Lytia

Yeah, I agree. I just wanted to call them out because FUD has never once helped the privacy community, and I’m tired of people strawmanning big tech and making the comm look bad.

There is, AFAIK, zero proof to back up your claim.

They kinda were. Don’t get me wrong, still entirely by choice, but more and more countries and states are forcing OS level age verification.

Well for starters he died 25 years ago…

You dropped this -> /j

If you can tell me an actual use case for attestation that isn’t purely for discrimination, I’m all ears. But if you want to tell me I should be in support of something because it’s better than the other thing, all the while ignoring the fact that it has no need to exist in the first place, I’m certainly not going to be swayed to agree with you.

You make a valid point, but I still don’t see why attestation is necessary. In a corporate setting, sure, it’s probably important to remotely verify that the OS is still untampered–except, oh wait, you can do that with the FOSS, opt in, privacy respecting, auditor app. If you install it via MDM you can install, set up, and then block the app so the user doesn’t do something dumb.

As for my bank and other such companies, from a legal standpoint I’m already liable if my device is compromised. In almost every Terms and Conditions, it will include a clause that they cannot guarantee your device, or any device you use to access their service, is free from malicious software, and thus it is up to you to keep your account secure.

More recently they banned the word “microslop” from their discord server.

But like… attestation is wrong. There should be no need to prepose an alternative because it shouldn’t exist in the first place. It should be the user’s burden to determine if their device is secure enough for accessing their personal stuff. My bank, or any app for that matter, should have no right to tell me whether or not my device meets their security requirements.

I’m not suggesting we ignore the problem by rejecting any imperfect solution, but I think this idea that anything EU-edition is inherently better creates an environment that blindly supports the surveillance state under the guise of consumer protection.

It’s play attestation EU edition. Can the EU just go back to doing things that are actually helpful instead of putting European lipstick on all the American pigs?

It’s sometimes difficult to search for a specific location, but IMO it’s not that bad.

Moby dick

Servers cost money, even a one time payment of $200 would be too little to maintain such a service.

Because if your account requires continuous payments, most consumers would like to not randomly get their service cut if they forgot to stock up. Yes, that’s different in the privacy community, but Proton still caters to people who put little value in privacy.

Yes, the current admin in the US is full of Nazis. No, proton didn’t take money, afaik, from them for anything.

Monero is a form of crypto currency. BTC, ETH, and others are nowhere near as private, but I didn’t want to outright name Monero. That said, I’d argue any sufficiently washed crypto is better than fiat.

It’s not necessarily “rent-seeking grift”, it’s often offered as a convenience. Plus, you can do one time payments to stock up credits.

As for your second point, I’d suggest going to an online exchange and trading for crypto.

Because they have to be able to charge the account.