You don't have to use Proton
I realize I'm a little late, but I found the recent controversy surrounding a statement made by Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton, in support of Trump's nomination for antitrust to be very interesting. Although I think there are bigger problems to solve right now, I'm not going to pretend like I read closely into it or try to be politically correct here. If someone wants to stop using Proton's services, then all power to them. It's not up to me to decide whom you trust or do not trust.
Proton has obviously made a name for itself and is a favorite email provider among privacy enthusiasts. It also offers encrypted photo storage, a VPN, and calendar, and it seems like Proton Drive could genuinely rival Google Drive. Honestly, just reading about all those things makes me want to become a customer. So, I can see why it can be hard for those to leave who want to. Not to mention that migrating everything you have stored to a privacy-preserving alternative, which may even turn out to be multiple services and not an all-in-one solution, sounds like a headache. I don't want to downplay that.
But the reality is that it's possible, now more than ever before. You don't have to use Proton to preserve your digital privacy and still receive and send emails, and I hope more people realize that. Even though I don't work in data protection or anything like this, I've managed to learn about some of the various options and figure out a setup that works for me. For now this doesn't include Proton. I know I'm not the only one.
Of course there are downsides to every service. Nothing is perfect. Maybe one provider doesn't offer custom domains, or it's based in one of the fourteen eyes and that's not acceptable to you. Maybe it offers all the privacy features you want or need, but it's clunky and unpleasant to use.
As for me, though I am unfortunately stuck in the Outlook bubble for my job, I opt to use my Posteo email whenever possible. I've been a customer for years now and am pleased with it. There are several other candidates besides Proton like Mailbox.org or Tutanota that I may consider in the future.
Sure, Proton will probably still be preferred by the majority. Potentially condoning Trump is never a good sign, but I can't say Proton is good or bad. I more want to say that it's awesome we even have a choice between these things (somewhat). I'm not much of an optimist, and again, I don't want to underestimate the threats to a fair and privacy-respecting web. But the demand for privacy-respecting tools is only growing, or so it seems. There is a plethora of privacy tools and resources to find them at our fingertips. That's promising.