Proton spam and the AI consent problem

Email consent, dark patterns, and spam

• Many commenters generalize the incident to a long‑running “email consent problem”: companies routinely add new marketing categories, auto‑opt everyone in, and relabel obvious promos as “transactional” or “important announcements” to dodge unsubscribe rules.
• Examples cited: LinkedIn, airlines, banks, HelloFresh, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Copilot, WhatsApp, Amazon Pharmacy/Health, Apple TV/Music, various recruiters.
• People describe increasingly bloated “communication preferences” pages and “unsubscribe theater” where choices are ignored or quietly reset. Some respond by immediately hitting “report spam” rather than trusting unsubscribes, despite risk of missing genuine service emails.

Is this specifically an AI problem?

• One camp: this is not unique to AI; it’s the same old marketing behavior now applied to the current hype topic. Calling it an “AI consent problem” misdiagnoses a generic email‑consent issue.
• Another camp: AI is different because it’s being jammed into every product surface, often non‑optional, and promoted aggressively; the disregard for consent mirrors how training data was collected. For them, the AI tie‑in is central, not incidental.

Reactions to Proton and trust

• Several users say Proton’s intrusive promos (emails and in‑app nags) are the main thing making them consider leaving, especially given its privacy branding. Some keep Proton only for low‑value or throwaway mail.
• Others report few or no unwanted AI emails and regard the incident as a minor misclassification bug; they argue the outrage is disproportionate.
• The CTO appears in the thread acknowledging “a bug” and saying “we fucked up” and will fix it. Some accept this; others see it as post‑hoc damage control for a deliberate KPI‑driven decision.
• A meta‑theme: accusations in both directions of astroturfing—some think there’s an “anti‑Proton campaign,” others suspect Proton fanboy defense.

Broader AI push and non‑consensual integration

• Commenters connect the email to a wider pattern: AI features added everywhere (Shopify, Amazon Q&A, Office, WhatsApp, Google Workspace) even when unreliable or unwanted, often impossible to fully disable except on high‑tier plans.
• Some see AI as potentially de‑enshittifying (agents resisting dark patterns); more see it as another excuse for lock‑in, surveillance, and engagement hacks.

Law, enforcement, and coping strategies

• EU/UK commenters emphasize GDPR/ePrivacy theoretically prohibit much of this, but enforcement is spotty and fines often trivial. US regulation is viewed as weaker or hamstrung by courts.
• Tactics suggested: file complaints with regulators, threaten GDPR action, demand consent logs, or simply switch providers (Fastmail, Tuta, mailbox.org, self‑hosting).