r/ProtonPublic

▲ 313 r/ProtonPublic+1 crossposts

Proton VPN which is built on trust got caught running secret price tests on users, then denied it. Their own code revealed the opposite.

Proton VPN was caught running price sensitivity tests on its own users and then provided a cheap and inaccurate excuse when asked about it. Users on Proton's subreddit (which has since been deleted by the moderators) noticed that they were quoted different prices for the same VPN Plus plan in the same country at the same time. Refreshing the page showed a price of $2.77 per month with 72% off, while opening a new incognito window showed a price of $3.23 per month with 68% off, despite nothing about the visitor having changed. I have conducted the test myself and can confirm this (and you can too, while it is still active). Proton's General Manager responded by saying that there was no adaptive pricing and that a recent sale simply hadn't "universally refreshed".

Windscribe then pulled the actual page source. Each visitor was assigned to a variant and the test was labelled in plain text inside an HTML meta tag. One session returned content "A" and the other returned content "B", with each pointing to a separate pricing URL. One of these was explicitly flagged as "test-300726-b". A screen recording showed the price changing in real time in clean incognito sessions. Expired sales don't do that. Neither do cached pages.

It is good to be precise about the terminology, because Proton was too. Adaptive pricing uses personal data to set a price tailored to an individual. Price sensitivity testing involves quoting different people different prices for the same product in order to establish the point at which sales begin to drop off. The GM denied the latter. Nobody had accused Proton of doing this.

Most major companies run A/B price tests, so it's a completely ordinary practice. However, Proton's entire business is built on trust, transparency and privacy, not just as a feature but as a promise. If you refer to your own labelled test code as a "glitch", it suggests that you are not transparent. For a brand built on trust and transparency, it is the most difficult thing to apologise for.

You can also read the original post from Windscribe here with their PoC: https://xcancel.com/Windscribe/status/2085859988090581461

u/Big-Lime4368 — 12 days ago
▲ 40 r/ProtonPublic+3 crossposts

We need to pressure Proton to remove their Israeli servers in Proton VPN

Proton is an awesome service.

At some point they used to be dependent on some Israeli service for their DDOS protection but they ended that relationship (I'm only guessing, but perhaps after being pressured by community).

I think we should try to pressure them to remove their Israeli servers in proton vpn.

  1. https://proton.me/support/contact, support@protonmail.zendesk.com, contact@proton.me, support@protonvpn.zendesk.com, contact@protonvpn.com
  2. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/, https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/

Sources:
https://protonvpn.com/vpn-servers/israel
https://proton.me/support/protonmail-israel-radware

Original post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BoycottIsrael/comments/1n1tram/we_need_to_pressure_proton_to_remove_their/

u/ShakeFresh5211 — 11 days ago

Proton, or Tuta?

As the title suggests, I'm considering switching from GMail to Proton, or Tuta. I have been using both services under a different account for some time (a few months), trying them both out. Though I will admit it isn't anything close to extensive testing, since my day-to-day email correspondance is pretty limited.

I was considering making the move to Proton, but that's when I came across this subreddit, and the pattern of censorship over on the official Proton subreddit. It does bother me a little; and I do believe them spreading their resources out over multiple offerings instead of addressing the already reported issues with their core services is a bit concerning; but on the other hand, I do like some of their services - namely, VPN, Mail, and Calender.

With Tuta, they have the mail and calender, I can just always keep using Proton's VPN with Tuta's mail service, but I wonder if there's any pros and cons to using one over the other?

PS: I know Tuta is also working on their Drive solution, so we'll see how that goes as well.

reddit.com
u/Luminous_Giraffe — 12 days ago

Thought this might be interesting to look into...

So here's something I just discovered. I didn't find more info concerning this, maybe someone has ? If true, Proton is up to some nasty sh*t recently...

reddit.com
u/Syn4p53 — 12 days ago

I need Proton's Ecosystem

​

I have used Proton's services for about 2 years and that amazing . Switch from Yahoo+Gmail to Proton Mail , from Google Drive to Proton Drive , and from Bitwarden to Proton Pass . And the feature i like the most is Email Aliases (i use SimpleLogin+ProtonPass) . Im also try to switch ChatGPT to Proton Luma AI

I hope that Proton can create other services . Here is my list of ideas for Proton : Search Engine , Browser , a office suite ( Proton is building it) , security key (like Yubico), App Photos (though it on the ProtonDrive,i like an app) , masking phone number and credit/prepaid/debit card (like masking email) , an note app for tablet/ipad (like GoodNote)

These are my idea , thank for reading

reddit.com
u/beelearner — 11 days ago
▲ 7 r/ProtonPublic+1 crossposts

Structural and Minor Improvements

Just wanted to put my findings as paid user to some proposed structural and minor improvements. Which for me are reason to stay or leave as paid user.

- My primary environment: Linux Desktop and iPhone

- Structural improvements:

- Release ProtonDrive for Linux

- Implement ProtonBridge as cloud feature for which people can opt-in and thus can use standardized imap protocol. This enables among others 1) contact sync with mobile 2) usage of other than Proton released mail clients clients, such as Thunderbird desktop or mail client on mobile 3) Read mail on AppleWatch without releasing ProtonMail client for it.

This way Proton can keep it's strategic security-before-anything-else approach, and it enables user to make their own trade-offs between security and functionality.

- Minor improvements

- iPhone ProtonCalander app icon shows day 31 fixed in the icon. Apple calendar shows today's day in icon. ProtonCalander should do this as well.

- iPhone ProtonCalander should allow to cancel a single occurence of a recurring event.

reddit.com
u/macambar — 10 days ago

Just realised I got banned from proton sub for saying I'll probably switch to tuta.

I don't look at my messages, but just looked for the first time and saw this lmao.

u/penguinkernel — 13 days ago

Anytype App?

I need only a shareable shopping list. At the time I tried Proton's Standard Notes, it was impractical and not cost effective for this. I'm looking at the free Anytype app as a sub. Any thoughts to share?

https://anytype.io

u/QuadernoFigurati — 12 days ago