You are right that Proton is currently self-funded by its paying customers, but to be accurate, they have actually taken VC money before.

I don’t see an option for a 24-month plan.

Interestingly, the article mentions twice how Proton doesn’t do flashy marketing campaigns when that is precisely the aspect people have criticized Proton for years, usually around Black Friday when they portray the discount as much better than what it is.

This is also not their only controversy. When someone proposed in their forums that Kagi should add a widget that would help people get help if they are searching for suicide material, Kagi refused because that isn’t the result that the person was searching for.

Read the article. Google already requires a warrant before handing out this data.

Tidal brought FLAC this year, so this MQA critique doesn’t really apply anymore.