I’m an Unlimited subscriber, but even so I receive promotional ads in the Proton VPN app for Android (e.g., “Limited time offer…” or “x% off…”), which is something I find distracting and weird, since my subscription is active. These promotions don’t always appear in the app, but it was really bad around the turn of the new year. It made me feel like I was using some sketchy crapware I accidentally downloaded from the Play store vs. a legitimate VPN app.
Let me make this clear: I am not talking about emails! I know how to manage emails, but for some weird reason, it’s all anyone ever responds with. If one more person replies with information on how to manage email subscriptions, so help me…
I am specifically talking about promotions that appear to be baked into the app itself and are indismissable and perpetually visible within the app. (See my examples above, if you’re still confused by what I mean. I wish I’d taken screenshots last time it happened.)
If you check my comment history, you can see multiple instances of my asking the Proton fediverse account (I think they’re on Mastodon) about these things, and every time without fail, they reply telling me how to manage email subscriptions, which (to be clear) IS NOT AT ALL WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT, IN FACT I WAS VERY EXPLICIT ABOUT THIS.
So I finally contacted them via support. Here’s what I said:
How can I disable notifications for promotions in the Proton VPN app for Android?
I’m not talking about emails, but about the “50% off now!!!” or “Try our new product!!!” style advertisements that I keep seeing.
I am a subscriber to Unlimited, and I do not want to see these self-promoting ads from Proton.
Let me just quote this one more time. I said:
I’m not talking about emails
So here’s the response I got:
I … I can’t fucking believe it.
I’ve sent one last message about this, but I don’t feel very hopeful at this point. If they replied with something like, “Unfortunately, we don’t allow users to dismiss promotions,” I could probably live with that … but this total dodging and ignoring simple questions is a huge red flag. Do I trust these people with my privacy when they can’t even answer a simple question?
Fortunately, all of these services have viable alternatives, so if they are unable to answer me this time, then farewell to Proton. I’m sick of this shit.
Regarding Proton VPN. That is probably the only consumer VPN service I’m willing to give some trust. But consumer VPNs are in general questionable services. They promise a lot more than they can really deliver.
Since I trust one of the ISPs I use where I live, I host my own VPN server there and use that instead. I would even claim that you probably get a more reliable with the same type of privacy if you just use a VPS host in a trusted country and set it up as a VPN server for only your own stuff.
VPNs do have a purpose, when used correctly and for the problem a VPN was designed to solve. Consumer VPN services generally falls out of that scope.
So I use Proton VPN only when my direct access to my own VPN server is inaccessible. And I use Proton VPN to get through restricted networks, so I can get a connection to my own VPN server (double tunnel/tunnel in tunnel).
Doesn’t setting up your own VPS take some level of technical skill? I have virtually no expertise in stuff like that, and even reading about it goes way above my head.
Yeah, some. You need to learn some new tools, like ssh, command line usage and how to keep the system up-to-date. That’s the bare minimum. Then it’s good to learn a bit of network firewalling, to secure the host better.
Then you need to deploy a VPN server. OpenVPN Access Server is easily installed and can help settings things up reasonably quickly. The unpaid install allows you to have 2 devices connected at the same time.
Alternatively, there is the Cloud Connexa service. That will function a bit more like the Proton VPN Secure Core when fully set up (you can can connect from your devices from a different region from your VPS’s location). You run a few commands on your VPS which the Cloud Connexa wizard setup guides you through. The free plan here includes 3 connected devices (in your case VPS + 2 devices).
With both alternatives you can install the OpenVPN Connect app on your devices, provide the username/password/otp for the account you’ve created in Access Server or Cloud Connexa, and you’re basically ready. The Connect app downloads the proper config file and you can connect just as the consumer VPNs.
Bookmarking this. I wish I could learn. Maybe I can take it slow and learn one piece at a time. The main reason I used a VPN was after I was IP banned on reddit. I decided I don’t really need sites seeing my real IP address, and I’ve never been comfortable being served data that are curated for my location. I like that with a VPN I can at least see which sites are up to this fuckery.
Just do me a favour, don’t follow all the suggestions from random blogs, wikis and such. There are tons of them, the vast majority is rubbish and too often even making things worse or harder to cleanup afterwards. Most of it is even out of date.
