If encryption is a must, then use Tuta. German company, privacy focused, open source all around, no surveillance, free tier with encryption available, encrypted calendars, accessible paid subscriptions with actually useful services.
Keep a proton for situations where you can actually use the encryption. Most of the time the encryption is as useless as a VPN.
Also keep in mind all it is is pgp with a directory lookup. I think proton made their pgp directory lookup more open in the last few years, so it may not have any real benefits.
This is common debate and there’s plenty of angles to it. VPN companies are definitely guilty of fear mongering in their advertising and trying to market them as an easy way to achieve privacy or anonymity, which is false. Tom Scott’s video covers this well. This overview is also pretty good at explaining what it is and isn’t. If you don’t trust your ISP or are using public/free wifi, VPNs can be useful. VPNs aren’t inherently trustworthy either, though, especially free ones that might be harvesting your data. Even a well-intentioned VPN that doesn’t retain logs can rent servers that government entities can (theoretically) bug to get your data (if they really wanted to).
I use Proton mail, any recommendations for alternatives?
I’ll add another rec for posteo.de, I’ve used it for about a year and been very happy with it.
If encryption is a must, then use Tuta. German company, privacy focused, open source all around, no surveillance, free tier with encryption available, encrypted calendars, accessible paid subscriptions with actually useful services.
Posteo
Keep a proton for situations where you can actually use the encryption. Most of the time the encryption is as useless as a VPN.
Also keep in mind all it is is pgp with a directory lookup. I think proton made their pgp directory lookup more open in the last few years, so it may not have any real benefits.
Can you elaborate on the uselessness of a VPN?
This is common debate and there’s plenty of angles to it. VPN companies are definitely guilty of fear mongering in their advertising and trying to market them as an easy way to achieve privacy or anonymity, which is false. Tom Scott’s video covers this well. This overview is also pretty good at explaining what it is and isn’t. If you don’t trust your ISP or are using public/free wifi, VPNs can be useful. VPNs aren’t inherently trustworthy either, though, especially free ones that might be harvesting your data. Even a well-intentioned VPN that doesn’t retain logs can rent servers that government entities can (theoretically) bug to get your data (if they really wanted to).
Posteo!
PGP or other PKI.
Don’t trust people you’ve never met to give a shit about you