Crazy Proton Summer

Proton released three major new products this summer, all within the span of about a couple months: Proton Docs, Proton Wallet and Proton Scribe. Given that Proton is a privacy-focused company, some of these offerings seemed almost at odds with that mission. So today I ask Andy Yen (Proton’s CEO) some questions about the privacy of their Bitcoin wallet and AI editing tool. We also discuss the new Proton Foundation and how it safeguards their privacy mission for the future. Finally, I ask Andy if they would consider acquiring Mozilla to save the Firefox browser and, in the wake of the blow back Signal received about protecting local access to messaging data, how Proton addresses the ‘compromised machine’ threat model.

Interview Notes

• Proton Docs: https://proton.me/blog/docs-proton-drive 
• Proton Wallet: https://proton.me/blog/proton-wallet-launch 
• Proton Scribe: https://proton.me/blog/proton-scribe-writing-assistant 
• Proton Foundation: https://proton.me/blog/proton-non-profit-foundation 
• Techlore on Proton Wallet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tESbBM2LZHM&t=1922s 
• Seth for Privacy’s Andy Yen interview: https://optoutpod.com/episodes/protonwallet-andy-yen/ 
• My interview on Easy Prey Podcast: https://www.easyprey.com/firewalls-dont-stop-dragons-with-carey-parker/
• Techlore: https://www.techlore.tech/
• Privacy Guides: https://www.privacyguides.org/ 
• The New Oil: https://thenewoil.org/ 

Further Info

• Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna 
• Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book 
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 
• Become a patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons 
• Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 
• Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 
• Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support 
• Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

• 0:01:18: Interview setup
• 0:04:18: Why did you release so many new products all at once?
• 0:05:53: Did you develop Proton Docs from scratch? Will we get Proton Sheets, too?
• 0:10:09: What drove you to add AI features? How do you maintain privacy with AI?
• 0:17:07: Why did Proton feel the need to create another cryptocurrency wallet?
• 0:21:37: Who is the target audience for Proton Wallet?
• 0:28:38: As a privacy company, why go with Bitcoin, which is not really private?
• 0:39:34: Will you support Monero or Zcash?
• 0:40:40: Why did you restructure Proton as a foundation? What’s the impact of this?
• 0:45:41: How is this new foundation different from others like Mozilla or Tor?
• 0:47:59: Would Proton ever consider acquiring Mozilla to save Firefox?
• 0:55:43: Does TunnelVision affect Proton VPN? How can we improve VPNs generally?
• 1:01:35: Signal was bashed for not encrypting local keys. How does Proton handle this?
• 1:05:25: What’s coming next from Proton?
• 1:07:48: Interview wrap-up
• 1:10:54: Couple updates on Wallet, Scribe availability
• 1:11:50: Recommending other great privacy resources and Proton discussions
• 1:12:53: Upcoming shows
• 1:14:29: Upcoming podcast awareness campaign