@nixCraft is one of the saner ones to pay attention to. Or read the blogs and docs for #Fedora or even Red Hat Enterprise Linux (aka RHEL). The latter one goes through quality checks, often done by tech people knowing their stuff.
Linux Foundation and Red Hat also got some free courses too.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !protonprivacy@lemmy.world
Empowering you to choose a better internet where privacy is the default. Protect yourself online with
Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive. Proton Pass and SimpleLogin.
Proton Mail is the world’s largest secure email provider. Swiss, end-to-end encrypted, private, and free.
Proton VPN is the world’s only open-source, publicly audited, unlimited and free VPN. Swiss-based, no-ads, and no-logs.
Proton Calendar is the world’s first end-to-end encrypted calendar that allows you to keep your life private.
Proton Drive is a free end-to-end encrypted cloud storage that allows you to securely backup and share your files. It’s open source, publicly audited, and Swiss-based.
Proton Pass Proton Pass is a free and open-source password manager which brings a higher level of security with rigorous end-to-end encryption of all data (including usernames, URLs, notes, and more) and email alias support.
SimpleLogin lets you send and receive emails anonymously via easily-generated unique email aliases.
@LinkOpensChest_wav
Regarding Proton VPN. That is probably the only consumer VPN service I’m willing to give some trust. But consumer VPNs are in general questionable services. They promise a lot more than they can really deliver.
Since I trust one of the ISPs I use where I live, I host my own VPN server there and use that instead. I would even claim that you probably get a more reliable with the same type of privacy if you just use a VPS host in a trusted country and set it up as a VPN server for only your own stuff.
This one is worth a read: https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29
VPNs do have a purpose, when used correctly and for the problem a VPN was designed to solve. Consumer VPN services generally falls out of that scope.
So I use Proton VPN only when my direct access to my own VPN server is inaccessible. And I use Proton VPN to get through restricted networks, so I can get a connection to my own VPN server (double tunnel/tunnel in tunnel).
Doesn’t setting up your own VPS take some level of technical skill? I have virtually no expertise in stuff like that, and even reading about it goes way above my head.
@LinkOpensChest_wav
Yeah, some. You need to learn some new tools, like ssh, command line usage and how to keep the system up-to-date. That’s the bare minimum. Then it’s good to learn a bit of network firewalling, to secure the host better.
Then you need to deploy a VPN server. OpenVPN Access Server is easily installed and can help settings things up reasonably quickly. The unpaid install allows you to have 2 devices connected at the same time.
Alternatively, there is the Cloud Connexa service. That will function a bit more like the Proton VPN Secure Core when fully set up (you can can connect from your devices from a different region from your VPS’s location). You run a few commands on your VPS which the Cloud Connexa wizard setup guides you through. The free plan here includes 3 connected devices (in your case VPS + 2 devices).
With both alternatives you can install the OpenVPN Connect app on your devices, provide the username/password/otp for the account you’ve created in Access Server or Cloud Connexa, and you’re basically ready. The Connect app downloads the proper config file and you can connect just as the consumer VPNs.
Bookmarking this. I wish I could learn. Maybe I can take it slow and learn one piece at a time. The main reason I used a VPN was after I was IP banned on reddit. I decided I don’t really need sites seeing my real IP address, and I’ve never been comfortable being served data that are curated for my location. I like that with a VPN I can at least see which sites are up to this fuckery.
@LinkOpensChest_wav
Just do me a favour, don’t follow all the suggestions from random blogs, wikis and such. There are tons of them, the vast majority is rubbish and too often even making things worse or harder to cleanup afterwards. Most of it is even out of date.
@nixCraft is one of the saner ones to pay attention to. Or read the blogs and docs for #Fedora or even Red Hat Enterprise Linux (aka RHEL). The latter one goes through quality checks, often done by tech people knowing their stuff.
Linux Foundation and Red Hat also got some free courses too.
A few starting points:
https://training.linuxfoundation.org/training/introduction-to-linux/
https://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/rh024-red-hat-linux-technical-overview
https://access.redhat.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/
Thanks, I appreciate this very much! I’ll try to stick to your advice
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