NotFunny wrote:CharmCityCrab wrote:One issue with Proton Mail is that you need to enter a user name and password, then click something, then enter a second password for the encryption, and then click something again EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU USE IT.
Erm..it's called security, that's the whole point of Proton Mail, even our corporate Outlook requires the same when accessing from outside the collective.
Proton Mail's beta Android client allows you to sign in once and have it remember you. Other than when having to uninstall and reinstall due to technical errors (It is a beta, after all), where obviously I need to tell it my user name and passwords again, I've never had to enter my password more than once the entire time I've been using it. Why is allowing me to do something similar on my PC any less secure than allowing me to do it on my phone? Once they do the one, they as might as well make it consistent across platforms and increase user convenience, because it's no longer really adding security.
Also, they could leave the choice in the hands of the users. Those who want the perceived extra security of having Proton Mail mail automatically log out the second you navigate away from the site could simply not click the "Remember Me" box, and those who do could click the box. Then you could have deeper stuff under settings that allows you to set a duration for how long "Remember Me" should last before prompting for a password, and make sure when the box is unchecked, it is even more rigorous than other email providers about not leaving anything, even a cookie, and logging people out the second the browser closes or they navigate away from the website.
I think ultimately the carpal tunnel inducing reentry of three fields every time one wants to check one's email will prevent it from being my regular email, and prevent it from being a lot of people's regular email, if they don't add in a way for users who want to change it to stay persistently logged in. I mean, I almost automatically surf to my preexisting mailbox online between tasks and stuff. I check it a lot. Since I'm not James Bond, the inconvenience of entering all three fields every time a gazillion times a day outweighs any security advantages it gains me.
That's what I think some developers of stuff like Proton Mail forget. People *do* want stuff like open-sourced, more secure, more private, communications, and whatnot, but not badly enough that they are willing to endure a ton of inconvenience. Fair or not, to really get a mainstream audience, the developers of such a project need to make it as convenient or nearly as convenient as it's more mainstream alternatives.
Also, I think there could be potentially be many users who choose the browser for reasons other than security or privacy- for example, that it is ad-free and supported by donations, that it's open-sourced software, that it has an interesting domain name, that is not owned by a large corporation, and so on and so forth. Those people are going to be even less willing to deal with not being able to have their regular browser on their home computer remember their log-in information.
I think that- and the thing coming out of beta, are the main reasons I haven't switched yet. They need to be as convenient as my existing email, with a remember me feature, and then I'll go. If they never get there, I'll probably stick with my Yahoo account until something better comes along.
The main problem ATM (duly noted by them and they're working on it.) is that it's not yet possible to import one's Gmail stuff....
Interesting. Are we just talking contacts? Because I was able to export a file from Yahoo and import it to Proton Mail and transfer all that over. I'm surprised that Gmail doesn't have a similar export feature that is readable by Proton Mail.
If you have an Android phone and are can get an invite to the Android beta, you might be able to get it to import your Google contacts automatically into that, perhaps triggering their appearance on the desktop client contact list.
If you want to actually import old emails because you keep deep archives, you'd probably run into Proton Mail's 500MB per mailbox storage limit. I don't mind that limit because I tend to clean out most of my old emails every few months, with a few exceptions.
And I can always clear it every so often after I look at it if I want to. I guess I generally prefer functionality to privacy, with the caveat that privacy features are nice when they don't compromise functionality. It sounds like the few privacy features here that might compromise functionality (like the links thing) can be turned off in the options panel in favor of traditional unencrypted email.
One guy on their feedback site said he talked to them about the password stuff and they were just not going to even implement the option because they want to be secure. But it's an option that's an acceptable risk to most people, and to those for whom it isn't, they could opt out. Not having it there is just... Well, I hesitate to say stupid. But it's stupid if they want to build a relatively mainstream userbase and not just people who really, really have a need for privacy and security or who have really, really strong convictions about it.
