Proton has their own AI bullshit:
At least it’s not rummaging around your email though.
And just so you know, it is not end-to-end encrypted like their email is when emailing another Proton user: https://lumo.proton.me/legal/privacy
The only way to have actually private AI is to run it on your own hardware.
I don't necessarily have a problem with offering AI. Especially in actually-useful contexts. I have a problem with it being forced on me in unwanted ones.
I have a problem with encryption possibly being a thing of the past because users I write with will put all incoming messages through some LLM because they can‘t be arsed to actually read and reply themselves.
Since when does email have encryption?
I mean in general. It doesn‘t matter what you use because the AI software will be installed on their phones.
Yes and no. If we're talking about email, that's completely different from Lumo, and can either be run locally or server-side with encryption, which is then immediately deleted.
https://proton.me/support/proton-scribe-writing-assistant#privacy
But I mean email is generally not private anyway.
Yeah but lumo is basically just a side gimmick thing that isn't integrated with the rest of their suite.
It's basically the equivalent of a self hosted small LLM that you don't have to fuck around with setting up.
There's nothing inherently wrong with LLMs as a tool. The problem is the misuse, misapplication and over scaling of them.
If they were all just one off tools like lumo that are basically slightly more advanced digital assistants they would be fine. LLMs are fantastic for quickly searching shit with crap discoverability for example. They routinely are more effective at finding random useful results in say reddit or stack overflow or even some weird forum on the 12th page of Google.
I mean, I get that, but why is Proton offering one? What value do I get from Proton’s LLM that I wouldn’t get from any other company’s LLM? It’s not privacy, because it’s not end to end encrypted. It’s not features, because it’s just a fine tuned version of the free Mistral model (from what I can tell). It’s not integration (thank goodness), because they don’t have access to your data to integrate it with (according to their privacy policy).
I kind of just hate the idea that every tech company is offering an LLM service now. Proton is an email and VPN company. Those things make sense. The calendar and drive stuff too. They have actual selling points that differentiate them from other offerings. But investing engineering time and talent into yet another LLM, especially one that’s worse than the competition, just seems like a waste to me. And especially since it’s not something that fits into their other product offerings.
It truly seems like they just wanted to have something AI related so they wouldn’t be “left behind” in case the hype wasn’t a bubble. I don’t like it when companies do that. It makes me think they don’t really have a clear direction.
Edit: it looks like they use several models, not just one:
Lumo is powered by open-source large language models (LLMs) which have been optimized by Proton to give you the best answer based on the model most capable of dealing with your request. The models we’re using currently are Nemo, OpenHands 32B, OLMO 2 32B, GPT-OSS 120B, Qwen, Ernie 4.5 VL 28B, Apertus, and Kimi K2.
- https://proton.me/support/lumo-privacy
I have a laptop with 48GB of VRAM (a Framework with integrated Radeon graphics) that can run all of those models locally, so Proton offers even less value for someone in my position.
Ah; as I recall, it's because they polled users and there was an overwhelming "yes please", based on Proton's privacy stance.
Given proton is hosted in EU, they're likely quite serious about GDPR and zero data retention.
Lumo is interesting. Architecturally I mean, as a LLM enjoyer. I played around with it a bit, and stole a few ideas from them when I jury rigged my system. Having said that, you could get a ton more with $10 on OpenRouter. Hell, the free models on there are better than lumo and you can choose to only use privacy respecting providers.
I played around with it a lot yesterday, giving it documentation and asking it to write some code based on the API documentation. Just like every single other LLM I’ve ever tried, it just bungled the entire thing. It made up a bunch of functions and syntax that just doesn’t exist. After I told it the code was wrong and gave it the right way to do it, it told me that I got it wrong and converted it back to the incorrect syntax. LLMs are interesting toys, but shouldn’t be used for real work.
Yeah. I had ChatGPT (more than once) take the code given, cut it in half, scramble it and then claim "see? I did it! Code works now".
When you point out what it did, by pasting its own code back in, it will say "oh, why did you do that? There's a mistake in your code at XYZ". No...there's a mistake in your code, buddy.
When you paste in what you want it to add, it "fixes" XYZ ... and ...surprise surprise... It's either your OG code or more breaks.
The only one ive seen that doesn't do this is (or does it a lot less) is Claude.
I think Lumo for the most part is really just Mistral, Nemotron and Openhands in a trench coat. ICBW.
I think Lumo's value proposition is around data retention and privacy, not SOTA llm tech.
Its good to clarify that it's not end to end encrypted like their email because its not clear from their marketing wording that its not. Its very easy to presume "encrypted" is the same encryption process they are known for on their email.
The flip side of that coin is that it is a separate tool you don't have to use. You can choose to use as many or few of their products as you wish (its not forced on you).
It's also a plus that there is SOME encryption and attempts at privacy vs every other alternative besides self hosting.
