Russia blocks ProtonMail • Hacker News Board

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#11

Post by kuroguro » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 1:56 PM UTC

Timpy wrote: post #3

I've been considering leaving Gmail for a privacy focused email service but it seems so difficult to switch. So many accounts and services have my Gmail registered, I don't think I could collect them all. Can anybody using ProtonMail (or any other privacy focused email) recommend it? I feel like choosing an email provider these days is as serious as choosing a bank.

One "downside" is having to run the local bridge application that proxies / decrypts your emails if you want a regular desktop client (say thunderbird) connect to it. Other than that haven't had any problems. Also the android app is really nice and so is the web client.

Been running gmail and proton side by side for over a year, slowly moving all accounts and redirecting contacts to my proton address. Really suggest getting a custom domain so moving providers is as easy as changing MX records in the future.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#12

Post by ashamsjo » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

Timpy wrote: post #3

I've been considering leaving Gmail for a privacy focused email service but it seems so difficult to switch. So many accounts and services have my Gmail registered, I don't think I could collect them all. Can anybody using ProtonMail (or any other privacy focused email) recommend it? I feel like choosing an email provider these days is as serious as choosing a bank.

I use ProtonMail as my primary email address, I kept my Gmail account (auto-forwarding to Proton), and little by little I've been updating all my newsletters and accounts. Very little mail now passes through my Gmail, but I probably won't ever delete the account just in case.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#13

Post by m-p-3 » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 1:58 PM UTC

There's still Tor, and they have a hidden service as well

https://protonirockerxow.onion

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#14

Post by privateprofile » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 1:59 PM UTC

Timpy wrote: post #3

I've been considering leaving Gmail for a privacy focused email service but it seems so difficult to switch. So many accounts and services have my Gmail registered, I don't think I could collect them all. Can anybody using ProtonMail (or any other privacy focused email) recommend it? I feel like choosing an email provider these days is as serious as choosing a bank.

I'm moving away from gmail in favour of protonmail, so far I've experienced no issues.

I've emailed my contacts informing of the switch, and I'm passively migrating important accounts/services; in fact, this forced me to consider which services are actually important and worth receiving e-mail from. If I go a couple of months without getting e-mails from some service and nothing bad comes from it, then I probably won't ever read it anyway and it's not important.

As soon as their mobile app is better, I'll likely switch to their paid service, although a private calendar and a corresponding quality app would make the 5€/month seem like better value for money.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#15

Post by gfiorav » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 2:01 PM UTC

I know it's easy to play conspiracy, but after watching this piece [0] on "active measures", it wouldn't surprise me that FSB finally found a way to hack proton mail, or the way to circumvent the block will expose some part of it. Hence this measure.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/opinion/russia-meddling-d...

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#16

Post by thenewnewguy » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 2:02 PM UTC

gfiorav wrote: post #15

I know it's easy to play conspiracy, but after watching this piece [0] on "active measures", it wouldn't surprise me that FSB finally found a way to hack proton mail, or the way to circumvent the block will expose some part of it. Hence this measure. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/opinion/russia-meddling-d...

Why would they block a service they found a way to compromise?

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#17

Post by kubav » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 2:08 PM UTC

Timpy wrote: post #3

I've been considering leaving Gmail for a privacy focused email service but it seems so difficult to switch. So many accounts and services have my Gmail registered, I don't think I could collect them all. Can anybody using ProtonMail (or any other privacy focused email) recommend it? I feel like choosing an email provider these days is as serious as choosing a bank.

It is quite good but I have found several issues which are annoying and solved by competition.

Protonmail bridge on linux has problem with attachments bigger than 2 MB and it disconnects a lot.

Android app is mediocre at best:

- feels really slow

- shows notifications for emails already read on web

- deleting or moving email to different folder waits for confirmation from backend which is really confusing (you can still see deleted emails but you can't delete them again)

I hope they will work on those UX issues otherwise I really like it.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#18

Post by dariusj18 » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

thenewnewguy wrote: post #16

gfiorav wrote: post #15

I know it's easy to play conspiracy, but after watching this piece [0] on "active measures", it wouldn't surprise me that FSB finally found a way to hack proton mail, or the way to circumvent the block will expose some part of it. Hence this measure. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/opinion/russia-meddling-d...

Why would they block a service they found a way to compromise?

To draw attention to it and make people think it's the thing to use.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#19

Post by peatmoss » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 2:12 PM UTC

Lucasoato wrote: post #8

johnpowell wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I switched from gmail to Fastmail I just slowly switched everything over. It took a few years before I was comfortable killing the gmail account. But I got there.

Is fastmail as reliable as Proton mail?

I don’t know how reliable Proton Mail is, but Fastmail has been rock solid for me.

That said, Russia banning Proton Mail is one hell of an endorsement for Proton Mail, in my estimation. I want to believe in the dream of ubiquitous end-to-end encrypted email. I don’t know if Proton is the right manifestation of that, but it certainly doesn’t hurt in terms of keeping the dream alive. So, I wouldn’t want to wave anyone off Proton, even though Fastmail is a great service.

I think the major problem with any PGP Mail system is that nobody else uses it. I have a semi-technical friend who, for ideological reasons, decided to switch to Proton Mail. I dusted off a GPG-capable email client and provided him with my public key. After some technical headaches we exchanged a couple of emails and promptly went back to organizing the occasional happy hour or movie outing via Signal.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#20

Post by StrLght » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

mayniac wrote: post #4

Generally speaking, the type of person who uses ProtonMail is also the type of person who will trivially bypass this block.

Pretty much, but that isn’t the idea behind this block. Someone used ProtonMail to send a lot of different bomb threats to the police. Because of this block police now have some legal ground to ignore those threats.