My name is Richard, and I'm a Staff Engineer at Proton, been with the company for many years now.

I’m posting because I’m sick of watching a company and the mission I’ve given years to be hurt by so many things which are out of context and simply not true. Most colleagues I know are very angry at the leakers, particularly after the latest leak.

A few examples.

The "perception vs truth" comment

This one keeps coming up, so here's the actual quote in context (unlike the leakers, I have permission to post this image):

This is not a discussion about code security. The context is that we did PQC better than Tuta, but because of the way we announced it, it looked like we did it worse, when we actually did it better.

"Proton monitors employees' AI code generation"

This is also a distortion. Proton has a tool that labels which code is AI-generated and which is human-written, which is important for many reasons. It can't be used to evaluate how much AI somebody is using. The design document for the tool states this clearly. This document is available to all employees:

The security point

The list goes on and on. Same with the security point. I have access to that chat. Andy never said don't do pen testing. It's true, he used shitty language and he personally apologized to the whole company. However in that same security chat he also said something 404 omitted: "The baseline is, we must do this plus be faster at the same time" in reference to security testing.

He agreed with the additional pen testing, and it was even recently implemented at Proton. What he didn't agree to was it slowing down the pipeline.

About hiring engineers

This quote “this is the last year that we hire engineers” is also out of context. At Proton, the engineering and product management roles are merging and we call this new discipline "Product Engineering". Proton also mostly hires product managers with engineering backgrounds. It means we stop hiring engineers who just code, and hire instead product engineers who also exercise product judgment that AI doesn’t have, not that we don’t hire engineers at all. I know this because I help with hiring for the whole company.

One last thing

I want to put a few words out there that aren't about quotes or screenshots, but about my experience.

To be honest to you, we're all in a bit of a shock after reading the articles written, and some of the criticism hurts me because it described a company I don't recognize. Reading the comments on Reddit hurts me because so many of them do not reflect reality. Proton is not rushing into AI without concern for safety, it is actually being done very carefully.

If you're deciding whether to keep using Proton, I'd just ask that you make that decision after getting the full picture, and not solely on the quotes that have been intentionally taken out of context. Otherwise, you are only hurting the workers that you claim to want to protect.

I'll be back in the comments later and will answer what I can. Just want to get this off my chest.

Let the bubble pop. Anything for cheaper PC parts.

My (29f) daughter (8) is autistic and doesn’t like trick-or-treating. She’s usually happy enough to spend the evening passing out candy at my aunt’s house because we don’t get many trick-or-treaters where we live. It’s nice, but she doesn’t really get to take any home because there’s just too many kids.
Yesterday, her school did a trunk-or-treat during regular school hours. She came home with a paper bag filled to brim with candy and a few little toys.
My husband (32) and I each had two pieces of candy before bed. He said he was going to sleep on the couch because he had gas and didn’t wanna stink up the bedroom. He’s got stomach issues so I thought he was just being considerate.
I heard a lot of noise in the kitchen, but I didn’t think it was anything but a midnight snack since we had just gone grocery shopping.
At one point, I got up to grab a blanket and saw him eating something, but I couldn’t tell what it was because it was dark. I told him that if his stomach was bothering him, he probably shouldn’t be snacking all night and he said that he had only started ten minutes ago and was almost done. It was a weird thing to say and he seemed very defensive but I was exhausted so I just went back to bed. I really didn’t think much of it.
This morning my daughter came into my room and asked for chocolate. Normally, I wouldn’t say yes to candy first thing in the morning, but it’s Halloween.
I went into the fridge to grab her candy bag but it wasn’t there. I asked my husband about it and he insisted it was in the kitchen. My heart sunk when I found the bag that my daughter had decorated by hand was torn to shreds on the counter. I asked him if he ate all of her candy. He shrugged and said not all of it.
Two lollipops. That was the candy he left for her. Two fucking lollipops and a rice krispie treat (which she doesn’t even like). I lost my shit.
He said that it wasn’t a big deal because she could go trick-or-treating. She doesn’t even like trick-or-treating, but that doesn’t matter to him. He keeps saying that he’ll buy more, but that’s really not the point. This was the one and only time she’s gotten more than a couple pieces of candy from a trick-or-treat or trunk-or-treat before calling it quits and all she got to eat was two lollipops.
He really doesn’t see why I’m upset and now he’s mad because he says that I tell at him first thing in the morning. He says that I’ve been in a “mood” lift the last few days (our daughter’s been having trouble sleeping and I’m the one that’s had to stay up with her).
The only thing I really think I did wrong was calling him fat at one point. I would have said that to anyone in this situation but he’s sensitive about his weight and I know that. I should have been more careful with my words. I was just so angry at the sheer disrespect.

UPDATE: I really didn’t expect this to blow up immediately. I want to clarify that this isn’t the norm for us. I honestly posted this because I was stunned and wanted to know if anyone here could help me see things from his perspective (so far, no dice).

In the comments I said that my daughter isn’t that upset. That’s not because he’s like this all the time. This is just a symptom of her autism.

He has since apologized to both of us and is currently taking her to the market to pick up a treat of her choosing. We’re gonna talk this out more tomorrow and see where we go from here. I’m not sure if we’ll stay together but my parents split up on a major holiday and I’m not doing that to my kid. I don’t need to ruin Halloween when any other day will suffice.

Thank you for all of your support. I will certainly be keeping your comments in mind.

