There are a decent amount of fairly popular privacy/security content creators that make videos relevant to this subreddit. Coincidentally they are also often sponsored by the same companies we’d consider using. This makes sense when you consider click through rates and higher conversion for sales. Obviously a company wants to get the most out of their marketing budget. However it doesn’t make sense when you want the person you’re watching to be objective. No matter what they say 99% of the time they’re not going to recommend against a company that helps keep their lights on. It’s a huge conflict of interest. Take a raycon or whatever shitty unrelated sponsorship I can ignore if you must but I have to question your motives if you’re sponsored by the same companies discussed in the content.
I’m not going to make a specific reference or judgement on any particular company here but you can figure that out from comments I’ve made.
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My rule of thumb is to trust a product a little less after a Youtuber has been sponsored by it. It's probably a bad rule, but most items sponsored by Youtubers have always been reviewed to be of bad quality if not outright malicious
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Not really. Companies need to grow and sponsorships are a good way to advertise. Even if it's a privacy centric company.
I agree, but I much prefer word of mouth over Youtube sponsorships, I don't think I've ever seen a Proton or Mullvad sponsorship
I like Mullvad's view on sponsorships. They took the traditional route of advertising where they put billboards and advertise in public places. But they are still paying money for advertising. They are just doing it in a different form.
As for proton, they have been going hard at it for the past few months. They have been sponsoring a lot of tech creators. Even the likes of LTT (LinusTechTips). The privacy channel, AllThingsSecured has been sponsored by then and I can see the change in the channel's content. Now the creator recommends Proton services as much as possible to get a commission of at least $70 (There is a video about proton offering this on The Hated One youtube channel) PER SIGN UP. You can check the channels. I have stopped watching AllThingsSecured because of this reason :) You should definitely watch the last video about proton on the The Hated One channel. You will get to know a lot of things.
As much as we want there to be no biased opinions, only a few people with a higher moral compass will follow these practices. Others will just take the money and still act like they are promoting a service for the good of their viewers and keep stashing the commission in their bank accounts.
Ty, will definitely check the video out :D
I know a nsfw audio creator on reddit who is a proton affiliate.
My rule of thumb - the greater the number of subscribers, the more likely they shill. Youtube has a lot of garbage content on any topic.
What I can appreciate with any sponsor is that they’ll usually link and pin a comment about it too, and you’ll very often get people talking about said sponsor being good or bad. The amount of sketchy if not straight up scams that get pushed is gross. I’m glad people are vocal about it and warn one another when it’s bad.
But like the top reply said. Trusting a product a little less after a YouTuber sponsors whatever is how I often find myself reacting too. More so if it’s a common sponsor. Like that whole Honey bullshit. When one specific product gets sponsored way too often, it’s usually good to be cautious of it.
And pepper
I am fine with "putting all my eggs in one basket" with Proton rather than roll the dice on 7 different start-ups anyway.