this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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On the contrary, I think it’s autocratic governments specifically that don’t like it. Which is more or less the point, in the same way that any service that uses encryption and doesn’t give up user info is something they won’t like. Otherwise everyone with a Mac, IPad or IPhone would be considered shady, which as we know isn’t the case.
The people who hold the view you mentioned more than likely don’t even know what ProtonMail is.
I don't necessarily disagree, but I have personally met a few people who did know what it was and also thought it was very sketchy and didn't trust it.
However, at the same time, I know how worthless a personal anecdote is in the bigger scheme of things, so you're probably right that most people that hold that attitude don't know wtf it is.
I just feel like there isn’t a big enough crossover of people who both A.) know what it is and how it’s different from any other email provider and B.) don’t trust it simply because it’s encrypted.
The only thing ProtonMail does differently, functionally, is encrypt your data at rest, which while somewhat rare for an email provider to do, is extremely common for any other website or communication service to do.
Like somebody has to know what ProtonMail is and what it does enough so to not trust it, but somehow also not distrust iMessage, or WhatsApp, their banking site, etc.
Then you take that group of people, and cross them again with group C.) people who are responsible for the cybersecurity of any given website.
Like law of large numbers says that it’s plausible that this person exists out there, but is it enough for you to actually worry about using ProtonMail? So far at least, no.
I largely agree, but I've also seen the sheer capability of large conspiracy networks in the USA to propagate misinformation, and their predilection for assuming there's a giant cabal of child-abusing elite satanists controlling the world. These are largely people of the mind "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" and love the police while also feeling like they cannot trust the US government (or at least those satanist jewish LIBRULS), as if those aren't inherently contradictory positions. I guess the point I'm making is that a lot of people already have conspiracies about this kind of thing, and all they see is "encryption" and think "this must be what child abusers use." There's a lot of people (here in the USA at least) who aren't playing with a full deck and aren't coming to these conclusions from any sort of coherent reasoning other than "rules for thee, not for me" (considering it's okay for them to use encryption to organize their Proud Boys meeting or whatever).
Because otherwise, your logical conclusion makes sense, but we're officially dealing with millions of people who aren't approaching anything logically or coherently anymore, while being exposed to propaganda networks that can put those kind of ideas in their heads.