I see this block every time I open my email. Is this a bug I’m facing or is this the new normal?

  • hanke@feddit.nuEnglish
    814·
    2 months ago

    If I am not mistaken, there is a “don’t show me this offer again” thingy somewhere.

    But as others have mentioned, it is a free service. And most importantly, this free service does not collect your data or show targrted ads to make a profit off of you when you don’t pay. It is truly free. I think being asked to pay for the service is extra okay because of this.

    • babybusOPEnglish
      121·
      2 months ago

      That’s totally understandable. I simply didn’t notice that thing before due to some external factors, hence the question.

  • ReluctantZen@feddit.nlEnglish
    251·
    2 months ago

    If you’re on a free plan, doesn’t it make sense for them to push their paid plans to you? They don’t sell your data so they need to make money somehow.

  • TazerfaceEnglish
    171·
    2 months ago

    They always do. What annoys me is their Black Friday “deal” is almost the same price as paying for a 2 year subscription.

    • lud@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Why is that a bad thing?

      Being bound to 12 months is obviously better than 24 months if the price is the same.

      • TazerfaceEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        During their Black Friday deals, Proton claims 30% off. What they don’t make clear is that’s 30% off their monthly price.

    • babybusOPEnglish
      76·
      2 months ago

      Oh, I guess I didn’t notice this before somehow. I don’t know about other users, but it only turns me off. For a non-profit organization, they employ some of the worst marketing strategies.

      • EmperorHenry@infosec.pubEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        It costs money to maintain all this stuff. They’re being super generous with their free options.

        Then there’s all the court cases that they fight against on the regular too. That costs a lot of money as well.

  • Telodzrum@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2922·
    2 months ago

    It’s just you being hypersensitive to a service asking its users to pay for that service.

    • babybusOPEnglish
      2316·
      2 months ago

      If anything, this reply shows how normalized these practices are.

      • Holyginz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        233·
        2 months ago

        Not really. Them not using ads means they can’t make money that way, so the only way they can make money is through subscriptions. Even a not for profit needs to pay people and pay for overhead. If everybody used the free service they would go under over night. As long as they continue to respect privacy they have every right to have these pop-ups. Especially since they don’t force you to subscribe.

        • Pasta DentalEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          Quick note, Proton AG itself (the for profit company) still owns, operates and develops the Proton services as we know. The only difference with the non-profit structure is that Proton AG is owned by the proton foundation. Which basically is a protection against aggressive takeovers and the enshittification that would follow. Also, tax advantages, probably.

      • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
        10·
        2 months ago

        And for a damn good reason… Companies need money to operate. Proton may not be for profit like Google, but they are not a charity either.

        Very little is free without strings, what’s been normalized (in a bad way) is the concept that you can have free things that don’t intrude asking for money. That only happens in the venture capital “get em hooked” stage (and we’ve seen a lot of it because the Internet is still relatively young). Even KDE is now asking for money (granted once a year … but your usage of their desktop doesn’t require them to run expensive servers).

      • brrtEnglish
        73·
        2 months ago

        If anything, this reply shows how entitled some people are.

        • babybusOPEnglish
          15·
          2 months ago

          It doesn’t. I didn’t say that proton can’t show me ads or it must serve me for free. But the fact that you are attacking me personally for asking a question about a product in a community dedicated to this product clearly confirms that my previous reply was spot on.

  • Artaca@lemdro.idEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    I pay for a low tier and use uBlock to hide the buttons advertising higher tiers.

  • LemoineFaircloughEnglish
    56·
    2 months ago

    I got a subscription last year and I don’t have a memory of seeing an advertisement at https://mail.proton.me/u/0/inbox after that, and I didn’t see one just now when I checked.

    If you want to use an email service without seeing advertisements, maybe you should pay for a subscription starting from https://proton.me/pricing or https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email/ or maybe instead you should consider something like https://www.lifewire.com/best-free-email-accounts-1356641