Posted by dbushell 1/23/2026
I’m a (mostly) happy paying customer for their email, and also use their VPN and Authenticator. My worst experience I guess is the Authenticator app being laggy, which is not really all that bad.
This is unperfect because of ressource waste and the underlaying unsolved law compliance of these services. But at least you get job done easily this way.
As many things in life this is compromise, not perfect solution. In between using this simple trick I can spend my time on more interesting things.
I respect anyway the fact that people try to fight against the intrusive AI default communication mindset. In the end, i think this post need to be heard rather than having a solution.
This AI thing is going to implode so hard.
Eventually after escalating I was put on a do not email list and haven't received emails since; though they do still send crap to my work email.
Otherwise I have the same policy.
Social, Apps, Cloud, Crypto, and now AI.
Last week I logged into my Proton mail that I'd used last year for some government contact to get the dates, and they'd deleted the account for inactivity. Ok, I don't pay, they're entitled. But now I see this and I think maybe I'll save the $150 or whatever it is.
I just clicked 'Don't show again'. I get a toast saying you won't show me that offer again and it's immediately replaced with a nag saying 'Refer friends'. It has its own 'Don't show again'.
In August 2024 I sent Proton support an email with this text:
>I pay 95.88 € a year for Proton and every time I open the webapp or the desktop program, I see this:
>Is there a tier of Proton that doesn't have ads?
The support reply told me I can remove the button by clicking on it, then "Don't show again". If I was frustrated enough to email you about it, I'm guessing I clicked it.
I have expressly opted out of ads for Proton Duo. You're interpreting this as me opting out of a single ad for Proton Duo. Changing the copy doesn't mean I have opted into comms about it. So I disagree you take this seriously.