Discussion
Earlier this week I unsubscribed from #1Password and moved to #Bitwarden... due to their donation of 300k to DHH's #Omarchy.
I made sure to let them know about the reason, so that hopefully the company would notice those kind of decisions have an impact.
Day one I got messages from their AI system.
But today I got a response by a real human at 1Password (or so it appears).
If you are curious about the company's official response to the backlash, check out the screenshot (and/or #AltText)
@_elena Got the exact same reply. :(
@_elena
So many words to overweight the actions. Especially this: “we gave money to the company, founder will receive 0, trust us”
We're running out of words for how shitty things are getting:
@mayel 😱 😭 thanks for sharing, I had no idea sighhhhhh
@_elena They had a choice of either giving 12M to Arch, or 12M to and Arch distro run by a Nazi.
They chose the latter. This is not about supporting opensource.
> this is not an endorsement of any individual's personal or political views
Oh how they wish it wasn't.
> 1Password does not endorse hateful, dehumanizing, or exclusionary views.
Saying that right after directly endorsing those things with $12M.
@_elena is corporate "we value your X" ever *not* "I'm not racist but, ..."
Gives off same vibes every time I see it
@_elena lol, that response got workshopped so hard
bet they’re gonna do the same as (iirc?) framework recently, and just spam everyone the same thing
@_elena I got the same text with a different signture and it’s not enough
@_elena Bitwarden works really well. You’ll like it
@_elena How did you let 1Password know about the reason? Through their support system?
I moved from 1Password today and also canceled by subscription. I didn't see a proper feedback channel to give them my thoughts.
I got the same response via the web contact form near the bottom of this page:
@iokevins @mostlyinvisible I used the contact form at the bottom of the email "your subscription has been canceled". There was a line in there that said: "If you have any feedback about your experience contact 1Password Support" with a link to their support page.
I got the idea from someone on the Fediverse who suggested we write to 1P about the reason for canceling... because their support system may keep track of how many people are leaving bc of DHH/Omarchy
@_elena can't understand why people think using saas with subscription as password manager is a good choice. local password db with syncing through google drive or other online storage is better.
@_elena "Look, we're giving money to a company that throws puppies into a wood chipper, but that patronage is separate from our product decisions."
If I pay a subscription to the company that is giving this money to the puppy killers, at least some of my money is going to wood chipper maintenance. So, I'd choose to stop that.
Bitwarden client + vaultwarden self-hosting is really really good.
@_elena
If you have a proton account just use proton pass 😄
@_elena Hearing a lot of "___ is better, I'm moving here..." in these replies. May help to keep in mind the following:
Proton has a history. They don't explicitly back Trump and the alt-right, but they don't denounce fascism either. There's an old country song: "you got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything..." (But you don't have to take my word for it: https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e )
KeePass XC, and I quote: "If our AI policy toppled your trust in us, ask yourself why you trusted us (or anyone) in the first place." They use LLM contributions in their work. Don't like it? Don't use it. (Source: https://keepassxc.org/blog/2025-11-09-about-keepassxcs-code-quality-control/ )
Bitwarden has been taken over last year by venture capitalists seeking to slopify it with AI, cull features, raise prices, and if they didn't get caught, end free service without a single press release. (Want a receipt? https://blog.ppb1701.com/the-quiet-renovation-at-bitwarden ) Vaultwarden is still better (security is as good as your own host) but I'd consider Bitwarden to be the next LastPass waiting to happen if the asshat CEO doesn't flip it for profit first.
I don't have a good answer of who to choose in this case. Just want to air the past dirty laundry from possible password manager refugees who may have been burned before (see LastPass's fall from prominence) and think another cloud based option will protect their secrets with better values.
TL;DR: There isn't anyone seemingly who want to stand against fascism overtly. If you jump, you may need to jump again. And again. And again...
@_elena Form letter. Same response sent to a Verge reader in their comments.
Turns out 1Password is a "big tent" company same as all the other alt-right donors. (They don't mention it but the same reasoning: we like who we like, we aren't changing our mind, your political views aren't our problem.)
@_elena What a waste of time all that typing was. I didn't even finish reading this pile. Fuck them.
"...already have a meaningful presence in that community..."
Yep. Understood.
@_elena @inthehands I got the same response verbatim.
@_elena tone deaf fascist enabling wankers.
@_elena Shorter 1Password: "Evil is not a dealbreaker for us and we're sorry to hear it is one for you."
@_elena @inthehands “We didn’t donate to DHH, we donated to the foundation DHH controls. It’s completely different!”
@_elena the fact that they have a canned response ready to go tells you that they're getting this feedback from a lot of people, but not actually listening to it.
@_elena Thanks for doing the right thing. I already added 1Password to the global list of boycotted brands and services.🙂
@_elena It is at minimum a form letter — I got the exact same reply. I've also left for greener pastures.
@_elena It should be clear enough by now that for-profit companies are fascism adjacent, if not full on collaborators. Especially in tech, the brain worms have burrowed deep in that industry. We need some nonprofit or cooperative cloud services that exist and run for the users and not just to inflate the ego of some empty suit.
@_elena That sounds like a pile of bullshit to me. If they had done 5 minutes of Googling, they would have known exactly how their support of Omacom would be perceived by large parts of the developer and open-source communities.
People don't usually tend to throw heaps of money at random foundations with no research about who they are and what they're in the news for. At this point, one has to assume that anyone who chooses to support Omarchy does it because of DHH's views, not despite them.
@_elena
Wow. Thanks so much for this Elena - I read it as ‘get f*cked’. Glad you - and others - are not with them anymore. Respect. 👍🙏🏻
@_elena god, they really think we're all so dumb.
@_elena Same reply I got. Fuck ‘em.
@_elena Leaked Slack comment from the CEO indicates what they really think: "the Nazis are the victims" -- see https://www.theverge.com/tech/988536/1password-dhh-linux-controversy
@thomasfuchs
Oh, but of course this guy meant a good intention that is… ern… well… I dunno, invent some, do something
@_elena
> you believe in your heart that you have the moral high ground
that's such a weird construct, I've heard it before from people promoting AI - they think anyone who objects to the damage is objecting just because they want to feel superior. Like not because the damage is real. Also it means "having a moral high ground" is some disputable bad thing - anyone talking about morals is the bad guy to them. Is this a new dog-whistle of the fascists?
@thomasfuchs @_elena Huh, interesting. The wording there looks like it's also intended to support the insidious narrative that "most people are racists and nazis really, they're just afraid to show it" which helps to bolster the few fascists' confidence but also tries to persuade moderates that fascism is just the way the wind is blowing
@thomasfuchs @_elena "If we don't stand up for his political views, then people might not give him hundreds of thousands of dollars for a pile of scripts with glaring security holes, also known as attacking him!"
@thomasfuchs OMG 🚮
Thanks for sharing this Thomas, I had missed it
@_elena "We contributed to an organization, which, unlike people, can do no evil. Even if its members are evil people"
BULLSHIT
@_elena I’m in the process of installing VaultWarden so I only use the app. Their response was just not convincing enough.
@_elena "we decided to support Hitler's art, not Hitler as a person, because we want to support art and it's communities."
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