Proton doesn't really support anonymous payments. Let's demand that they do

Treant:

How do you know what they are seeing when they add funds to your account? Do you have proof they “see way more”? Or is it just an assumption?

My assertions are based on my experience with the customer support of multiple online services, including Proton.

Have you ever contacted Proton Support and the support agent makes observations about your account that you never explicitly disclosed and have nothing to do with why you contacted them?

This has happened to me many times, and it happens to Proton users all the time when they contact support, but they just don’t notice it. They don’t interpret it as an invasion of privacy when it is. They think it’s normal. I called out Proton on it, and they apologized. |

The point is, even if a Proton agent never mentions to you what they see about your account, they still see it. Them mentioning it just serves as proof that they see it. I understand that when you contact Proton Support, they can see stuff about your account, and there is little you can do about that, which is why I try to avoid it when I can. It’s why I never contact support with my account email unless it is absolutely necessary. And it is why I don’t want my cash payments to be manually added by a Proton agent.

trilobyte:

The vast majority of people happily give up the anonymity of using cash for the convenience and security of using credit cards. Hence why I think people paying in cash are a small portion of proton users. I rarely see anyone say they actually paid Proton in cash as well, even in online spaces.

trilobyte:

The convenient option in this case isn’t any form of cash payment. It’s using a credit card.

CASH PAYMENTS

I understand that. My main argument is that anonymous payments could be made more convenient, to the point that it’s as easy and perhaps even easier than using your credit card to pay Proton directly.

When it comes to direct cash payments to Proton, which is the specific anonymous payment method you’re talking about, I am saying that it could be improved for those who want to use it. I refer you to the ATM analogy. Depositing cash in your bank account via ATM is more private that going to a bank teller who sees your profile.

ANONYMIZING CREDIT CARDS

However, if you believe credit cards are the most convenient way, I already told you what I think about that. Proton could anonymize credit card payments like Posteo does by not linking them to accounts. To protect users even further, they could apply those anonymized credit card payments to gift cards so that you have to buy your subscription with your Proton credits instead of your credit card.

The first method doesn’t require the user to do anything. The second, which is an improvement on the first, requires barely a few more clicks and prevents your credit card info from being saved or linked to your account.

It’s possible that anonymizing credit card payments would be the most challenging to implement for Proton when they already have millions of paying users with their credit cards saved.

This is why I believe the anonymous method that would be easiest to offer and at the same time yield the most impact is for Proton to allow their gift cards to be sold in the Proxy Store.