PROTON CANCELS THE AI INTERVIEW. KEEPS THE HOMEWORK.

The real news

The story, straight

Proton sells privacy tools. Protecting private information depends on software behaving safely.

Security testing means looking for weaknesses before someone else exploits them. Asking for that testing is not refusing the future; it is checking whether the future locks properly.

According to 404 Media, CEO Andy Yen previously called an employee's request for a few days of security testing “bullshit and loser thinking.”

He also announced staff re-interviews about their AI use: employees would have to explain how they were using software that generates things such as computer code.

On 30 October, Yen cancelled those re-interviews during an all-hands meeting. 404 Media obtained audio.

Yen acknowledged a communication failure, said he would keep pushing AI, and promised “no loss of jobs from AI.”

Then came the catch. An employee told 404 Media that leadership said the things measured in the re-interviews would become part of performance reviews.

Those reviews assess someone's work. That account is from an employee, not a public Proton announcement.

So the comedy is not that anyone was fired. It is the management magic trick: cancel the scary meeting while, according to employees, keeping its measuring stick.

The interrogation has apparently applied for an internal transfer.

Employees' reactions were mixed. Some welcomed the response; others wanted accountability.

Proton did not respond to 404 Media's request for comment.

The useful distinction: using AI and protecting security are separate things to assess. Faster typing does not prove safer software.

Cancelling an interview does not, by itself, explain what staff will now be judged on.

Repost this before the meeting returns wearing a different lanyard.

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