means integrating with rest of the ecosystem.
Jitsi is actually super neat, especially for 1-on-1s. Unsure why it gets such a bad rep.
Enabling the integration point with Zoom by default, though, is a curious choice by Proton. ā©ļø
Fair point actually, but all i wanted to see it as actually being a ādefaultā which clearly it isnāt.
Itās about Trust. If you went to a restaurant that says they sell an expensive fish like Bluefin Tuna. But actually what they served you is Tilapia (letās say itās 4 times the price) and you didnāt know. Later they get caught. Would you go back to this restaurant even if you liked it?
Zoom got caught lying about their encryption.
Lot of people continued using it because they either didnāt care or didnāt know. But lots of privacy-minded individual stopped using it because they lost trust in the app (or werenāt using it in the beginning).
To me, Proton endorsing Zoom, is like my best friend chef endorsing that restaurant. Maybe that chef is losing its touch.
Maybe the enshittification has already begun?
tldr; people really REALLY love drama to the point they have to create it on every step.
Since the very beginning the Proton was about getting the good stuff to the masses. I donāt think having the option to have a zoom call link or whatever in calendar, that vast majority of us privacy geeks wonāt even use, I donāt think its the end of the world. But it may unblock a mass of people for switching to proton mail and then, when we mail with them, no google reads our mails anymore.
Its unrealistic to think that one can implement a full suite of privacy friendly services and a mass of people will opt for that easily. That would be too inconvenient for an average person. It is way WAY more realistic to expect people to budge in here, and budge in there and the borders can be pushed.
Please calm down. Because if this is the way we want to treat companies that tries to do something for privacy, there will soon be no company left.
Proton aims to compete with Google regarding Workspace features and it was somehow expected to add external features which are used by other companies. I hope they will add Teams and Meet integrations too.
On the other hand, it is bad for privacy, I agree, but necessary if they aim to get business customers. I would have preferred if they created a standalone meeting app, respecting privacy and universally compatible with other meeting apps, but that is just my opinion.
I think most folks wonāt mind having an excuse to not join zoom invites 
/s
From my personal experience though, the vast majority of enterprise users stick with Google or Outlook. For the few privacy-aware organizations using Proton Business, they are more likely to use Signal or Matrix for their meetings anyways.
Regardless, I do agree that Zoom integration is a great way to get new folks into the Proton environment. College students and professionals alike still need to attend online meetings regardless of their email/calendar provider.
Then they should also integrate Jitsi and privacy focused services alongside Zoom too. I really hope they do. I have long thought Proton itself should have a āfreeā Jitsi instance thatās reliable for paying customers. We have the tech and Iām sure they can avail the infrastructure. Itās a matter of priorities and them spending time and some resources doing it.
I donāt necessarily have a problem with them integrating Zoom for people/orgs to enable in the settings if they choose to, but what annoys me is that they enabled it on regular usersā accounts by default and with no caveats listed in the Proton UI about the lack of privacy by default when using Zoom.
Personally, it felt like a big invasion to see that button to create a Zoom meeting suddenly appear in my proton calendar. Proton is supposed to be a service that I donāt need to mess around in the settings to make private. Everyone is free to choose services that fit their needs. It seems Proton has decided to prioritize enterprise users. I wonāt be waiting around to find out what they do next.
And I just found one thing. Once you connect your Zoom account, there is no option in Proton to disconnect it. Only option is to remove it from Zoom directly via App Marketplace
Ouch. Not exactly the best design choice on their end
I think this is on Zoomās end, not Proton?
At the end, this āfeatureā simply links you to Zoom meeting using Zoomās infrastructure, of course you need to manage your Zoom accountās preference (external connection) via Zoom, just like Easy Switch.
