fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com

I find this move concerning, and wish that the Founder had looked for a new CEO that shared his values rather than a Private Equity and Mergers Expert.

Furthermore, the change to the GRIT motto is worrying. Trust is useless without Transparency when it comes to code and security.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    55·
    2 days ago

    The company has long defined its values with the acronym “GRIT,” which used to stand for “Gratitude, Responsibility, Inclusion, and Transparency.” After May 4, it changed the acronym to stand for “Gratitude, Responsibility, Innovation, and Trust.”

    It’s not as bad as the headline seems. Transparency is still in the motto. The actual change is:

    before

    after

    But still. Why change it at all? Why replace “inclusion” with “innovation”?

    It smells like Tech Bro.

    There’s just no way to spin that positively, even giving them the benefit of the doubt, especially since they aren’t rolling it back. Someone spent effort to make that values change, so its not an accident nor a “nothingburger”.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      I don’t need my password manager to innovate anything. I would very much like it to include support for all of my tools and machines though.

    • u_u@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      1 day ago

      It’s the change from “users” and “community members” to “customers” for me.

    • Padit@feddit.orgEnglish
      43·
      2 days ago

      Well, trust is literally the oposite of transparency. So i would call it quite bad, especially if you consider that right now i trust these guys with my credit card details, my taxID, all my passwords.

      • gnufuu@infosec.pubEnglish
        22·
        2 days ago

        Exactly. In cybersec, trust is someting you try to avoid or at least minimize. Trying to use it as a selling point is ridiculous.

          • zqps@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            7·
            2 days ago

            That’s what they are trying to communicate here, yes. But 8.5 million users didn’t need to be told they need to trust the platform, they chose to. As did I with a premium plan to cover MFA and attachments.

            Now with business types in charge and a hidden doubling of the fees, that’s more than halfway out the window no matter what the website stands for. I’m guessing somebody decided it’s time to cash in on the goodwill they built over the past decade.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        2 days ago

        That’s a great point.

        I don’t want to trust them either. I don’t want to have to.

        The only “devil’s advocate” argument I can think of is they’re trying to appeal to enterprise clients (who would not know that and want to “trust” a security company). That would explain the “I” change: “inclusion” (sadly) sounds political, “innovation” is like corporate catnip. Bitwarden could be trying to attract big fish to fund development, having their cake an eating it.

    • Seenitbefore@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Ty. So many comments here didn’t see your post and others did but didn’t read it. My take is innovation is a greater priority, and trust protocols. I’ll watch but I’ll wait for it to be a something burger.

    • HugeNerd@lemmy.caEnglish
      51·
      2 days ago

      Because the “inclusive” part is already described by the first letter’s “story”?

  • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    2 days ago

    Great I bought a paid subscription for it all this time for it to end up like this, I’m done with anything that is not self hosted now on, I’ll just convert my old laptop into a home server

  • zebidiah@lemmy.caEnglish
    24·
    2 days ago

    I guess it’s time to move to vaultwarden sooner rather than later… This wasn’t supposed to be the weekend project, but fuck it; let’s roll with it!

    • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
      10·
      2 days ago

      My question is move to vaultwarden, and trust they will still develop the open source client apps, or just preemptively move to another system. The UX isnt perfect, but it seems a lot easier to use than kerpassxc. Time to do some research.

      • dogs0n@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        Very easy to migrate to vaultwarden from bitwarden I think, so I’d probably do that and hope the clients are forked if ever needed. I’d probably just live with vaultwardens web ui before swapping completely to keepassxc (because setting up keepass db sync to all devices manually doesn’t sound fun).

        • Derpgon@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          No personally using KeePass, but I’ve heard Syncthing is great to sync the database. Might wanna try to look into that.

  • new_world_odor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    26·
    2 days ago

    Ah for fuck’s sake. Seems like every month I have to change something because some fucking company starts getting a taste for greed via data sucking. I’m goddamn sick of it.

    • kuerbiskernoel@feddit.orgEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      That’s why you use open source alternatives everywhere :) just replace one at a time when the company fails

      • new_world_odor@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        2 days ago

        Unprompted snark from an .ml user, how surprising. I am a bigger cheerleader for open source than any of my friends or family. It’s the only real path to stay free of corporate influence, greed, and spying (in regards to software). Live free or die.

        Bitwarden is, by definition, open source. It has been since I started using it ~6 years ago. I’m tired of literally everything having the potential for enshittification. Nothing is safe in the long run, not even volunteer-run projects. If you think your favorite project is safe because of some “core ethos” or “guiding principles”, you’re just drinking the kool-aid. As long as we exist under capitalism, anything under the sun can be enshittified.

