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Privacidad por defecto."],"People before profits":["Primero las personas, luego los beneficios"],"Security through transparency":["Seguridad con transparencia"],"The best Proton Mail ${ BLACK_FRIDAY } deals":["Las mejores ofertas de Proton Mail en el ${ BLACK_FRIDAY }"],"The world’s only community- supported email service":["El único servicio de correo electrónico del mundo financiado por la comunidad"]},"specialoffer:limited":{"${ hours } hour":["${ hours } hora","${ hours } horas"],"${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft } and ${ secondsLeft } left":["Tiempo restante: ${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft } y ${ secondsLeft }"],"${ minutes } minute":["${ minutes } minuto","${ minutes } minutos"],"${ seconds } second":["${ seconds } segundo","${ seconds } segundos"],"Limited time offer":["Oferta por tiempo limitado"]},"specialoffer:listitem":{"Create multiple addresses":["Cree múltiples direcciones"],"Hide-my-email aliases":["Seudónimos de hide-my-email"],"Quickly unsubscribe from newsletters":["Cancele suscripciones a boletines rápidamente"],"Use your own domain name":["Use su propio dominio"]},"specialoffer:logos":{"As featured in":["Tal como aparece en"]},"specialoffer:metadescription":{"Get an encrypted email that protects your privacy":["Obtenga un correo electrónico cifrado que protege su privacidad"]},"specialoffer:metatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday Sale - Up to 40% off":["Oferta de Black Friday de Proton Mail: hasta un 40% de descuento"]},"specialoffer:newmetadescription":{"Get up to 40% off Proton Mail subscriptions this Black Friday. Find great deals on our secure end-to-end encrypted email plans.":["Aproveche las rebajas de Black Friday y obtenga suscripciones de Proton Mail con hasta un 40 % de descuento. Encontrará las mejores ofertas en planes de correo electrónico seguro cifrado de extremo a extremo."]},"specialoffer:newmetatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday sale | Up to 40% off secure email":["Rebajas de Black Friday en Proton Mail | Hasta un 40 % de descuento en correo electrónico seguro"]},"specialoffer:note":{"* Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first year":["*Con un costo de ${ TOTAL_SUM } durante el primer año"],"*Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first 2 years":["*Con un costo de ${ TOTAL_SUM } durante los primeros 2 años"],"30-day money-back guarantee":["Garantía de devolución de dinero de 30 días"],"Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first 2 years":["Con un costo de ${ TOTAL_SUM } durante los primeros 2 años"],"Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first year":["Con un costo de ${ TOTAL_SUM } durante el primer año"],"You save ${ SAVE_SUM }":["Ahorre ${ SAVE_SUM }"]},"specialoffer:off":{"${ PERCENT_OFF } off":["-${ PERCENT_OFF }"]},"specialoffer:testimonial":{"I love my ProtonMail":["Amo mi Proton Mail"],"My favorite email service":["Mi servicio de correo electrónico favorito"],"Thanks Proton for keeping us all safe in the complicated internet universe.":["Gracias Proton por mantenernos a salvo en el complicado universo de Internet."],"You get what you pay for. In the case of big tech, if you pay nothing, you get used. I quit using Gmail and switched to @ProtonMail":["Obtiene aquello por lo que paga. En el caso de la gran tecnología, cuando uno no paga nada, se acostumbra. Dejé de usar Gmail y cambié a @ProtonMail"]},"specialoffer:time":{"Days":["Días"],"Hours":["Horas"],"Min":["min"]},"specialoffer:title":{"And much more":["Y mucho más"],"Safe from trackers":["A salvo de rastreadores"],"Stay organized":["Mantenga todo en orden"],"Black Friday email deals":["Ofertas en correo electrónico del Black Friday"],"Don’t just take our word for it":["No confíe solo en nuestra palabra"],"Make your inbox yours":["Tome posesión de su bandeja de entrada"],"Our story":["Nuestra historia"],"Transfer your data from Google in one click":["Transfiera sus datos de Google con un solo clic"]},"specialoffer:tooltip":{"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_VPN_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_VPN_COUNTRIES }+ countries, connect up to 10 devices, access worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Acceda a contenidos bloqueados y navegue de forma privada. Incluye más de ${ TOTAL_VPN_SERVERS } servidores en más de ${ TOTAL_VPN_COUNTRIES } países, se conecta con hasta 10 dispositivos, accede a servicios de transmisión de todo el mundo, bloquea malware y publicidad y mucho más."],"Easily share your calendar with your family, friends or colleagues, and view external calendars.":["Comparta su calendario con familiares, amigos y compañeros fácilmente y consulte calendarios externos."],"Includes support for 1 custom email domain, 10 email addresses, 10 hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Incluye compatibilidad con 1 dominio de correo electrónico personalizado, 10 direcciones de correo electrónico, 10 seudónimos de hide-my-email, posibilidad de compartir calendario, etc."],"Includes support for 3 custom email domains, 15 email addresses, unlimited hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Incluye compatibilidad con 3 dominios de correo electrónico personalizado, 15 direcciones de correo electrónico, seudónimos 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The worst privacy washing of 2023 and trends to expect in 2024 | Proton
The biggest new threat to privacy in 2023 wasn’t any surveillance program. It was the false advertising Big Tech companies use to trick people into thinking their products are private.
Like oil companies claiming fossil fuels are “green”, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others increasingly try to convince people their surveillance-based advertising models are “private” when they’re not. This sneaky marketing practice is known as privacy washing(nueva ventana).
We expect this trend to increase in the coming years, and it’s important for everyone to understand the reality that surveillance capitalism is incompatible with privacy.
