The CEO of Proton (Andy Yen) answers all your questions!

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Dec 19, 2023

The CEO of Proton (Andy Yen) answers questions about Proton's features, privacy, and security. They discuss the origin and development of Proton, why they started with email, and their business model. They also cover the advantages and limitations of using a VPN, Linux support for Proton products, the environmental impact of Proton, alternative notification systems, feature parity challenges, availability of SMTP relay, Proton Drive's photo gallery, and the development of a Proton Notes app.

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ANECDOTE

CERN Origins And Community Crowdfund

Proton started as an open-source project at CERN after Snowden revealed mass surveillance and quickly gained huge demand.
The initial community crowdfund raised ~€500,000 and validated the project's mission and sustainability.

INSIGHT

Email As The Identity Keystone

Email is the keystone of big tech ecosystems because it ties your identity to many services and trackers.
Switching email to Proton severs that identity link and reduces Google's ability to profile you.

ADVICE

Align Incentives With Paid Freemium

Use a freemium paid model to align incentives: users pay directly for privacy rather than being the product for advertisers.
Avoid VC-driven growth that pressures compromises on security and user interests.

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At the end of November, I asked the community on mastodon to send me all their questions about Proton Mail, Drive, VPN, Pass, their features, their privacy, and their security.

I compiled all of these, and interviewed Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton. I couldn’t ask ALL of the questions, since there were 130 non-duplicates, but over the course of 1h30, we still managed to cover a lot of ground.

So, here is the full interview (also available as a video on the Youtube channel if you prefer that).

00:00 Intro 2:11 How did Proton start? 4:18 Why start with email? 6:57 What is Proton’s business model? 9:28 Why set up in Switzerland? 12:28 What data do you have on customers? 15:33 How is encryption important? 19:14 Do you always need to use a VPN? 21:41 Why focus on building an ecosystem? 25:50 Is an Office Suite planned? 27:23 What differentiates Proton from competitors? 31:20 Is Proton a viable alternative to big tech services? 34:26 Why expand to more products instead of finishing existing ones? 38:14 Does the general public care about privacy? 39:40 What’s next for Proton services? 41:02 What are the plans for native Linux clients? 46:57 Will ProtonVPN offer dedicated IPs to everyone? 48:41 What’s the environmental impact of Proton? 50:21 Proton on F-Droid, without Google Play notifications? 52:57 Why are code repos all separated and hard to find? 54:06 Why are addresses ending in “.me” ? 55:51 When will all apps reach feature parity? 57:18 Will SMTP relay be supported? 58:41 Will Proton focus more on businesses in the future? 1:00:44 Why put all your eggs in one basket with just Proton services? 1:02:18 Will Proton support passkeys? 1:04:16 Does E2E matter is the recipient isn’t using it? 1:05:44 Will Proton disable port forwarding in VPN? 1:07:35 Is encryption enough to make email private? 1:10:01 What protects users from a change in Proton’s code licensing? 1:12:08 How does Proton protect its infrastructure? 1:14:09 Impacts of Quantum Computing on privacy and security? 1:15:19 What’s the future of Proton Bridge? 1:17:19 When will Proton photos be a thing? 1:18:11 Plans for Proton Notes? 1:19:14 Will VPN support the Apple TV? 1:22:07 Support the show