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Alright, y'all were right, fuck Proton. This was the last straw for me. (lemmy.ml)
submitted 4 months ago by AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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For context, in my password manager I had tried formatting some of my entrees so that it would contain the usual username and password, but instead of creating whole new entrees for the security questions for the same account, I just added additional fields in the same entree in order to keep things a little more tidy.

I was not expecting that doing so would result in later being shaken down by Proton to pay even more money just to access the same few bytes of fucking text I had trusted them with. This is sleazy as fuck and I am dropping these idiots entirely.

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[-] mrnobody@reddthat.com 143 points 4 months ago

Dude, jfc calm down. You pay a little money to get premium services, instead of them monetizing user data. This is the way the world works with paid software, except they're not making money on your data and you, just you.

Maybe some context in what exactly you pay for would help too. I'm assuming you pay for a base tier of mail, bc I use their password manager too but pay for the full suite, and don't have this issue.

Maybe also a chat with support might find this to be an unexpected bug, but instead you're coming to Lemmy to the echo chamber of hate on proton which won't help.

[-] ttyybb@lemmy.world 132 points 4 months ago

I won't say your wrong, but IMHO it's unacceptable for a password manager to not warn you that information you give will be inaccessible without paying more money. Imagine if someone gave you 30 free entries before requiring a subscription, but let you add any number of accounts. Unless you want to reset all those passwords, your forced to pay them.

[-] fauxerious@lemmy.world 76 points 4 months ago

Their data should have been grandfathered in rather than locked out. Premium is a ransom with the lock out model

[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 74 points 4 months ago

It is a shakedown to accept your data for free then charge you to access it later. 

What the fuck else would you call that?

[-] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 4 months ago

It kind of sounds like OP tried to circumvent limitations in the free tier by formatting the available field in a certain way, but this then got caught by proton and then stored "correctly", which is in a way that requires the paid tier.

[-] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 12 points 4 months ago

Uh no. First off, I'm not on the free tier. I'm not on the most expensive tier, but I do pay for my account $4.99 monthly. Second, I used the built in features exactly as intended. Every login entree in Proton Pass has the option to add additional fields that you can name. That's what I did, every security question being the name, and every answer being the data filled in. There was nothing to circumvent, because at least according to their pricing plans, even the free tier claims to allow unlimited logins.

It is literally ransomware. They allowed me to enter data in their program as intended, and then held that data ransom in order to pressure me into upgrading into a higher tier.

[-] iByteABit@lemmy.ml 19 points 4 months ago

but instead you’re coming to Lemmy to the echo chamber of hate on proton which won’t help

You call it an echo chamber, others call it having some standards on how much your software should be taking advantage of you instead of the other way around.

[-] mrnobody@reddthat.com 9 points 4 months ago

You have to admit, there are plenty of people either on Reddit (especially) or Lemmy, that seem to crack on/bash on certain companies or views on topics as a heard mentality. I'm guilty of it in the past bc I wanted to trust the heard, but after doing my own research have found whatever it was to not be so bad.

I've not been here long, but man, the amount of hate I've seen towards proton so far is crazy.

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[-] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 months ago

You sound like the kind of person who, in the 90s, would have defended Microsoft against GNU and Linux and the FOSS movement as a whole, "This is the way the world works." No. I was using Keepass prior to Proton Pass. Proton proved to be a downgrade in every way. As a company they are in the same bracket as Ubuntu - trojan horse style grifters who wave juuust enough open-source around to lull users into dependency on a service that overall does not support user freedoms. They are grifters. It's the same playbook as Google.

Software needs to be free on every level. It's fine to sell free software, but if any part of it is proprietary, it's as the FSF says - it's a tool of unjust power over you.

And I don't need that. Better alternatives already exist. Proton was straight up a downgrade.

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[-] blitzen@lemmy.ca 112 points 4 months ago

Download BitWarden and be done with it.

[-] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 43 points 4 months ago

If you can, just self-host vault warden (compatible with bit warden and supported). Gets your data out of the cloud entirely.

[-] blitzen@lemmy.ca 50 points 4 months ago

I’m with you, but the hosted subscription is miles more secure than I can make my installation, and at $10 per year probably cheaper than the electricity to self host. Plus it supports the devs.

But I do make regular backups in case I need to migrate.

[-] teuniac_@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

I think their prices have increased, but it's still a good deal

https://bitwarden.com/pricing/

[-] CoyoteFacts@piefed.ca 8 points 4 months ago

Apparently the price increase happened yesterday; I hadn't heard anything about it until just now. Gave me the push I needed to switch to self-hosted vaultwarden in like 15 minutes. Very pleased with how simple the docker compose and export->import were. I'll note that I'm running it privately on my local network, which I'm assuming should work fine as my devices enter that network semi-frequently and should keep everything synced up(?).

