Wow! I did not expect so many responses to my post. I apologize for being MIA after publishing it. Life got in the way. Since I can’t make more than 2 posts in a row, this is going to be long, so buckle up!
ON ECOSYSTEMS
@anonymous484 Everything you just said seems factual. It doesn’t tell me your opinion on the matter, though. I want to reiterate that, unlike THO, I am not against Proton having an ecosystem. I support it. What I am against is coercing and locking users into that ecosystem.
How does Proton fail to retain me if I already pay for one product and wish to pay for a second one instead of the whole suite?
Why force me to pay for Proton Unlimited or create a second account when, in both cases, Proton is getting more money from me?
That doesn’t make sense to me.
The exceptions of Lumo, SimpleLogin & Standard Notes
Moreover, the simple fact that products like Lumo are an add-on for single service subscribers as well as Proton Unlimited subscribers completely contradicts their logic. SimpleLogin also remains a standalone product despite being integrated into the Unlimited suite.
In other words, it’s possible to have Proton Mail Plus and Simple Login Premium with the same Proton account without being on Proton Unlimited. And I am not referring to the $200 lifetime bundle. Lastly, just yesterday, Proton announced that Standard Notes would remain a standalone product.
To me, Proton not allowing multiple subscriptions under the same account for most of their native services shows a lack of confidence. It reveals that they know that some of their products don’t stand strongly on their own, so they want to coerce their paying users into them via Proton Unlimited. I’ve said it before; to me, it’s a dark pattern.
Agreed.
AS LONG AS IT’S IN GOOD FAITH, CRITICISM SHOULD BE WELCOME
I personally haven’t seen this become a trend from creators in the privacy/tech community. You’ll have to enlighten me. I also think there is a difference between criticizing a Big Tech surveillance capitalism company for offering privacy solutions (Apple, Meta, Telegram) vs. criticizing a privacy-first company (Proton, Notesnook, Tuta, etc…) doing the same. As long as it’s done in good faith, both should be welcome.
ON ENSHITTIFICATION
I agree. Some people find it controversial for me to say this, but removing features that were once free or part of a specific tier you pay for, 100% qualifies as enshittification. It doesn’t matter if it’s not on the scale of Google and Meta. It’s still enshittification. And both privacy and non-privacy companies have done this, including Proton.
WE SHOULD ENCOURAGE PRIVACY ADVOCATES TO BE ON PRIVACY FRIENDLY PLATFORMS
To make a bigger point, I don’t understand why a lot of prominent privacy voices are not present or active on privacy-friendly platforms. In my case, I am thinking of Mastodon. It’s one thing for privacy advocates to not be on Twitter or BlueSky. But if they are present there, it contradicts their advocacy to not be on Mastodon.
The Mastodon community is much bigger than I thought. Even if their toots 
have to be automated, there is value in all privacy influencers being there. Those of us who follow them on other platforms should kindly encourage them to join and/or be more active.
Unfortunately, I find there is some truth to this. At least for some of their services.
ON PROTON’S THREAT MODELS
People who become whistleblowers never predicted that they would become whistleblowers. Hence, you want to be able to protect yourself in advance because you never know when you could be put in that position.
No system is perfect. Proton is for regular average people, but also people who work in fields where they could be targeted, like journalism. IMHO, all journalists should use an end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) email provider by default as well as Signal. And you don’t have to be an investigative journalist to warrant this use.
You never know where a scandal might come from. You could be a sports journalist and think to yourself you don’t need E2EE because you’re not reporting on government conspiracies, but scandals have come out of sports many times. Same if you report on farming. That’s why E2EE should be the default in journalism. Hell, the argument of privacy advocates is that E2EE should be the default for everyone, and I agree. I have seen media outlets that still use WhatsApp for tips, which, to me, is unacceptable, as you are jeopardizing potential whistleblowers.
ON PROTON DRIVE & COLLABORATIONS
I don’t use Drive that much, but indeed it is one of Proton’s weakest services in that beyond E2EE it is quite basic compared to other E2EE cloud services. There are so many features I want to see, like having a drop folder so other people can upload files to your account. This is extremely useful, especially when you correspond with people who use Big Tech email providers.
I think it will come eventually. You’ll note that all those companies don’t directly compete with each other. I can imagine that they wouldn’t want to do a collab if their products were similar, like, for example, Proton & Tuta. I really hope Filen sticks around.
What do you think of Proton’s collab with Vivaldi?
I don’t understand Proton’s collab with Vivaldi. Maybe I am wrong, but I don’t see Vivaldi as a privacy browser. I’ve never seen Vivaldi be recommended by any privacy advocate, so I find it extremely weird that it would be the primary browser that Proton recommends.
I know that years back they recommended Brave and Firefox, which are the standard recommendations. But since their collab with Vivaldi, I’ve seen them cite it as their primary recommendation on Twitter, which, to me, doesn’t make sense.
It’s like the Verge promoting WhatsApp on their podcast (sponsored ad) when they know that backups are not E2EE and that they collect tons of metadata. They have reported on it and still promote WhatsApp.
ON ANDY YEN AND PROTON’S STEWARDSHIP
I agree. Overall, I think he’s made some very smart decisions. For example, I completely understand his justification for Proton not accepting direct payments via Monero. It makes sense to me. That being said, there are decisions that Proton made that I don’t understand and that Andy has never been asked about. Like why they don’t accept multiple subscriptions. I’ve had the chance to ask Proton Support about these questions, and I was not satisfied by their answers. I am still in conversation with them about various issues, and I hope to report on them here very soon.
I’m a paying user and I am fundamentally unsatisfied in key aspects. I want to reiterate that I don’t have any issue with Proton having an ecosystem. I think it is ultimately a good thing. I have an issue with Proton coercing their users into a subscription they don’t want.
I am a paying user, and I would like to subscribe to multiple Proton services under the same account. That is mostly not possible. You can only subscribe to one core service or Proton Unlimited. I don’t need nor can I afford the latter. I have voiced this concern to Proton, and they were not moved. My belief is that until a critical mass raises their voice, they won’t care to do anything about it because they don’t want to.
Having the ability to use Proton Pass Plus and Proton Mail Plus under the same Proton account would allow my subscriptions to be in the same Proton ecosystem. But it’s not possible. Not unless I upgrade to Proton Unlimited, which, again, I don’t need and can’t afford.