        I will never give up, even if things seem even more dire than they are now. But I’m tired of having to maintain constant vigilance.

  • pwxd@lemmy.zipEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    Great. Now I have to move all of my password to another services because of a stupid decision made by a company.

    • badgermurphy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      2 days ago

      In this case, not having a motto would have made them able to get further down the enshittification path before anyone noticed. They just warned us.

      • reksas@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        6·
        2 days ago

        though this also points out why such things as companies having “values” is laughable and should be ridiculed if they arent clearly enforced. All they do is scam people into thinking they might not be explitative shits which shouldnt be allowed or looked kindly upon.

        So many people have to switch services now and even more will just become victims of the company after it becomes more shitty. All those people could have used some other service that is less likely to go shitty, which in turn would have given it more resources to improve.

  • one_old_coder@piefed.socialEnglish
    295·
    3 days ago

    Is it that time when I say “oh shit!” and starts to look at alternatives? I’ve seen this scenario a hundred times already and I’m tired.

    • Godort@lemmy.caEnglish
      121·
      3 days ago

      I don’t have the patience to switch to alternatives until they make a change that actually affects the usability of the tool.

      This is absolutely a red flag though.

      • zikzak025@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1002·
        3 days ago

        KeePassXC is the best FOSS option, but you’ll need to figure out self hosting if you want to sync the database between devices.

        • M1k3y@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          40·
          3 days ago

          As the database is encrypted in your device, you dont really need to self host. A keepass database in the Google cloud is not really problematic, although you should still choose a more private cloud provider.

            • michaelalf@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              2 days ago

              If you don’t need real time sync you can disable background use of the app. That’s what I’ve done, and I just open the app when I need to update. Probably a smarter way to do it, but it works for me.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          It doesn’t need to be complicated. I use syncthing to synch them. It’s pretty trivial. You just tell it what folders to synch, between which devices, and it’ll synch whenever it’s running.

        • tremble5218@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          I found the easiest way to sync is to use rclone. This way you can use any cloud provider like Google Drive or OneDrive or DropBox. First create the rclone remote for your cloud provider using rclone config. Second step is to create a second remote using the encryption option (menu item 16), choosing an appropriate path <first remote>:<path to directory>. Upload your KeepassXC database to this encrypted remote using rclone copy.

          On Android you can use the RoundSync app from F-droid to configure the the same remotes, then create a task to copy or sync from that encrypted remote and a trigger to run that task on a schedule. Overall, this one-time setup works really well for me. This is my backup in addition to using Bitwarden for several years. Bitwarden is not going to get my money any more.

        • refract@lemmy.zipEnglish
          22·
          3 days ago

          But you still use the official BW client apps, correct?

          Unless you forego usage of the clients and access Vaultwarden through the browser (removing accessibility and convenience especially on mobile), it is not an e2e replacement solution.

          Are there any alternative FOSS clients/apps that work with Vaultwarden?

          Edit: I see further down that the official client is open source, and would get forked in the event of any fuckery. So I’m sticking with Vaultwarden + Official client app approach for now.

          • Iced Raktajino@startrek.websiteEnglish
            4·
            3 days ago

            I just use the webapp UI and don’t bother with the clients/extensions. Easy enough to just log in, copy/paste from there.

            But yeah, the official client (and probably browser extension as well) would probably be forked if/when needed.

      • meathappening@lemmy.mlEnglish
        261·
        3 days ago

        Coincidentally, I moved to self-hosting Vaultwarden last night, which is open source but compatible with Bitwarden. If you want a simple transition and are capable of hosting it yourself, that would be my recommendation.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      7·
      3 days ago

      Sigh. This will be a huge pita. I have probably over 100 things saved into bitwarden. Where’s a good foss alternative.

      GabeN, please don’t die before me.

      • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        63·
        2 days ago

        Oh great. Let’s go from an open client to a vendor closed-source lock-in.
        Sometimes I am baffled by the polarity of Lemmy.
        From Tryhard-only-libre-software type of users over A-bit-of-each users (but tending to sway towards (F)OSS application) over to this opinion/suggestion.

        Wild.

        • blitzen@lemmy.caEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          Vendor lock in is an issue, true, but it’s a different issue than the enshittification we’re starting to see from Bitwarden. Also, apple passwords isn’t “locked in” per se, as passwords aren’t difficult to export.