Three factors are pushing privacy washing to new extremes:
The increasing consumer demand for online privacy
Stronger privacy regulations around the world
Pressure on ad revenue because of ad blockers and other privacy-protecting technologies
These are headaches for Big Tech, and they’re not going away. Their only response so far is to offer the illusion of privacy while continuing to profit off your personal information.
Because being alert to these strategies is one of the best ways to protect yourself from new forms of data collection and manipulation, we devoted multiple articles last year to exposing privacy washing. Let’s look at some of the biggest privacy-washing stories of 2023. Then we’ll consider some new trends we might see in 2024.
Privacy washing year in review
2023 was the year of privacy washing. We worked to expose some of the most egregious examples.
Google branded a tracking tool as ‘enhanced ad privacy’
Google Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, and the company uses it to monitor what you do online. Last year, Chrome rolled out a feature(nueva ventana) that claimed to offer more privacy. Instead, the feature just gives Google exclusive rights to collect your data. By branding this as a privacy feature, the company is trying to redefine privacy as “no one can track your data — except us”.
Then Google brought the same ‘feature’ to Android
Just like the Chrome ‘ad privacy’ feature, the Android version(nueva ventana) blocks other apps from collecting your data while giving Google a surveillance monopoly. And once again, Google used dark patterns to force people to accept the change, turning the feature on by default with only a notification and a “Got it” button.
Apple’s iCloud isn’t as private as you think
Apple has a stronger reputation for privacy than Google, but that doesn’t mean Apple can’t see your personal information. Contrary to what you might think, Apple can see your photos, emails, calendar events, contacts, voice notes, messages, and many other categories of data by default. So much for “privacy, that’s iPhone(nueva ventana)”.
Facebook’s new Threads app is a privacy nightmare
Meta introduced a new Twitter-like app called Threads last summer, but anyone who signed up became subject to a surprisingly broad data collection regime(nueva ventana). Threads wasn’t even initially available in the European Union over concerns about regulatory compliance.
Google Chrome’s “fake” Incognito Mode led to a $5 billion lawsuit
In what is essentially a lawsuit contesting one of the original versions of privacy washing, plaintiffs say Google’s marketing of Chrome’s “Incognito Mode” amounts to wiretapping and a breach of contract, among other allegations. While assuring you can “browse privately”, the company in fact continued to monitor people’s browsing, the lawsuit claims(nueva ventana).
Google’s lobbyists reveal the company’s true values
In its marketing to you, Google says it values your privacy. But when talking to policymakers, Google’s lobbyists are pushing in the opposite direction, successfully arguing that more privacy would be an economic disaster. We found multiple examples of Google’s anti-privacy lobbying(nueva ventana).
IP Protection protects nobody
Taking another page from Orwell, Google marketed its new IP Protection feature as enhancing your privacy. Instead, once again, it just blocks other companies from tracking you while Google continues to spy on everything you do online. IP Protection offers zero privacy benefits, especially compared with a no-logs VPN(nueva ventana).
Privacy washing trends to watch in 2024
We’re already starting to see hints that we’ll be inundated with privacy washing again in 2024. Google and the other Big Tech players will continue introducing “privacy features”. But other companies will also try to muddy the waters to obscure their own exploitation of personal data, including automakers, internet service providers, and insurance companies.
Here are some of our predictions for this year.
New forms of data capture
The demand for data is only increasing because companies are building machine learning tools that require it. As companies move more of your communications behind encryption, they will race to develop new ways to track you, such as mining your conversations with AI chatbots or scanning your documents and photos(nueva ventana).
State-level privacy laws in the US will let Big Tech off the hook
Big Tech companies have invested tens of millions of dollars trying to push weak privacy laws through statehouses in the US. For them, this is preferable to a strong federal law comparable to the EU’s GDPR. We explained how surveillance tech companies are pushing to pre-empt democratic policymaking in our article about Google lobbying(nueva ventana), and the strategy seems to be working.
Your car will start privacy washing, too
Vehicles are trackers with wheels(nueva ventana). They have cameras, microphones, GPS, and other sensors — and there is very little privacy oversight. Many car manufacturers collect far more data than they could possibly need. For example, Kia’s privacy policy(nueva ventana) states the company collects information about your “sex life or sexual orientation”. As more people become aware of the ways their cars are spying on them, auto manufacturers will join Big Tech in the privacy washing game. Car insurance companies may also increase their use of privacy washing to hedge against privacy concerns. For example, Liberty Mutual(nueva ventana) tracks and shares your “predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes” with third parties.
‘Privacy control’ overload
Companies will roll out more and more privacy settings and push these options to you on all your apps and devices, asking you how you would like your data to be used. European regulators are already concerned(nueva ventana) about the way tech companies use dark patterns to bypass valid consent, and Google’s privacy settings are so confusing even employees couldn’t understand them(nueva ventana). By bombarding you with an avalanche of confusing “privacy choices”, tech companies are hoping you’ll simply agree to surveillance rather than invest time figuring it out.
People want real privacy
Privacy washing is a shameful form of false advertising that takes advantage of people. But the fact that companies are doing it is an indication that attitudes regarding privacy are changing. People are sick of sharing their private lives with corporations just to use the internet — one reason there is a growing movement of people learning how to deGoogle their lives (stop using Google services).
At Proton, we crossed a major milestone back in April when our community grew to over 100 million accounts. This is another indication that people are ready to give up the surveillance-based business model that has dominated the internet for almost 20 years.
Our revenue comes from community support, not advertising. And our apps, including Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, and Proton Drive, collect as little data as possible. Only you can see your emails, events, photos, notes, and other data. (The privacy disclosures in iOS speak for themselves.)
Stay tuned in 2024 for more articles exposing the worst privacy washing offenders. And consider switching to privacy-first tech to join our fight for a better internet.