Proton spam and the AI consent problem • Hacker News Board

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#331

Post by devnullbrain » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 12:13 AM UTC

bartbutler wrote: post #133

Hey, Proton CTO here. There was a bug, and we fucked up. Support should have reported it up the chain and acknowledged this. Things happen, especially at scale, but we take comms consent seriously and will fix it.

I have the desktop app open right now. In the top-right corner is a nag saying 'Share your plan'. It's an ad for Proton Duo.

I just clicked 'Don't show again'. I get a toast saying you won't show me that offer again and it's immediately replaced with a nag saying 'Refer friends'. It has its own 'Don't show again'.

In August 2024 I sent Proton support an email with this text:

>I pay 95.88 € a year for Proton and every time I open the webapp or the desktop program, I see this:

>https://imgur.com/a/3kE6zJI

>Is there a tier of Proton that doesn't have ads?

The support reply told me I can remove the button by clicking on it, then "Don't show again". If I was frustrated enough to email you about it, I'm guessing I clicked it.

I have expressly opted out of ads for Proton Duo. You're interpreting this as me opting out of a single ad for Proton Duo. Changing the copy doesn't mean I have opted into comms about it. So I disagree you take this seriously.

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#332

Post by pseudalopex » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 12:17 AM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #148

pseudalopex wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our subscription product costs less than expensive coffee. Unused RAM is wasted.

Again, no raindrop considers itself responsible for the flood: if you buy enough coffee-priced subscriptions, that's unaffordable. Usually people already have their coffee-priced budget allocated to something. Like coffee. (Incidentally, this is why mobile gaming uses so many anti-patterns, to make people keep making "just one more" tiny purchase)

> if you buy enough coffee-priced subscriptions, that's unaffordable

Yes. This was the point.

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#333

Post by solid_fuel » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 12:19 AM UTC

chrisjj wrote: post #315

saghm wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a false positive to classify a company as a bad actor and move their emails to the spam folder if they refuse to respect user choices. If anything, I wish it would happen more often and at a massive scale, because then maybe companies would have an incentive to stop being so hostile around this.

Agreed, but the false positive I am referring to is the cathching of the non-spam message from the source of the previous spam message.

They shouldn't send marketing mail from an address they want to be read. I think that's been the standard for a while, in practice - most actual transactions come from orders@ or something similar while marketing mail comes from a dozen other addresses.

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#334

Post by Throwaway838333 » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 12:24 AM UTC

davidee wrote: post #231

I've been using proton for a year after migrating from Rackspace and I'm done. Not because of this article, but I might as well pile on: 1. I use a custom domain. Turns out that there are two competing features, not-at-all documented. If you use a catch-all, like I do, AND use specific addresses for sending, the two are incompatible to some degree. Which is bonkers. Example: with a catchall I can create any address I…

I agree this is bad UX, but you can send from throwaway emails by setting new contacts for said email in simplelogin, which as someone else comented, you get for free with proton, linked to your account. It handles your catchall.

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#335

Post by ZebusJesus » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 12:28 AM UTC

considering lumo never gets the decryption password for my data, Im not nearly as worried about Protons AI vs googles default I will read your email.

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#336

Post by sabellito » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 12:42 AM UTC

devnullbrain wrote: post #328

sabellito wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can search contents. You have to activate local indexing in the search UI itself.

The indexing needs to be refreshed almost every time I use it.

That's weird, I never had to do that. Android and firefox web.

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#337

Post by eigencoder » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 1:18 AM UTC

ink_13 wrote: post #253

davidee wrote: post #231

I've been using proton for a year after migrating from Rackspace and I'm done. Not because of this article, but I might as well pile on: 1. I use a custom domain. Turns out that there are two competing features, not-at-all documented. If you use a catch-all, like I do, AND use specific addresses for sending, the two are incompatible to some degree. Which is bonkers. Example: with a catchall I can create any address I…

What are you going to do instead? I am very close to moving from a 20-year-old GMail address to a custom domain and was planning to use Proton as the email host.

Last year I started self-hosting and went with [MXRoute](https://mxroute.com/). It was pretty easy to switch and I really like their pricing model.

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#338

Post by blazarquasar » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 1:25 AM UTC

ink_13 wrote: post #253

davidee wrote: post #231

I've been using proton for a year after migrating from Rackspace and I'm done. Not because of this article, but I might as well pile on: 1. I use a custom domain. Turns out that there are two competing features, not-at-all documented. If you use a catch-all, like I do, AND use specific addresses for sending, the two are incompatible to some degree. Which is bonkers. Example: with a catchall I can create any address I…

What are you going to do instead? I am very close to moving from a 20-year-old GMail address to a custom domain and was planning to use Proton as the email host.

I’ve been very happy with mailbox.org. The proton mail bridge was a huge pain point for me.

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#339

Post by ljm » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 1:29 AM UTC

dwedge wrote: post #63

SCdF wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree: in as much as I have noticed this *far* more with AI than any other advancement / fad (depending on your opinion) than anything else before. This also tracks with every app and website injecting AI into every one of your interactions, with no way to disable it. I think the article's point about non-consent is a very apt one, and expresses why I dislike this trend so much. I left Google Workspace, as a pay…

Even WhatsApp has it in the search bar

For me it’s just a multi-coloured ring like a gamer’s mood light, but it’s literally just slapped in the corner of the UI the same way a shitty Intercom widget would be.

Totally a thing a growth hacking team would do, injecting an interface on top of a design.

Re: Proton spam and the AI consent problem

#340

Post by Tenemo » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 2:00 AM UTC

ink_13 wrote: post #253

davidee wrote: post #231

I've been using proton for a year after migrating from Rackspace and I'm done. Not because of this article, but I might as well pile on: 1. I use a custom domain. Turns out that there are two competing features, not-at-all documented. If you use a catch-all, like I do, AND use specific addresses for sending, the two are incompatible to some degree. Which is bonkers. Example: with a catchall I can create any address I…

What are you going to do instead? I am very close to moving from a 20-year-old GMail address to a custom domain and was planning to use Proton as the email host.

I' migrated to purelymail.com around 2 years ago and. Reaaally cheap, easy to set up and without any bloat whatsoever. The webpage might look sketchy at first, but don't judge a book by its cover :)