this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
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TechTakes

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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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Proton Mail goes AI, security-focused userbase goes ‘what on earth’ (pivot-to-ai.com)
submitted 4 months ago by dgerard@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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we appear to be the first to write up the outrage coherently too. much thanks to the illustrious @self

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[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (10 children)

you can see they are actively monitoring the masto discourse and responding whenever they think their justification list has any merit https://hci.social/@protonprivacy@mastodon.social/with_replies

but they are already saying stuff out of sync with their promotional material so damage control does appear to be in action

e.g.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Just to be clear, Proton Scribe is:

  • only for business users, who have asked for it

https://mastodon.social/@protonprivacy/112814751983760603

but their site says

Who can use Proton Scribe? We are currently rolling out Scribe to eligible users. If you’re on a Proton Business plan, including Mail Essentials, Mail Professional, and Proton > Business Suite, you can try Proton Scribe for free for 14 days. If you’re on our Visionary plan, it’s included with your plan.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240719203115/https://proton.me/support/proton-scribe-writing-assistant

[–] self@awful.systems 8 points 4 months ago (3 children)

fuck, the pure PR fluff they’re posting in response to “hey fucknuts, this thing breaks your fucking security model”. I’ve dropped other companies for doing this “uhh no it doesn’t, trust us” shit before. if they had proof this thing’s secure they would’ve posted it by now, but they don’t (because it isn’t, it’s broken by design) so instead they have to post this horseshit

[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

I highlighted another nice dig by weizenbaum this afternoon which your "broken by design" reminded me of:

"These gigantic computer systems have usually been put together (one cannot always use the word designed) by teams of programmers, whose work is often spread over many years. By the time these systems come into use, most of the original programmers have left or turned their attention to other pursuits. It is precisely when such systems begin to be used that their inner workings can no longer be understood by any single person or by a small team of individuals."

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think that sequence of events happens sometimes but not all the times. the generational-departed programmer thing happens more in bigger orgs or teams with a bit of a more established presence/footprint. and I don't really get the impression proton is that big yet

this one smells more like the other kind of ratfuckery I've seen in shartups: some particular bugbear/feature-idea "driven" by a C-level/owner/teamlead (where "driven", n.: "someone said go do it"), enabled by complicit PM/POs doing some goalwashing, with devs either just keeping their head down, or actively participating in creation

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