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Re:“This is why I use ad blockers and a pi-hole server” by franga2000 on Thursday January 23, 2020 @06:31AM (#22126674)
Reliability, speed, accessibility, ease of use, more secure defaults... Enough?

The founders appear to live in the US so a US company is a lot more convenient for them, and Delaware has some very nice benefits for companies that AFAIK don't have any privacy drawbacks. Your assumption that they "are gathering data [...] and selling it" is beyond baseless.

EU users are protected by the GDPR anyways and despite what ProtonMail etc. would like you to believe, founding your company in Switzerland or whatever does not make you magically trustworthy.

From where I see it, they deserve no more and no less initial trust than any other company.

Re:“This is why I use ad blockers and a pi-hole server” by NeedMoreTea on Thursday January 23, 2020 @06:46AM (#22126765)
> Reliability, speed, accessibility, ease of use, more secure defaults... Enough?

Very glib, but not helpful nor accurate. Reliability of a web service? Speed faster than local network or local VPN tunnel? Convenience appears to be the top and bottom of it from other replies.

> assumption that they "are gathering data [...] and selling it" is beyond baseless

Not at all. US freedom of information goes far beyond everyone else's and leaves the expectation that personal data is collected, shared, sold, misused and abused, and that's been the case since long before the web. Personal data that most places consider private and inappropriate to share, and often have laws for, is frequently easily available in the US.

The web just brought it further into the gutter.

Europe has had freedom of information with constraints on personal data. Data protection has been around since the mid 90s, and prior to that there were other restrictions on certain types of data collection. The discrepancy between the two approaches has been there for probably seventy years, perhaps more, and it's widening not narrowing.

Those national norms set starting point of expectations, and what each nation tends to take as axiomatic. For a typical European, for the reasons mentioned, US privacy provision and expectation starts negative. Certain industries and categories get very antsy about data going, even briefly, to the US as a consequence of that. If it's any consolation I start with the presumption every company is untrustworthy.

Re:“This is why I use ad blockers and a pi-hole server” by mr__y on Thursday January 23, 2020 @07:31AM (#22126972)
> they deserve no more and no less initial trust than any other company

that is they deserve none. No company gets any trust from me until they prove that they deserve it.

Re:“This is why I use ad blockers and a pi-hole server” by franga2000 on Thursday January 23, 2020 @07:41AM (#22127014)
I agree, but asserting they are evil with no evidence to support that is a lot further into the negative than "no trust".
Re:“This is why I use ad blockers and a pi-hole server” by mr__y on Thursday January 23, 2020 @10:44AM (#22128406)
Given numerous examples from the past this is what "no trust" equals to. I'm not advocating publicly accusing them of being evil without evidence, but assuming they are when deciding if and how to use their services is at least reasonable.

In other words in public my opinion on them is "neutral" until I have some information/data/signs to form/change my opinion, but internally I assume they are doing[0] something evil until proven otherwise.

[0] or at least assume they are capable of doing something evil and there is a non-zero chance that they will engage in evil-doing. (but again, not accusing them publicly until there are reasons to do so; I'm just describing internal thought-process)

Re:“This is why I use ad blockers and a pi-hole server” by ekianjo on Thursday January 23, 2020 @07:07AM (#22126872)
Believing someone's claims out of thin air does not make it trustworthy either.
Re:“This is why I use ad blockers and a pi-hole server” by pergadad on Thursday January 23, 2020 @08:21AM (#22127287)
The existence of the gdpr is not enough. You'd also need to start reporting/suing those breaching the rules.
Re:“This is why I use ad blockers and a pi-hole server” by franga2000 on Thursday January 23, 2020 @09:09AM (#22127611)
True, but my point was that incorporating in Delaware doesn't prevent the GDPR from applying to you (for EU customers). It's true that taking action against a non-EU company for GDPR violations is harder, but not impossible.