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April 8, 2024 | Becoming Invisible, Part 14: Proton’s Latest Tools
John Rubino
The biggest hurdle for non-techies trying to avoid the world’s data predators is the need to cobble together solutions from different sources, each of which has to be installed correctly, monitored, and upgraded. This can be a nearly full-time job—and still end up failing.
So a one-stop privacy shop that plugs all the holes and evolves along with the predators would be useful. This seems to be what Proton, creator of the popular encrypted email service, is trying to become. Below are some of its marketing announcements, which seem to cover much of the privacy waterfront.
As always with products mentioned in this newsletter, I don’t have a marketing relationship with Proton and don’t benefit in any way from readers buying what they’re selling. This is just a heads-up. (Though in this case, I’m wrestling with the complexity of privacy and am looking at this suite of solutions with interest.)
Some of Proton’s latest updates:
Privacy Watch
- Microsoft has quietly turned Outlook into a mass surveillance machine. We’ve uncovered how they share your data with 801 third parties. The good news: We have an all-new Proton Mail and Calendar desktop app to spare you the intrusions. Download the app here.
- One of the few complaints about Signal is that you need to share your phone number with others to chat with them which is a huge privacy problem. A new feature in beta now lets you share a username instead.
- In response to a lawsuit, Google is reversing one of its earliest privacy-washing tactics: Incognito mode. A new version of Chrome now admits that Incognito mode “won’t change how data is collected by websites you visit and the services they use, including Google”.
- Police in the US love Ring doorbell cameras because they’re a surveillance dragnet, and Amazon has repeatedly given cops access without a warrant. That’s now changing.
- But switching to a competitor might not solve your privacy problems: Wyze disclosed that 13,000 customers had their video footage leaked to strangers.
- Ever wonder what your data is really worth? We decided to calculate it. Based on earnings data from the two biggest ad-tech players, your data could be worth over $600 per year to them. But that number just scrapes the surface. Read our analysis here. Keep this in mind when Google says Gmail is free!
What’s happening at Proton
- At Proton Pass, we have launched several exciting updates focused on enhancing your experience. You can now access your passwords via our new web app or download the Windows desktop app. Additionally, Proton Pass now supports passkeys across all devices and plans, giving you the freedom to seamlessly choose the most secure option available when creating new online accounts.
- We were also able to drop the price of Proton Pass Plus from $3.99/month to $1.99/month on the annual subscription for both new and existing customers. Proton is not profit-driven, nor do we have venture capital investors, so when our costs go down, we can pass on those savings to the community.
- Anyone with a paid plan can now download Proton Mail’s dedicated desktop app on Windows and macOS, which allows you to instantly switch between your email and calendar.
- In Proton Mail for web, we added a Security Center that lets you quickly access your hide-my-email aliases feature. You can now easily generate unique, random email addresses to give out instead of your real email. You can create up to 10 hide-my-email aliases with the Proton Free plan, or upgrade to Proton Unlimited to create as many as you need.
Protect your team’s shared passwords with Proton Pass for Business
We recently introduced a new secure collaboration tool for organizations. With Proton Pass for Business, you can add and manage multiple user accounts to protect your team’s valuable data from hackers and comply with data protection laws.
If you often need to share usernames, passwords, credit cards, secure notes, or other data with colleagues, you can now do so with end-to-end encryption while enforcing good security practices like two-factor authentication.
Proton Pass for Business is available for $1.99 per user per month for a limited time. If you sign up now, you get this price forever.
Proton Drive
Did you know you can now securely sync files and folders to Proton Drive and seamlessly access them on your Android phone? We recently introduced a new syncing feature on the Proton Drive Android app that ensures your important files and documents are always available anywhere, anytime.
You can use your 15 GB of storage to sync your most important files and folders to Proton Drive with the Windows app and access them on your phone within the dedicated “Computers” section. This means you can conveniently access the latest version of your synced files on the go without a computer.
As always, all your files and folders are encrypted on your device before they’re sent to our servers, ensuring your data is safe from unauthorized access at all times.
Protect all your data with Proton
Our mission is to make privacy simple and available to everyone. Since we’re 100% community funded, our business model is built on privacy, not exploiting your data. By upgrading to a Proton Unlimited plan, you can support this mission while also unlocking 500 GB of storage, 15 email addresses, and all our premium features for Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, Proton VPN, Proton Pass, and all new products in development.
Protect your identity with hide-my-email aliases
With hide-my-email aliases now in Proton Mail, you can:
- Create unique, random email addresses to use with apps, websites, and more, so your personal email can stay private.
- Turn aliases off on the fly to stop spam or protect yourself from data breaches.
Get started today from the all-new Security Center.
Try the new Proton Mail desktop app, now available for everyone
The new Proton Mail desktop app gives you a fast and focused email and calendar experience that removes the distractions that can pop up when you open your browser. It’s now available for all paid subscribers on Windows and macOS, with Linux in beta. Free Mail users can try it for free for 14 days.
→ Get the Proton Mail desktop app
Swipe between messages on iOS
You can now swipe between messages on the Proton Mail iOS app and go through your inbox faster.
Snooze emails for later on iOS
With Snooze, you can temporarily set an email aside from your inbox until you’re ready to deal with it. That email will show up at the top of your inbox later, exactly when you need it. Get started from the message toolbar.
Organize your inbox with bulk actions on iOS
Cleaning up your inbox just got a lot easier. Simply label, move, delete, or mark all your selected emails as read, and be done with it. Available today on the Proton Mail iOS app.
Follow the latest Proton news and privacy tips
Proton helps make privacy easy. Follow us on Twitter/X to see our newest feature releases, read the latest privacy news, and get online security tips. You can also join the discussion on Reddit to get in-depth insights from our team. Visit UserVoice to let us know what you’d like to see us do next.
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John Rubino April 8th, 2024
Posted In: John Rubino Substack
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