this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
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TechTakes

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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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Proton Mail goes AI, security-focused userbase goes ‘what on earth’ (pivot-to-ai.com)
submitted 4 months ago by dgerard@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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we appear to be the first to write up the outrage coherently too. much thanks to the illustrious @self

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[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

their self reported system requirements to run the local LLM don't sound like the average office dell spec (sorry for using screenshots)

and the "opt in" flow appears to make no effort to explain the critical privacy difference between local and server llms

https://proton.me/support/proton-scribe-writing-assistant#system-requirements

[–] self@awful.systems 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

god, the pure fucking dark pattern of the option that leaks plaintext being the default, with a description that’s only its upsides, while the local option sounds quite a bit shit in comparison

also, I keep meaning to ask: does this “free for 14 days” trial auto-renew? cause that’s a real shitty dark pattern too if interacting with the feature starts your subscription. in fact, isn’t that illegal in some jurisdictions?

[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

does this “free for 14 days” trial auto-renew?

Proton Scribe is a writing assistant built into Proton Mail that helps you compose emails and improve your drafts. It is available as a paid add-on from $2.99 per user monthly for anyone on our business plans, and you can try it for free for 14 days. It’s also included for free with Proton Visionary and Lifetime plans.

You can use Proton Scribe with a Proton Mail business plan: Mail Essentials, Mail Professional, and Proton Business Suite. It is available as a paid add-on to be paid monthly, per user. Proton Scribe is also included for free with the Proton Visionary and Lifetime legacy plans. Organization admins and members get access to a free trial of Proton Scribe for 14 days. The trial starts as soon as you click the pencil icon in the composer. If you’d like to purchase Proton Scribe after your trial, you can do so from your account dashboard.

It doesn't sound like it, but the wording is a little strange in that it is $2.99 per user per month but does that mean that an admin has to tell each employee whether they can do the trial or not? It doesn't seem manageable to have a free trial that is activated by the individual user but then the switch to paid subscription has to be handled (I assume) by the designated admin.

Also, if we're talking about paid accounts they have the billing info already, so maybe they figure it's better to provide it in this difficult to manage way so that the automatic rollover appears easier?

Now I'm talking out of my ass based on their promo material but it doesn't change the fact that their standard response is "75% of the survey respondents said they want this" but they release it with this limp-ass "free trial" bullshit

[–] self@awful.systems 7 points 4 months ago

Now I’m talking out of my ass based on their promo material but it doesn’t change the fact that their standard response is “75% of the survey respondents said they want this” but they release it with this limp-ass “free trial” bullshit

the exact same energy as the parking lot of a vacant mall filled with unbought or broken Cybertrucks and other supposedly luxury Tesla vehicles