I’ve seen a lot of people on Signal and Reddit, a lot of GrapheneOS users, and a lot of others hopping on the Cape train lately. Among our volunteers, I know I’m not the only one giving it a try 
What do we think, is it worth a closer look?
Should Privacy Guides agree to an interview with them?
Are there any lingering questions after this video you want answered?
Let me know 
Don’t think you need buy-in from the community to do this? PG’s content team should pursue interviews with any notable project in the space,[1] as that’s a great way to get to the crux of it all (straight from horse’s mouth, as it were).
Should also consider doing a round with Phreeli, too! ↩︎
You should speak with anyone and whomever in the privacy space who has a half decent product to show. The community learns more, and PG gets new content at the same time.
Yes, of course 
It’s up to each of us to decide whether the service is right for us. An interview is definitively useful to develop a educated opinion.
I think people behind PG feel that just because something’s are being discussed by the team, it means people will take it as a recommendation.
That’s the thinking they should stop having. The recommendations are on the website. And discussing anything about any particular product means just that. A discussion. For us to learn more. That’s it.
This is one thing I like about Techlore. Henry interviews many people and I think we’re better for it learning about them and make a decision for ourselves.
While I largely agree with your sentiment here, but I do think there is some additional nuance here.
From my perspective:
Implies that Cape has reached out to request an interview with Privacy Guides. Am I wrong in assuming this? Would Privacy Guides have to reach out to Cape to arrange the interview?
Anyway, I suppose my point is that if Privacy Guides proper accepts[1] this interview with Cape are they then required morally to extend these interview invitations to every service recommended on the site, some subset of those, only the ones that reach out for an interview, or is no equal opportunity due to these other tools/companies?
I do think an interview would be nice to see, but I am curious about the potential logistics of such an interview and if it would be “fair” without similar interviews from other privacy companies being hosted on the Privacy Guides channel.
Additional side note: I’m not sure if Privacy Guides has done any other interviews of software tools/products/companies before.
Though perhaps the Carissa Véliz (Author, Oxford Professor, and Proton Board Member) interview could fall under a similar umbrella.[2] Though I believe that doesn’t strictly focus on Proton products so would probably be considered differently.
I second this idea. I was just thinking about how the two services compare.
Cape is brought up in here often, on nearly any threads discussing privacy + cellular networks. More information, an interview, etc would probably serve the community well
I see Jonah has a referral code. So far as I’m concerned, it was handled well - disclaimer is plain & clear, on a personal blog clearly distinct from the PG brand, perfectly ethical, people gotta eat.
But I do recommend any outreach efforts featured on PG to be led by a different team member, one without a stake in Cape. Mostly just an optics concern, I don’t want to see good information get dismissed & conflated with accusations of sponsored content
No, I don’t think so either. I’m actually just asking about notability, because nobody’s bothered to make a Cape post here in the years they’ve been around, so maybe nobody cares. I’m probably interested in doing this one anyways, but I still like to judge whether anyone here cares because there are always other interviews to do or videos to make if people would prefer those instead.
We’ve not, but it is something we plan to do. Currently I’m more interested in doing interviews with products we already recommend (especially if they add new features or something) but I’m not opposed to highlighting newer products by someone like Cape. My concerns are just what I said above, and pretty much what you said yeah.
Wasn’t my impression on a quick search here the other day, but I’ll look again.
I think my current feeling is more that videos published by Privacy Guides feel more to me like website content than discussions. We have discussions on TWIP on video, and here on the forum, and to some extent in interviews where it’s not just team discussions, but sharing insight from someone external to the team. We haven’t yet done less extensively researched content like this.
If people want more clearly labeled first impressions or other opinion-based discussions in PG channel videos then we can absolutely try it. But I do think it seems too official, yeah, and might give people the wrong impression of what PG is beyond the channel.
We’ve also been discussing this a good amount on Signal the last few days before I posted this forum thread, but I think everyone has good points here. I can share at least some of my own thoughts anyways.
BTW: I mentioned those two channels not at all to imply they are bad, I actually like them, but I think they are different from us. e.g. Techlore dropping the forum entirely, which we could never possibly dream of doing, even if for some reason “the team” wanted to, since it is such an integral component of anything we write. All I see the team doing is the best we can to summarize the threads here on this forum.
