Proton Leadership Considered Harmful
October 30, 2026 - 364 words (1 mins)
When you can’t audit the code, you need to trust the source. I’ve entrusted Proton with my digital life since 2021. Today, that trust has been broken by CEO Andy Yen.
From the 404 Media report Manifestos, Fear, and ‘Loser Thinking’: Inside Proton’s AI Reckoning :
Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton, had a message for an employee in the company’s security Slack channel who urged the company to at least take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live. “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” Yen wrote in the channel at the end of August. “Stop thinking always of how to be slower, and focus more on how to be faster."
Childish statements such as “loser thinking” in response to expert opinion are not the mark of a serious leader that I can trust with my digital life.
Instilling cultures of fear among your employees is how you lose good, honest, and conscientious people.
Focusing on “velocity” instead of maintaining a secure, private, usable core product is not aligned with my original objectives when I signed up. But hey, maybe those priorities aren’t “metrics that matter”.
I call on Andy Yen to step down as CEO of Proton.
My Proton Unlimited subscription ends in February 2027, and if he is still in his position, I will not renew. I’ve heard good things about alternatives, such as Tuta and Mailbox.org .
This is exactly why its so important to own your email address domain (the part after the @ symbol) - you can move mailbox servers any time with minimal loss of continuity. It was hard to migrate off Google because of my 10+ year old Gmail account, but I use my own domain with Proton, which means my switching cost is a few hours editing a handful of DNS entries. Here are a few guides from Tuta , Mailbox.org and Porkbun (Domain Registrar) .
I believe in Proton’s original mission, and I pay them more than probably need to in order to support it. But if I can DeGoogle, I can certainly DeProton.