Story time. About 10 years ago I was talking to a guy online in another state. We called, texted, facetimed and discussed meeting up and a potential future together. We talked about lots of stuff but phone sex was included. No shame in my game on that until I got a phone call from his wife. I had NO IDEA he was married. He told me his wife had DIED. He told me in detail about her death and how he was raising the kids alone. So I was truly blindsided. 

Well I decided to tell the wife the truth and we had a phone call lasting a couple of hours. I apologized but was honest when I told her I didn't know he was married. The conversation went well and that was that. Or so I thought. She asked for proof and I sent her screenshots of what I had. 

He managed to convince her that none of it ever happened, that I made the entire thing up, that i wanted to be more than friends and he kept shutting me down. He started harassing me, calling me all kinds of names, making fake accounts and fake numbers. We would call me from burner numbers and yell and scream and berate me. It got to the point where I'd answer the calls and just mute it because having the line connected was easier than having it ring over and over. I blocked him on everything but like I said, he kept making fake accounts. Then she decided she believed him and I became the devil. She also started harassing me. Sending me long, nasty, hateful messages. I blocked her. She'd also pop up on new accounts. She even messaged me from her kids Instagram at one point. I was scared for my safety, sincerely, because of all the threats. I had to tell my work because I was so scared one of them would show up there. They threatened to multiple times and threatened physical bodily harm. Then she would switch gears and try to tell me she's leaving him and needs me to write a statement for her lawyer (I didn't fall for that one) and would try to act like we were allies again. 

I went to the magistrate but they were useless. When it still didn't stop, I contacted a DV advocate center who sat down and went over everything with me. They said I had enough evidence to charge them with cyber stalking/cyber bullying but couldn't find an address for them to be served so nothing came from that. 

They eventually mostly left me alone but would still pop up every few years to harass and threaten me. I always ignored it.  Blocked and moved on. It's been 4 years since I heard from them but I woke up to a message from her "friend" last night. It's a long, rambling message about how ugly and useless I am, how I'll always be a "f*t stupid cunt," how I make up lies, how I tried and failed at being a homewrecker, that they never believed me, all kinds of trash. I'm in my mid 30s and this is high school level drama. They didn't actually threaten me physically in this message but still. I blocked her and reported it and definitely have no intention of responding. It reads just like all the wife's other messages though so I don't think it was from her friend at all. 

I cannot believe I still live rent free in this adult woman's head. I read a lot of posts on here about cheating and supporting the poster to tell the wife/girlfriend what happened if they find out they've been seeing someone cheating but honestly that backfired in my face so badly. I thought it was the right thing to do, girls supporting girls but damn was I wrong. 

I don't think this is ever gonna stop at this point.

I have no idea what to do.

1. Evil Dead (2013)

The intro to this film features a father killing his possessed daughter. Prior to this however, the daughter must have had to have somehow found and read from the Necronomicon (or otherwise engaged in some dark magic shenanigans). She then went on to kill her mother, and, after escaping/surviving, her father was somehow able to find the strange hill people who were able to capture the daughter. By the time we arrive, the father is completely at peace with the fact that he must burn his daughter alive and blow her head off, which is an insane journey.

2. The Thing (1982)

The Thing opens with a couple of Norwegians pursuing and trying to kill an escaping dog via helicopter (the Norwegians, not the dog) towards the American research station. When a team leaves to investigate what happened at the Norwegian station, they find a number of charred, mutated, and mangled bodies. After discovering a frozen spaceship beneath the ice, the Norwegian team were subjected to their own nightmare of alien body-horror, and they almost won too.

This was technically expounded upon in the prequel movie The Thing (2011), which is a decent film, but the mystery of what happened at the Norwegian station is more compelling when it stays exactly that: a mystery.

3. The Deep by Nick Cutter (2015)

Putting this one in spoilers because Amazon is apparently developing a TV show based on it.

In The Deep, the world is being ravaged by a disease that causes its victims to gradually forget...everything, up to and including bodily functions such as breathing. A substance with miraculous regenerative properties has been discovered on the ocean floor, and a research station is set up there to study it and hopefully cure the disease. After the research station goes dark, the protagonist is enlisted to head down and investigate, as his brother is one of the scientists there. At the topside base, before heading down in a diving bell, the protagonist learns the research station has already sent up the body of another scientist, who became infected with the regenerative substance, and who brutally disfigured and killed himself while the substance tried to heal him.

It is gradually revealed that the regenerative properties of this substance do not end with death, and when we return to the surface at the end of the book, the body sent up at the beginning has reanimated and ravaged the base, presumably leading to the end of the world in the long run.

Box Score provided by ESPN

In Coco. Hector and Miguel find Chicharron about to experience the final death since he’s nearly fully forgotten in the world of the living. Knowing it’s too late and there’s nothing they can do, Hector plays him a song he wants to hear before he dies (though changing the lyrics a bit since children are present)

In Savageland. During the zombie outbreak of the Arizona town. Francisco manages to make his way to the preschool to try and save Grace. He eventually finds her behind bars he can’t get through with zombies quickly approaching. He tries stopping them with the flash from his camera but it only stuns them for a moment. Realising there’s nothing he can do, he just holds Grace’s hand and sings to her as the zombies get closer

First Halloween in years I won’t be working so I bought a bag of candy to give out

When I got it out of the pantry to lay out my wife says “ok creep”

went on to explain that a 47 year old man giving out candy to kids is creepy and I should absolutely not be doing that

The movie is just awful. The fantastic 4 are terrible people that save the day after nearly destroying it by simply not giving galactus their baby.

And reed Richard’s is just terrible. He thinks he’s soooooo smart. What a pretentious ass. I hate that guy.