          Lately, I’m starting to feel like finding good software (often FOSS but not exclusively) is increasingly a hook for later increased monetization. The ‘agreement’ I had with Bitwarden was they provide a solid service, and (while not required) I pay the $10/year honor system fee. That’s been upped to $20 now, and now they’re appearing to move away from their core principles. I won’t be paying for another year.

          With Apple, the unspoken agreement is I “overpay” for my hardware, and they don’t have incentive to monetize me otherwise. I’ll admit, there are cracks forming in that agreement, but that’s my read on it currently anyway, and I think probably the person to which you are replying to as well.

          • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            Your decision are sound.

            Not a fan of the usability of Apple devices (I have an iPad, so I am not talking ou of my butt) but I can’t deny they reduced user hostility is attractive.

            • blitzen@lemmy.caEnglish
              2·
              2 days ago

              iPad usability is in a really weird place. It’s definitely the least “usable” of Apple’s platforms, and to be honest I probably wouldn’t be an Apple user at all if all they had was iPadOS and iOS. macOS is still attractive to me (the Liquid Glass theme notwithstanding). For the record, I split my password manager use between Apple Passwords and [now] self-hosted Vaultwarden. Each has advantages, and while I’d like to just use one, having two is working okay for me for now.

          • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            A lot of people chose Bitwarden because it was open-source, so they don’t see the very closed Apple Passwords as a suitable alternative.

  • Fmstrat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    90·
    3 days ago

    Luckily BW is open source, and VaultWarden exists. If they enshitify, all it takes is a fork of the browser extensions and apps with a rebrand.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
      38·
      3 days ago

      This right here is the only answer

      Companies can try to steal the app but they can only steal the name

      • this@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        9·
        2 days ago

        Exactly, IMO Vaultwarden should just fork the clients and extensions and officially take the lead. Bitwarden can just go the way of OpenOffice for all I care.

          • this@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            1 day ago

            OpenOffice was maintained by sun Microsystems and they were bought by oricale. At the time it was seen so negatively that a fork called libreoffice was created and almost immediately became the default office suite for most people who were using OpenOffice.

    • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, this here is exactly the reason why anytime I have to migrate from any piece of software I’m migrating to something open source and standards compliant.

    • eronth@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      How would network hosting work, though? Like… do I need to pull my passwords down now?

    • zqps@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      Short-term, yes. Maintaining the client integrations is a ton of work. If BW ever breaks selfhosted integrations, it’s gonna be a shitshow.

  • ulkesh@piefed.socialEnglish
    200·
    3 days ago

    Why the fuck does everything that’s good turn to shit? This world sucks. This timeline sucks.

      • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
        143·
        3 days ago

        Accumulation of power is a common motive regardless of political system. Money is just one way power gets expressed.

        Not claiming our system is perfect by any means. But this thought, to me, always felt like kicking the can down the road.

        • kazerniel@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          I think there’s a difference though, in that capitalism rewards this kind of innate motive, while socialism doesn’t, so I think it would be much easier to build a system based on that that’s not fucked from the foundations like capitalism is. The societal benefits of capitalism always feel like an accidental side effect at most, when it should be at a heart of any economy system.

          Also it definitely seems that holding power over others warps the human mind, so I would definitely advocate for distributing policy-making power as evenly across the population as possible.

          • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            2 days ago

            A solution that stops evil people from being greedy for all of future society, gaming whatever our system is to hoard resources? No, I don’t.

            Whether under capitalism or socialism, either system would need frequent attention and intervention by thoughtful, socially responsible people to watch for abusers of the system.

            • Koarnine@pawb.socialEnglish
              1·
              20 hours ago

              Right, but Capitalism incentivises this behaviour, thus making the checks and balances required both more robust and needing to be applied for regularly - while the powerful are capable of preventing this.

              On the other hand, Socialism has incentives that are completely different - managing the abusers would be a much simpler task.

        • ContactClosure@lemmus.orgEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          That might qualify as an argument but the enshittification of everything hasn’t gained anyone power, only money. Cuba was curing cancer before we started more war crimes in order to prove socialism doesn’t work, while we’re financing fast food.

    • ripcord@lemmy.worldEnglish
      612·
      3 days ago

      It’s not a timeline. It’s just the world we keep making. The only one.

    • perviouslyiner@lemmy.worldEnglish
      34·
      3 days ago

      VC ruins everything

      This is literally a product where a hobbyist tried to fix a niche, and now the VCs arrive.

  • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    33·
    2 days ago

    Update: After publication, an employee on the Bitwarden subreddit said that “Always free” had been restored on its pricing page, calling it an “oversight” by the marketing team. The product page for Bitwarden’s personal password manager remains unchanged.