• HeartyOfGlass@piefed.social
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    5 hours ago

    “You’re right to raise this…”

    “… and that’s on us.”

    Has the same kind of simpering tone you’d get out of an LLM.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    It’s a good PR statement.

    But first the trump thing, and now this. They should have been WAY more cautious about this kind of thing.

    But they weren’t. For some reason. Maybe it’s standard corporate neglect. Maybe it’s that they’re trying to support the far right without looking like it. Maybe 100 other things.

    I’m not inclined to give Andy Yen a pass because that was egregious, but this seems like they may have allowed people to request sponsorship without enough vetting.

    It’s still two strikes.

    • 13igTyme@piefed.social
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      8 hours ago

      I was looking at VPNs to use and liked how proton had the email and other features. Them supporting someone from Trump’s cabinet a few months back sort of killed that. This sealed it. Three strikes are not necessary.

      • Yakfolk@anarchist.nexus
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        5 hours ago

        I bailed on them the minute they made that mistake. I had been very content with their service though less so with all of the new things they were rolling out like the crypto wallet, etc. I miss the convenience of everything in one place but it sounds like I ditched them at a good time.

        • Gristle@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          what are you using now? My wife and I struggle to find reasonably priced alternatives. We really only use it for email and password management.

  • Leraje@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    7 hours ago

    I believe them when they say this was an error of vetting because they’d have to be naive to think this wouldn’t be discovered and that a lot of their customers would have an issue with it. But that in itself is troubling. Proton are not some small-fry company with staff numbers in the single digits. Something like this speaks to their lack of planning, organisation and error-checking which are very bad traits for a privacy-centered set of software developers to have.

    I’ve always been slightly suspicious of Proton without really knowing why but this and the previous Trump thing have made those suspicions more hardened. Everyone makes mistakes but to not even do basic checking and to lack the organisation and judgement to implement it is not something that inspires trust in the software they develop.

    • Arcka@midwest.social
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      4 hours ago

      for a privacy-centered set of software developers to have

      (Especially since they’re “not some small-fry company”) No developers would have been involved in this, it was 100% marketing dept and likely some service provider they use.

  • aramis87@fedia.io
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    9 hours ago

    If you see something like this again, tell us. We rely on your feedback and vigilance.

    Or … you could ensure something like this doesn’t happen again yourselves. It’s not our job to police your social media purchases.

    Plus, it seems like you were notified and got feedback - just that it happened way more publicly than you wanted. Which again, isn’t our problem to deal with.

    • otter@lemmy.zip
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      8 hours ago

      Not worded the best, but they did say they were going to rework how they evaluated where they are marketing. I read that as a last resort when they make a mistake they’re willing to listen.

  • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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    9 hours ago

    My first reaction was it looks AI generated, but TBH I’ve seen plenty of corporate CYA pieces like this before GAI existed, so it could just be that’s where AI got it from…

    • XLE@piefed.social
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      10 hours ago

      Proton is currently sponsoring the far-right French YouTuber Vincent Lapierre.

      https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Lapierre

      It’s not just an affiliate link, but a partnership announced in the description and through an entire 2min 20s segment embedded in the video.

      Vincent Lapierre’s Wikipedia page is quite explicit about his far-right positioning and includes numerous sources. He worked for several years for a far-right organization founded by Alain Soral, which promotes anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying, conspiracist, sexist, masculinist, transphobic, and homophobic ideas, and who fled to Russia to escape justice.

      https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/1tzbizh/proton_is_funding_the_french_far_right_on_youtube/

      • LurkingLuddite@piefed.social
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        9 hours ago

        It’s not a partnership. It’s a normal sponsor segment. Leave it to a right winger to lie about their affiliations.

                • XLE@piefed.social
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                  7 hours ago

                  Feyd, can you explain to me whether you believe this man is actually lying and defaming Proton, or that it’s no big deal what he’s telling his followers? It can’t be both, and I find it difficult to parse your sarcasm.

            • XLE@piefed.social
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              9 hours ago

              I find it all to be very strange.

              Proton pays Vincent money for a sponsorship.

              According to you, Vincent defames Proton.

              Proton doesn’t seem all that worried about the defamation.

              • Feyd@programming.dev
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                9 hours ago

                I think it is easily believable that it was a single sponsorship and Vincent used the word partnership without even thinking about it, and I also find it easily believable that the sponsorship is something that slipped through the cracks rather than having any meaning, and I find the response from Proton to be acceptable. I just don’t think it is as big a deal as you’re wanting it to be ¯_(ツ)_/¯

                • XLE@piefed.social
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                  5 hours ago

                  I think it is easily believable that it was a single sponsorship and [a man who makes a living on being a political pundit] used the word partnership without even thinking about it

                  So suddenly the narrative went from Vincent lying, to Vincent making a whoopsie. Odd how fast this stance softened.

          • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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            6 hours ago

            Yeah that’s why LurkingLuddite said “it’s not a partnership. It’s a normal sponsor segment. Leave it to a right winger to lie about their affiliations.”