this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2026
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Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton, had a message for an employee in the company’s security Slack channel who urged the company to at least take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live. “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” Yen wrote in the channel at the end of August. “Stop thinking always of how to be slower, and focus more on how to be faster.”

In a follow-up message, Yen reiterated his point: “only losers think like that.” His ultimate message for the team was to “stop lovingly handcrafting all our code and use AI more.”

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[–] Innerworld@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 17 hours ago
[–] Lanske@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Get rid of Andy Proton

[–] BrilliantBadger@piefed.ca 28 points 1 day ago

Ah, yes, once again the old adage "When they show you they are, believe them" has proved it never fails.

A happy Proton paying customer, I bailed within a week when Andy made his pro GOP/trump comments some time back.

Folks said I over reacted. I handed them that adage. It was right.

Protons top "loser" engineers will find themselves welcomed elsewhere. What a disaster Proton has become under Yen.

I commented before from the summary. Read as much of the 404 story as I can now.

It's bad. If I didn't trust 404 Media, I might think this was a hit piece. But 404 does good work and I trust their journalists. I should really subscribe!

Social media is prone to instant lynch mobs, one of its worst aspects. I do not intend to rage quit. But I WILL re-evaluate in 3 months. Just marked my calendar. They need to very publicly reverse course, AND restore my trust. I believe in giving ppl and co's a chance to learn from mistakes, or nobody ever gets wiser. But I need to see that happen, or me and my $ are out.

I also no longer trust Andy's judgement. The Proton engineers are saying the right things. Again I trust 404's homework, or I would be much more skeptical of all of this.

Ugh.

I've heard Andy interviewed. Couple times. He came across as personable and likable. But that takes a backseat if he's gonna steer his company off a cliff and I have to stop trusting their products. Even smart people can make dumb choices. Esp when no one is empowered to push back. It can get pathological, when the CEO starts to believe they walk on water.

Frankly I think the Proton Foundation needs to sit Andy down and have a heart to heart.

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Andy Yen sounds like an asshole.

I still need to move away from Gmail, but it's probably not going to be to Proton.

[–] utjebe@reddthat.com 9 points 1 day ago

He sounds like my manager. For him AI is a silver bullet for every problem.

[–] plud_klem@lemmy.ml 132 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I'd like to thank Andy for introducing me to Proton's competitor Tuta.

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

I've literally registered with them yesterday. Seems nice so far, worth exploring further.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 44 points 2 days ago (2 children)

He certainly clarified for me whether to pay for Proton or not. It's not.

[–] Lectral@lemmy.ca 25 points 2 days ago

I just cancelled my subscription and quoted him as the reason.

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[–] VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

Tuta, funnily enough, makes it very hard to send encrypted mail to people who aren't also using tuta. Maybe also look at Mailbox.org and Posteo. They have a lot less marketing/hype/fearmongering compared to tuta and Proton, but have similar features regarding encryption and security, with less walled-garden like restrictions.

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[–] LewdLemon@sh.itjust.works 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm currently in the market for a new VPN provider. I'd like to thank Andy for pointing me towards IVPN.

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[–] mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

guess its time to host my own email

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[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 88 points 2 days ago (1 children)

“Loser talk” is something a fucking 4chan basement dweller would say. I hate how society is just the stupidest fucks at the forefront now.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago

Stupid fucks keep getting money from evil fucks because evil is controlling the stupid to do bad things without understanding what's being asked until it's too late.

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 93 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Guess that's one way to throw your business case of being a secure and privacy focused service provider out of the window.

[–] LewdLemon@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 days ago

Didn't you listen to the man? Security and privacy are for losers!

[–] Arsecroft@lemmy.sdf.org 28 points 2 days ago

truly innovative and disruptive

he must be getting so many linkedin points

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[–] nfreak@lemmy.ml 90 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Every time this asshole speaks it just throws the entire company even further off a cliff lmao

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

As someone who has been an Executive Director, I couldn't imagine taking a political stance on anything. Good way to alienate your customers and lose profit. Anyone with a couple of brain cells to rub together knows this.

[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Idk, somethings are worth taking a political stand on, not all things, but something. The all mighty dollar isn’t all there is to life

[–] yuki_gassen@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

goodbye proton vpn, hello airvpn

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

Thanks for sharing! Good post, totally worth the read.

And I know which company to stay away from, and will solidly recommend this to others as well.

[–] SocialistVibes01@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Proton is legit, they said.

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[–] doleo@lemmy.ml 71 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Maybe I'm a particularly sensitive, spiteful snowflake, but if the boss of my company accused me of being a "loser" because I cared about the quality of the product, I'd be looking to deliberately sabotage the product. And for a new job, of course.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 days ago

Many of us are in exactly that position with our employers, but finding another job in this climate is easier said than done.

[–] AuroraSine@lemmy.ml 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

WTF? Is he 12 years old?
Is this really true?

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 days ago

The business culture is sick. This way of thinking is not limited to just a few people.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 52 points 2 days ago

Stop giving Proton money

[–] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 31 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Ah shit balls! 3 months into a paid up email, calendar, drive and VPN suite. Have moved a lot of files over. Will start looking again, but definitely separating everything from now

[–] mik3dd0@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I just got out of my 1 year membership with them and happily moved over to tutamail and selfhosting 😅

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[–] NuanceDemon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Everything is going this way, best to set up a list of things to do to help yourself move quickly each time, you're going to be doing it a lot.

[–] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Great strategy and one I've adopted (now).

[–] amgine@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I have six months left on my protonmail. Started the move to mailbox.org yesterday. Signed up for oscura and need to set up my vaultwarden

[–] the_grump_1987@r.nf 8 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Horrible stuff. I've been using Proton since 2020 and back then Proton's thing was just an encrypted email service. Year after year, they've started adding all these other apps and services to Proton's platform, and some of them fits nicely with the core email service (calendar, cloud for files, VPN). But lately they've began adding apps and services such as AI LLM chat (which is pretty crappy and inaccurate), remote video meeting software (which is really barebones feature wise) and apparently now they are working on Chromium based "privacy" browser (as if we don't have enough browsers already, let alone Chromium based). All of this requires a lot more developers and takes more time to develop and maintain, which is probably why Andy is so keen on making progress faster by using AI.

But why does Proton need to add all of these apps? To fight big tech in all fronts? To create same kind of ultra loyal, "will buy anything" fanboy culture around Proton products like Apple has (and to lesser extent Google has)? Or is it to grow bigger company much faster than originally intended (because the investors want that) all the while taking bigger financial risks in doing so?

In any case, Andy needs to step down as the CEO. The next CEO needs to take a good hard look at what's relevant to their customers. I don't think anyone is asking for a vibe-coded Proton web browser, just because it's "Proton".

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[–] TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.uk 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

For those of you that care enough, I suggest letting Proton know in their community voice platform/forum. You can also email thier foundation.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 35 points 2 days ago

RIP Proton.

Privacy minded people tend to also want security.

[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Goddammit... I just switched to Proton. I really don't know if I can handle switching again so soon.

[–] CkrnkFrnchMn@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Well...some people are linux distro hopping and me...email hopping...f*uck

[–] SwooshBakery624@programming.dev 31 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (10 children)

Alright, that's enough for me. What's the best mail, calendar and drive alternatives? Preferably the ones that aren't slop-coded.

Also, has anyone had any experience with Migadu?

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