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[-] tiny@midwest.social 9 points 4 months ago

Why are you suggesting self hosting vaultwarden instead of self hosting bitwarden?

[-] Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone 26 points 4 months ago

It's much lighter on the resources while having the exact same functionality.

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[-] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 27 points 4 months ago

You can even self host it... And easily export your data from their hosted solution to your own.

[-] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 18 points 4 months ago

Keepass is tried and true, I'm going back to Keepass.

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[-] photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 65 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

KeepassXC + Syncthing has worked fine for me for a few years. Sure, it's a bit of a hassle and not exactly perfect, but nothing is. I have control over my data and I don't have to pay anyone anything, that's enough for me.

Also, tasty entrees 🤤

[-] Sxan@piefed.zip 25 points 4 months ago

If you don't host your own data, you don't own it.

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[-] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 9 points 4 months ago

This is the route I'm taking. Keepass has always been tried and true. I switched from Keepass to Proton Pass for a while, and in more ways than this one complaint it has been very much a downgrade.

Proton does not know how to make quality software.

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[-] mlg@lemmy.world 41 points 4 months ago

I tried protonmail not for the privacy purpose but just to have a normal web email client.

After wasting an hour before finding out you can't disable the "sent from protonmail" footer without manually deleting it in each draft you make, I said screw it and deployed my own email server with stalwart lol.

It's receive only because outgoing SMTP is a pain to make reliable these days and my ISP blocks outgoing SMTP anyway, but for everything else I now use Thunderbird.

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[-] artyom@piefed.social 34 points 4 months ago

shaken down by Proton to pay even more money

What are you paying for currently?

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[-] skozzii@lemmy.ca 32 points 4 months ago

Pretty sure the warning signs were apparent when the CEO submitted to Trump. it just his "personal beliefs" and not representative of the company. Right.

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 15 points 4 months ago

The CEO was lobbying for online privacy by publicly shaming the Democrats. He was doing his job.

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[-] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 8 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I tried to be charitable and assume they were just ignorant of how bad Trump is. I should have known better.

[-] hector@lemmy.today 29 points 4 months ago

I know someone that signed up for an account with them, they froze it immediately for suspicious activity. He does nothing with that IP address, reads, social media, that's it. No way to get off the shit list without giving up personal information like a phone number and or alternate email and no guarentee that would fix it.

Their IP was on a blacklist from some shady company for some strange reason. But other companies let you write the company and plead your case, proton does not.

They further suspended a bunch of accounts based on some half baked unproven accusations by the government(s) if I recall.

They aren't trustworthy, they will give you up at the first sign of friction it appears.

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[-] addictedtosongtitles 26 points 3 months ago

Bitwarden offers this feature for free using custom fields, although 2FA is paid unless you self-host IIRC

[-] jsnfwlr@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 months ago

Vaultwarden is a great self hosted bitwarden clone

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[-] harmbugler@piefed.social 21 points 4 months ago

OMG I thought I was the only child of Mr and Mrs Upgrade, of Upgrade street, Upgrade! Maybe we're related?

[-] afk_strats@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago

Howdy. For the clarity of users such as myself, can you please clarify which "Proton" you're referring to.

[-] termaxima@slrpnk.net 15 points 4 months ago

Bitwarden ! Host it yourself.

[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml 15 points 4 months ago

??? I use Proton mail and I never saw something like this. Account with nick, other mail, password and go.

[-] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 19 points 4 months ago

It's in Proton Pass. When you create an account entree, there is an option to create additional fields that you can name and fill out, kind of like multiple notes in one file. Somehow I was able to create those fields on my account just fine, but then to be given access to that data it turned out that I had to upgrade my account. In other words they duped me into entering data at no extra cost, but then charged me to access that same data later on.

[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml 12 points 4 months ago

I don't use it. Mail is fine, I don't need other than this. For all other apps, there are tons of FOSS alternatives out there.

[-] mulcahey@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Bitwarden FTW

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[-] 0xtero@beehaw.org 13 points 4 months ago

being shaken down by Proton to pay even more money

Obviously you're free to do as you please and its not an airport, you don't have to announce your departure. But there's no such thing as free service. Posting angry tirades seems counter productive.

I'd recommend self-hosting. Then you don't have to worry about privacy, getting data hijacked or getting ripped off by sudden cost increases.

[-] ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 9 points 4 months ago

There's no "there's no such thing as free service", and there's "we are going to hold your data hostage until you pay". This is the second, and unless they give you a way to export the fields, it's a violation of GDPR article 20.

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[-] cy_narrator@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 4 months ago

Because a bunch of dementia patients started leaving 1 star review as they kept on forgetting their passwords

[-] vatlark@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

What tier do you pay for now? Did you ever downgrade your tier?

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this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
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