this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Do you understand what enshittification is? It's a slow descent over a long period. You add optional, privacy-respecting AI now, and over time, (like a decade,) it becomes more shitty until eventually all your data is opted in to centralized data harvesting or wherever.
I'm an Unlimited paid Proton user, and these new trend worry me too. Enshittification is a slow process. I watched Google turn from "Do no evil" to what they are today, and I'm too tired to want to watch the same entire process happen again to Proton.
Shouldn't we worry of enshittification when we are on the verge of, or on the descending side of trajectory?
So far they added features in a way that keeps respecting users rights, without changing their business model (which is 90% of the reason why companies enshittify BTW). Just because these products have something in common with products of companies who enshittified doesn't mean the same applies here.
That's some big slippery slope fallacy. Privacy respecting AI was a highly requested feature, whether you wanted it or not.
Them adding an AI mail assistant that is completely private has nothing to do with them eventually not protecting user privacy. These things have nothing to do with each other.
AI is not inherently a privacy invading tool, its just that the majority of services offering it are free, hence them profiting off data.
Except their entire brand is built on privacy, so this master conspiracy you seem to think exists makes absolutely zero business sense. Google has never cared about user privacy, nor was that ever a reason people used Google's services, so I'm not sure why you think that is a relevant comparison. It's not.
Google's entire brand was built on amazing search, and now their search is awful.
Enshittification isn't a conspiracy and it's not a nefarious end-goal, it's just a descent into shittiness. Proton continuing to sideline Linux (still no Drive support, other apps are second-class, etc) is a great example.
If they were truly focused on the goal of promoting privacy, they would be wanting to prioritise the option for people to leave Windows and Mac for Linux. Instead, it seems like their goal is becoming "Offer all the things that are hot in the market right now."
And how was that search funded? Google took in large amounts of money from venture capitalists in the 90s and transitioned to an advertising-based model as early as 2000. You're incredibly naive if Google's "descent into shittiness" came as a surprise; it was always going to happen as the company looked for ways to generate a return for investors on its free product.
Meanwhile, Proton is a company that generates almost all of its revenues from selling its services to consumers for a fee and has no venture capitalist investors. As consumers are its primary source of revenue, any attempt to undermine the reason those consumers pay for its services (privacy) is going to have a significant and negative impact on the financial viability of the business.
Please think before you rage post. Your attempts to compare these two companies are hysterical and inane.
🙄 I think you need to take a deep breath and count to 5 if you think there was any rage or hysteria in my very mild comment.
Suggesting Proton is undertaking a "descent into shittiness" comparable to that of Google because it hasn't made a Linux application for one of its many services is very hysterical. As is suggesting Proton is "not truly focused on privacy" because it has applications available for Windows and macOS. There is nothing "mild" about either of those delusional claims.