That’s how I would interpret it. The “partnerships” seem too all over the place to be anything else, and some of the “partners” are not of the same caliber as Proton.
I also think “partnership” is probably too strong of a word, in some cases it seems to be closer to “cross promotion.” I don’t perceive any of these “partnerships” as Proton endorsing the other company (though Proton should bear in mind, that many people will perceive their partnerships as endorsements).
surely Proton doesn’t want people to use Vivaldi
Proton seems to have a strategy of capitalizing on opportunities when they present themselves:
- Launched Protonmail following the Snowden revelations.
- Laucnhed ProtonPass soon after the Lastpass breach
- Most likely partnering with Vivaldi to take advantage of the current enthusiasm among Europeans to transition to European alternatives (Vivaldi is a European company)
But I wonder how much of these partnerships tangibly or intangibly imply Proton’s endorsement of the product/company of partnership.
This is something Proton should probably clarify. Because some of the companies they’ve cross promoted with have been downright shady (EDIT: I was misremembering/wrong, I was thinking of a partnership between Brave and a very shady company, Proton was not involved).