I've personally found lumo to be very useful in troubleshooting computer issues that I'm unfamiliar with. I've learned a lot from using it, and the researching was faster than scouring forums myself and presented to me in a single pane. Its just a tool similar to a web browser. I choose a browser that helps me be private and I choose an AI tool that does the same, but I don't expect either to actually keep me private.
No one is forcing you to use it. Having a european AI like Lumo that encrypts transcripts is great in comparison to shady big tech companies. Yes I know the full context is sent each time the AI wants to generate something. But still, I'm happy they offer it.
I did all that ages ago and re-confirmed, it's still all disabled...
But Gemini persists:
The hell? How can that be?
What the column has you do is disable Gemini access in Mail, but it is still on for search.
All the suggestions in this thread are good, but for anyone who doesn't want to self-host or change providers entirely (because changing your email is an absolute pain in the ass):
At least get a different mail client. You don't have to use the official Gmail App to access Gmail! I personally really like FairEmail, because it's open source, has no unnecessary bells and whistles, and just works. It takes less than 5mins to download it and move Gmail over there completely, with no risk of losing any data or missing any mails.
Or Thunderbird, I use that with my yahoo email ive had for 20 years. I cant get rid of it at this point ha
LOL I did and these fuckers decided to disable my widget. It only shows my inbox as empty. Yeah I definitely need to continue my de-googlifying.
Don't use gmail?
From all things in the modern world, E-Mail is the easiest to have for yourself.
I've been using Proton for years, 100% would recommend
That being said, I have had to use my gmail a couple times over the years because some sites do not accept an email address unless it's from one of the top few email providers. It's fucked
I went one step further and use my own domain where I can freely choose my hosting provider.
So far I havent had an issue with sites accepting my domain (and it's not a very common one to start with).
The only issue I have faced so far is with some sites seemingly unable to fathom how one would want to switch their email.
Looking at you IoI Interactive
How to turn off Gemini in one step:
If i was actually running my own competing service I'd probably suggest switching to it instead of writing a blog post to help people use my competition, but i guess thats why I don't work in marketing, this must be some big brained 4-d chess move.
Why does it matter if its googles "AI' slurping up your emails, or just their massive advertising and tracking network? Do the ads seem less intrusive if they're just coming from adsense instead of gemini? Are people actually foolish enough to think "disabling" a feature like this actually stops google from constantly scanning every single one of their emails?
I'm going to call this now, Proton will be just as bad as google in 5-10 years. It shows in how they are totally bad faith promoting themselves as a better alternative they have one goal in mind and it's the same one as cancer.
but i guess thats why I don’t work in marketing
Yeah, I guess it is, because this article works in Proton's favor on multiple levels:
You're so smarmy about this but just come off as a complete dipshit who gave this two seconds of thought.
You had such excellent points all up until the unnecessary ad hominem at the end there. No need for name calling when you've already won.
Before I address the substance: that's not what an ad hominem is in the context of an argument. I'd already 100% finished attacking the substance of their argument. An ad hominem would be if I fallaciously appealed to a personal characteristic (real or otherwise) to attack an argument of theirs. "You're wrong because you're a dipshit".
Anyway: man, I dunno. It's 2026, and I've gotten really fucking sick of being unilaterally bound by etiquette when the bullshit asymmetry principle and the Dunning–Kruger effect are being stretched to their limits by insufferable, insolent shitheads who've unburdened themselves of critical thinking and assume having a platform to the entire world makes them qualified to say anything about everything (I can fall into this trap too, but holy shit sometimes).
I was still more polite than they were, still exercised more critical thought than they did, and still addressed the substance, and that's fine enough by me not to tone police myself.
Alright, my bad, good ackshually. 👍 Let's refer to it as name-calling.
So like, calling someone a dipshit just because you've run into so many people that annoy you... I dunno. If it was the same person that annoyed you over and over again, I'd get it, but, this is your first interaction with this person, right? You feel me?
🤷♂️ You have the right to call anyone you want a dipshit, of course, I just would like us to have civil discourse here. Everyone benefits from that, I believe. Plus, I think we're all mostly on the same side regarding this matter. I don't feel like this is a every polarizing issue here. 😁 Google is the enemy here, let's not infight.
A person is also much more susceptible and inclined to listen without being called names. 😉
Have a good day today, buddy!
Proton ad
That's assuming the setting is respected server-side, of course. With the track record of company doing AI training, respect of rules and law isn't really part of their actions.
Or... Migrate to another email service provider?
Step 1: Use an open source mail client that doesn't contain trackers like FairEmail instead of Google's app.
Step 2 (optional but recommended): Get another email service that respects privacy.
I'm slowly moving my accounts over from gmail to protonmail.
Privacy should be the default, not the exception.
https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-disable-gemini-on-android
Tuta is always pretty quick to report on these things. 🙂
I am happy I don't need google products for anything. I have been using Mailfence for several years and been fine with it. For folks who can leave gmail, there are multiple good options, at least for email.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
