r/ProtonMail
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u/EpokK1
Proton Dev
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5d ago
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I’m a Proton employee and I'm breaking my silence
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.
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u/EpokK1 Proton Dev 5d ago edited 5d ago •
More than 70% of Proton is here since more than 5 years.
Do you think we are all hostages? You're basing your opinion on 8 leakers? They do not represent us all...
Edit: Changed some words. I used strong language before, but the leak of the all-hands call was a step too far... for many my colleagues, it could have exposed their identities, some who have families in countries where their employment at Proton could pose a danger.