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Bart Butler

@butlerb.art

Proton CTO, @proton.me. Current software engineer and executive, former experimental particle physicist and data scientist. Opinions are my own.

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Latest posts by Bart Butler @butlerb.art

Great article!

06.03.2026 21:38 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Dude…we encrypt pretty much everything everything we can, including basically all content. We can’t encrypt credit card payment information. We are very much β€œpro encryption” but if we get a Swiss court order, we comply.

06.03.2026 09:00 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Umm, we are privacy-focused. We encrypt pretty much everything we can. Payment details cannot be, nor can we ignore Swiss court orders.

05.03.2026 22:53 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Right, there’s no discretion here.

05.03.2026 22:49 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Swiss companies must comply with Swiss warrants. It’s not optional, nor is it optional for any company in any jurisdiction. MLATs are scrutinized by the Swiss authorities. If those authorities decide to help and issue a Swiss order, there is zero discretion here for Proton or any company.

05.03.2026 22:46 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

ME: pack a bag, we’re flying to kansas

MY WAYWARD SON: what kind of bag

01.03.2026 04:26 πŸ‘ 1358 πŸ” 336 πŸ’¬ 25 πŸ“Œ 11

That is also my personal crackpot theory as to when we branched of the prime timeline (Bush vs. Gore) and entered our current bizarro world.

22.02.2026 23:57 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I kind of want to build an age verification service just to make sure there’s a least one vendor that doesn’t suck and isn’t a privacy nightmare.

22.02.2026 00:01 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

You’d think that there would be enough historical examples (both very recent and not-so-recent) of how catering to the far-right leads to the center-right being eaten alive that the center-right would stop doing it.

21.02.2026 23:57 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I am so old I remember when state action in the form of a prior restraint was considered bad. And by bad, I mean like the worst thing ever.

But this is prior restraint jacked up on book banning steroids mixed with horrific bigotry.

21.02.2026 20:54 πŸ‘ 43 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

It astounds me that in a time of rising authoritarianism, surveillance, and censorship, the elected leaders of liberal democracies somehow feel compelled to say, you know what we really need? More centralized governmental control of speech.

21.02.2026 23:31 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

And apparently hypocrisy.

14.02.2026 02:27 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

This is a very, very bad idea.

14.02.2026 01:15 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Disagree, it has plenty of legitimate uses and can be very important for safety. The problem with social media isn’t that you can pretend be a cat, it’s that algorithms make inflammatory shit go viral for engagement.

14.02.2026 01:14 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The moment a government department with β€œHomeland” in the name was created everyone knew that it would end up doing fascist shit.

14.02.2026 01:03 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Banning recommendation algorithms would by itself solve a lot of social media’s ills.

14.02.2026 00:56 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

No, because that would be catastrophically idiotic.

14.02.2026 00:51 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

It’s always funny when palantir employees discover that they work at palantir

26.01.2026 22:51 πŸ‘ 5159 πŸ” 987 πŸ’¬ 97 πŸ“Œ 17

Republicans are much too afraid of their base and Democrats not nearly afraid enough of theirs.

24.01.2026 21:54 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Please forward the mail to abuse@proton.me, harassment shouldn’t be OK even if it’s common.

10.01.2026 19:45 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Harassment is absolutely against the terms of service and results in a ban. Probably a burner account but if you want to report it we can take action.

10.01.2026 00:40 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

YEEEESSSS!

26.11.2025 21:02 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Oh shit Castle of the Winds hell yeah

26.11.2025 20:13 πŸ‘ 34 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I’m sorry I just found out that in 1379, as in, 650 years ago, a baby girl was born in Yorkshire and named Diot Coke

history is a fucking joke lmao

13.11.2025 22:50 πŸ‘ 4632 πŸ” 953 πŸ’¬ 80 πŸ“Œ 93

Not to us.

25.10.2025 10:33 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

As a USian I looked at the words on this graph and wondered if I was having a stroke.

25.10.2025 08:51 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Aside from some payments stuff (unavoidable), one guess whose services have no AWS dependencies and were up all day today…hint is in bio.

20.10.2025 21:18 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
How privacy can saveΒ yourΒ life | Carissa VΓ©liz | TEDxPorto
How privacy can saveΒ yourΒ life | Carissa VΓ©liz | TEDxPorto YouTube video by TEDx Talks

Very nice to see my TEDx Porto talk is out! How #privacy can save your life. For more on privacy, get the #book - Privacy Is Power. #AIEthics

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSPR...

11.10.2025 21:12 πŸ‘ 66 πŸ” 34 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 9

Mike Johnson, resident Congressional Keebler elf, is a tiny man who is somehow even smaller metaphorically.

10.10.2025 15:11 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This is one reason I always internally roll my eyes when I hear any politician trying to run as a self-described socialist in America. Even if it accurately describes your views, it’s an electoral millstone around your neck. Do you care about winning or not?

20.09.2025 22:36 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0