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Russia blocks ProtonMail

reuters.com

81–90 of 186 posts

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#81
post #47
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if those bomb threats proved right and people get killed? Would you still praise Proton for not working with Law enforcement?

I would. It's not Protonmail who's to be blamed for the potential attack and deaths. There are series of events that lead to people deciding to be terrorists. I'd focus on those reasons rather than hotfixing stuff by exposing 99.9% of other Protonmail users. I would never opt in to affect 99.9% of users because of 0.01% of users. We are all educated enough through events in recent history that clearly tell us how sim…

more like 99.999%

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#82
post #47
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if those bomb threats proved right and people get killed? Would you still praise Proton for not working with Law enforcement?

I would. It's not Protonmail who's to be blamed for the potential attack and deaths. There are series of events that lead to people deciding to be terrorists. I'd focus on those reasons rather than hotfixing stuff by exposing 99.9% of other Protonmail users. I would never opt in to affect 99.9% of users because of 0.01% of users. We are all educated enough through events in recent history that clearly tell us how sim…

I agree with your reasoning, and I hear this reasoning a lot in the technical community. I wonder if you evenly apply this to other political issues? There's an incongruity in how people think about privacy rights in the Western world and how they think about property rights, especially in relation to self-defense.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#83
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.

The approach is a lot more flawed than people necessarily realize. If I move my health insurance, my credit cards, banks, and utilities to protonmail, I'm not sure it's changing much. My credit card company is directly selling my information, and it doesn't matter if they emailed me some information or not. The same goes for the utilities. Gmail can't get at the information, which is a bonus, but they might simply be buying the information about you instead of scraping it from your inbox. Everyone else (the financial companies, the utilities, etc) are already selling your information.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#84
post #47
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if those bomb threats proved right and people get killed? Would you still praise Proton for not working with Law enforcement?

I would. It's not Protonmail who's to be blamed for the potential attack and deaths. There are series of events that lead to people deciding to be terrorists. I'd focus on those reasons rather than hotfixing stuff by exposing 99.9% of other Protonmail users. I would never opt in to affect 99.9% of users because of 0.01% of users. We are all educated enough through events in recent history that clearly tell us how sim…

> I would never opt in to affect 99.9% of users because of 0.01% of users

Exactly. And thats the only point which needs to be made here.

It's like if one person was drink driving and hit someone. saying : "Well now thats it, we need to ban driving".

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#85

Well, that in my eyes is a very solid advertising in favour of ProtonMail. And it's not like Russians, Chinese and generally people in countries whose governments are in the habit of censoring the internet aren't used to using Tor and/or VPNs to dodge censorship.

> Well, that in my eyes is a very solid advertising in favour of ProtonMail.

... if you live in Russia.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#86
post #82
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would. It's not Protonmail who's to be blamed for the potential attack and deaths. There are series of events that lead to people deciding to be terrorists. I'd focus on those reasons rather than hotfixing stuff by exposing 99.9% of other Protonmail users. I would never opt in to affect 99.9% of users because of 0.01% of users. We are all educated enough through events in recent history that clearly tell us how sim…

I agree with your reasoning, and I hear this reasoning a lot in the technical community. I wonder if you evenly apply this to other political issues? There's an incongruity in how people think about privacy rights in the Western world and how they think about property rights, especially in relation to self-defense.

It may be painting with a broad brush to assume the inconsistency in views is among a group of people vs a single individual.

Most individuals who hold a view based on logical principles tend to be consistent on that application while people who react more emotionally will tend to flutter in the wind more.

I’d be curious to hear your reasoning.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#87
post #82
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would. It's not Protonmail who's to be blamed for the potential attack and deaths. There are series of events that lead to people deciding to be terrorists. I'd focus on those reasons rather than hotfixing stuff by exposing 99.9% of other Protonmail users. I would never opt in to affect 99.9% of users because of 0.01% of users. We are all educated enough through events in recent history that clearly tell us how sim…

I agree with your reasoning, and I hear this reasoning a lot in the technical community. I wonder if you evenly apply this to other political issues? There's an incongruity in how people think about privacy rights in the Western world and how they think about property rights, especially in relation to self-defense.

fraktl's position on property rights is irrelevant to fraktl's position on privacy rights.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#88
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My original (sort of absurdist) point was exactly that; saying "here's the line between 'smart people' and 'non-smart people'" is both pointless and rude. Everyone has different threat models and resources.

As someone with more than one weird hobby, I'm pretty sure conflating 'smart' with 'committed to weird hobbies' is a sin weird hobbyists of every stripe commit.

Well said :)

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#89

Many commenters seem to miss the most important point here. If users from Russia can't access ProtonMail - that's not that much of a deal. But if mail from ProtonMail stops reaching Russian email addresses - @mail.ru, @yandex.ru are as common in Russia as @gmail.com - that's a big problem for ProtonMail and its users.

That is probably more concerning, although ProtonMail is not something I typically see outside of the HN crowd and similar. I met only one total stranger who gave me a ProtonMail email address.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#90
post #40
post #30

"Roskomnadzor said that ProtonMail had refused to provide Russian authorities with information on the owners of email accounts allegedly associated with fake bomb threats." I know ProtonMail is denying they got requests but hopefully this is a good advertisement for their willingness to protect individuals.

And if those bomb threats proved right and people get killed? Would you still praise Proton for not working with Law enforcement?

I would.
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