Well even with all that said, while PG can keep up with their content as they are, at some point it would have needed to do something “more” or “different” too. So, this type of coverage/interview content might as well be it.
Let me revise my comment: when privacy on cell networks is brought up, Cape (& Phrelli) is often brought up. But privacy on cell networks is not a super common conversation topic, so I feel this is indeed good information to compile & provide
I just meant typically I would (want to) see a dedicated Site Development > Tool Suggestions thread, which we definitely see for all variety of things less interesting than cell carriers, but I can try to compile opinions from across a bunch of different threads in the future too.
And to be clear, interview coverage I’m more than happy to do a lot more of. And it’s easier content really. It’s only the “personal evaluations” videos (which I’d consider this to be) I’m concerned about.
(Not to mention we still have dozens of website pages to make into videos lol)
Sorry. I realize I’m conflating this discussion on whether we should do an interview with Cape (which is the actual question I asked), with the question of whether this video I posted to my channel should be on Privacy Guides’ instead.
I am just juggling too many discussions at once 
While I’m interested in discussing both of those topics as a community too, when it comes to interviews I agree it’s not really in question whether we should do them in the first place, only:
And indeed it sounds like everyone would be interested in us doing an interview with Cape.
I’m now thinking it’s time for you to decide if anything you do online as a “public figure” and a non profit project director, whether any content you put out there is PG content (by default) or not (as that’s how it may be thought of).
The more PG grows and the more people learn about and of you, the more the conflation will be of “Jonah Aragon” and “Privacy Guides” with respect to privacy and security related content including company profiles and product interviews.
This is something to think about.
This might be a bit off topic, but are PrivacyGuides looking (as initiators) to interview any of the following groups of people?
An interview with Cape is in isolation is less compelling than an interview with Cape in addition to all the possible context above. Order doesn’t seem too important to me.
Yes, worth a closer look. Can’t say more but the team is legit.
They had Group SMS issues but I think those are resolved now.
I suppose this is US only?
Also, I wonder how these prices compare to “normal" plans in the US. Basically because I have the same unlimited data for about 5 USD a month right now.
I have an AT&T unlimited plan for $44/mo (work subsidizes it). Quick lookup and it looks like Mint offers Unlimited for $30/mo (prepaid) and Visible offers $20/mo monthly unlimited plan (goes up to $25/mo after your first year).
Personally I wouldn’t want to pay $70/mo unless my salary doubled lol. $50/mo with the referral is a little more manageable, but still if I was paying out of pocket I’m not sure if I’d even have a data plan all the time.
Most people I know are on postpaid plans that are like $100/month/line. That definitely comes way down with 4+ lines (which they all have, family plans), but so does Cape’s prepaid plans.
Frugal/wiser people will certainly switch to these other prepaid plans like Mint or Visible but this is not the norm (weirdly tbh), they’re still like $25 at least, and maybe you get less paying a full 12 months upfront.
As a non-profit our volunteers have access to an exceptional unlimited hotspot data plan and that is still 10 USD monthly. Do you know how big the US is? $5 would not be tenable 
I agree, if they want mass adoption they won’t really be able to drop this current pricing. I can see why they would think their previous $99/month price is worth it for what they offer, but it’s untenable for a lot of people.
It’s like, I was just at an art fair and looking at this handcrafted wooden coffee table, $2000. I can do the math on how much time it probably took to craft, and is that $2000 a “fair” value? Almost certainly yes, but I’m sure as hell still not gonna pay $2000 for it.
That’s for rich people to do and I’ll pick it up for $50 at a garage sale in 10 years lol
If they go back up to $99 it’ll basically become a service exclusively for cryptocurrency holders uber-concerned about SIM swap attacks.
Even at $50 though, I think it has a lot of potential for a lot of people to pick it up, and I do think we largely would benefit from more adoption of tech like this.
If I were Cape I would probably change my pricing to $70 base, $30 off (with $10 off the referee side) for your first referral, and another $10 off both sides for subsequent referrals. This would be a tiny bit worse for some people, a little bit better for others, but probably a bit more sustainable for them. I’m no economist though, I guess these are vibe-based numbers they probably gave more thought about lol
Or just keep it as-is, I think this is currently a good deal even for people who don’t make referrals.
