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Proton Offered Me Money... Then It Got Weird

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Proton Offered Me Money... Then It Got Weird

Uploaded: 2025-11-11

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If you value my integrity, support me: https://www.patreon.com/thehatedone Everything about this and all the details are available in this post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/135217919 If you haven’t noticed, I have never taken a single sponsorship deal on my channel. And it's not for lack of offers. Since I started this channel in 2016, I've been messsaged by all kinds of companies, offering me money to shill for them for a minute or put their link in the description box. Most of these companies were offering dubious VPNs, cryptos or weird products. But a few of these were genuine privacy projects that I know, use and respect. Like Safing which makes the Portmaster firewall, or Quant privacy search engine. Most recently, I have been approached by Proton. The company behind ProtonMail that is now the biggest privacy competitor to Google's ecosystem. I was delighted at first, that Proton found my work appealing to them as they told me. I wanted to say no to their offer outright but I didn't just want to shut them down. I was curious. I wanted to know more. But then, things got really weird. And it all ended more strangely than anyhting I could've expected. And I think this is something you should know about. So I am going to show you exactly what happened. And I am going to be leaking the messages between me and a Proton representative. Since I am a channel that makes all kinds of content on privacy and surveillance, this is something you should absolutely know about. And what you are about to see will give you a peak behind close door deals between your favorite YouTube creators and their sponsors. Proton is a company whose products I've been using since its inception. I actually signed up for ProtonMail all the way back when it started and you had to get to a waiting list before you could open up an account. The reason for this was that Proton was one of the first email providers with user-friendly end-to-end encryption. It came out after Edward Snowden leaked the files on NSA mass surveillance that told us that all these big tech companies are just giving all of our data to intelligence agencies. And end-to-end encryption was our only defense against mass surveillance. ProtonMail came at a time when we had few user-friendly end-to-end encrypted options. Signal was barely in its infancy and no privacy option had any mainstream adoption. Proton was on its path to change that. It has since grown into a powerful empire of services. It's not just an email, it's also a VPN, calendar, drive, Docs, password manager, a crypto wallet, an AI assitant, it acquired SimpleLogin, the app that generates email aliases, and Standard Notes, an encrypted note-taking app. In my privacy recommendations, I always nudge people towards compartmentalization - which is a complex word for a simple idea: don't put too many eggs into one basket. Proton's ecosystem of apps became anti-thetical to that. I would still recommend ProtonMail, but I would suggest to use a different VPN so that you don't trust Proton with too much of your sesnsitive data. Or if you use ProtonVPN, you should use Tuta for your email. I am saying all of this to you to let you know about all the decisions and sacrifices I am making for the ethics and morals behind this channel. I could've been taking money from all kinds of sponsors and have affiliate links all over. And I would be able to hire other people to make better quality content more frequently... and I would be incentivized to go against the best recommendations, because I would make more money shilling for my sponsors and only for my sponsors. I am trying to show that this can be done differently... If it can be done differently. Becuase none of this works if you don't support the channel. I am reducing myself into an e-whore begging for money from my audience because I don't want to whore myself out to sponsors that would conflict with my videos. I mean, I could take sponsors that do not introduce conflicts of interests. I've also been approached by Ground News, but haven't accepteed anything from them. I was thinking of partnering up with Peak Design because I love their products and ethics and they didn't snitch on Luigi. But fundamentally, I will always be dependent on you. And if my audience doesn't step up to support my work, then I'll have to quit. It's a simple equation. Follow me: https://twitter.com/The_HatedOne_ https://www.reddit.com/r/thehatedone/ The footage and images featured in the video were for critical analysis, commentary and parody, which are protected under the Fair Use laws of the United States Copyright act of 1976.

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Source: The Hated One

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description: If you value my integrity, support me: https://www.patreon.com/thehatedone Everything about this and all the details are available in this post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/135217919 If you haven’t noticed, I have never taken a single sponsorship deal on my channel. And it's not for lack of offers. Since I started this channel in 2016, I've been messsaged by all kinds of companies, offering me money to shill for them for a minute or put their link in the description box. Most of these companies were offering dubious VPNs, cryptos or weird products. But a few of these were genuine privacy projects that I know, use and respect. Like Safing which makes the Portmaster firewall, or Quant privacy search engine. Most recently, I have been approached by Proton. The company behind ProtonMail that is now the biggest privacy competitor to Google's ecosystem. I was delighted at first, that Proton found my work appealing to them as they told me. I wanted to say no to their offer outright but I didn't just want to shut them down. I was curious. I wanted to know more. But then, things got really weird. And it all ended more strangely than anyhting I could've expected. And I think this is something you should know about. So I am going to show you exactly what happened. And I am going to be leaking the messages between me and a Proton representative. Since I am a channel that makes all kinds of content on privacy and surveillance, this is something you should absolutely know about. And what you are about to see will give you a peak behind close door deals between your favorite YouTube creators and their sponsors. Proton is a company whose products I've been using since its inception. I actually signed up for ProtonMail all the way back when it started and you had to get to a waiting list before you could open up an account. The reason for this was that Proton was one of the first email providers with user-friendly end-to-end encryption. It came out after Edward Snowden leaked the files on NSA mass surveillance that told us that all these big tech companies are just giving all of our data to intelligence agencies. And end-to-end encryption was our only defense against mass surveillance. ProtonMail came at a time when we had few user-friendly end-to-end encrypted options. Signal was barely in its infancy and no privacy option had any mainstream adoption. Proton was on its path to change that. It has since grown into a powerful empire of services. It's not just an email, it's also a VPN, calendar, drive, Docs, password manager, a crypto wallet, an AI assitant, it acquired SimpleLogin, the app that generates email aliases, and Standard Notes, an encrypted note-taking app. In my privacy recommendations, I always nudge people towards compartmentalization - which is a complex word for a simple idea: don't put too many eggs into one basket. Proton's ecosystem of apps became anti-thetical to that. I would still recommend ProtonMail, but I would suggest to use a different VPN so that you don't trust Proton with too much of your sesnsitive data. Or if you use ProtonVPN, you should use Tuta for your email. I am saying all of this to you to let you know about all the decisions and sacrifices I am making for the ethics and morals behind this channel. I could've been taking money from all kinds of sponsors and have affiliate links all over. And I would be able to hire other people to make better quality content more frequently... and I would be incentivized to go against the best recommendations, because I would make more money shilling for my sponsors and only for my sponsors. I am trying to show that this can be done differently... If it can be done differently. Becuase none of this works if you don't support the channel. I am reducing myself into an e-whore begging for money from my audience because I don't want to whore myself out to sponsors that would conflict with my videos. I mean, I could take sponsors that do not introduce conflicts of interests. I've also been approached by Ground News, but haven't accepteed anything from them. I was thinking of partnering up with Peak Design because I love their products and ethics and they didn't snitch on Luigi. But fundamentally, I will always be dependent on you. And if my audience doesn't step up to support my work, then I'll have to quit. It's a simple equation. Follow me: https://twitter.com/The_HatedOne_ https://www.reddit.com/r/thehatedone/ The footage and images featured in the video were for critical analysis, commentary and parody, which are protected under the Fair Use laws of the United States Copyright act of 1976.
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Proton Offered Me Money... Then It Got Weird

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