•

ProtonMail Complied with 5,957 Data Requests in 2022 - Still Secure and Private?

https://restoreprivacy.com/protonmail-data-requests-user-logs/

ProtonMail often touts its Swiss jurisdiction and privacy guarantees, but at the same time, it is complying with a record number of data request orders going through the Swiss legal system. ProtonMail is one of the most popular secure email services in the world, having launched in 2014 via a crowdfunding campaign. It promises a …

ProtonMail Complied with 5,957 Data Requests in 2022 - Still Secure and Private?

they scrubed there no ip logs policy years ago

18 comments

DARbarian

•

What are they supposed to do as an internationally known and used company? Reject legal proceedings and ignore official national laws?

admiralteal

•

I mean, the answer to that is clearly they should structure their service to store the absolute least possible personal information needed to allow the service to function so that when a legitimate law enforcement agency comes knocking they can honestly say they don't have much.

Which... appears to be pretty much what they do.

I agree with you. Losing the protection of a right -- even one as fundamental as privacy -- is by definition not a violation so long as that happens through due process. Now we can certainly talk a lot about what level of process is due, and I'm sure it will be basically unanimous that current standards around the world are FAR too accommodating to law enforcement, but at least in principle a warrant justifies the invasion of privacy. That's what the warrant is for.

This story kind of makes me want to switch all my stuff to ProtonMail.

DARbarian

•

Yeah I would agree with you that given the service they provide (email is brutal), they couldn't really collect any less info or improve security/privacy much more.

Napain

•

they could not log the ips

crandlecan

•

Change their advertising

fluckx

•

And what advertising is that precisely? No data ( emails, passwords, drive files ) were shared with the authorities. So the data is still secure and private.

As far as I can tell they haven't falsely advertised.

I'd give them bonus points for transparency ( publishing how many court ordered subpoenas they receive on a yearly basis ) compared to other companies that don't.

Other companies which are prominent in the privacy/secure email scene face similar issues.

E.g.: https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2021/03/enough-is-enough-what-happens-when-law-enforcement-bends-laws-to-access-data/

I think you're mixing up anonymity with privacy. It can definitely be more anonymous, but you would need to take steps for that yourself ( Tor, VPN, ... ).

DARbarian

•

How though? They advertsize themselves as the privacy-conscious Google alternative which they very much are. Idk if I've just not been exposed to (their) ads, but do they make all kinds of unreasonable claims like being outside of all legal jurisdiction?

beta_tester

•

Permanently Deleted

JokerProof

•

The article is actually pretty balanced. Yes Proton is secure and private, but if you're hiding from law enforcement, don't expect a third party to take the fall for you.

Vendetta9076

•

If you're hiding from the LEOs in any real way you sure as fuck aren't using email.

Norgur

•

I mean.... It's not like mailcow is too hard to set up if you want to write down your crimes in the same way Janice from accounting sent you that obnoxious blinking new Year's .gif Mail

independantiste

•

Idk for most people, but the reason I use proton mail is to avoid google parsing everything I receive to send me ads. I "have nothing to hide" on a legal pov, I'm not a criminal, the worst offence I do is like Jay walking or crossing at a red light on foot when there is no one at midnight. I don't use proton services to protect myself from the law (or in other words to avoid the consequences of my acts), I just want to be a customer instead of a product.

Onii-Chan

•

This is exactly why I use Proton as well. I'm not worried about law enforcement, I just want Google and other big tech's tentacles out of my fucking business. I don't want to be advertised to.

Fluid

•

This exactly. This is the audience for proton mail, and their success while sticking to this model is hope for us all

M500

•

YOU JAY WALK!?

You are a disgrace!!! How do you sleep with yourself?

DISGUSTING!

But that’s a really great point. It’s easy to thinking of your threat model as all or nothing. And you are right. I’m not hiding from the law. I’m hiding from advertisers. If the government acquires my information then it was a mistake on their part as there is nothing there to find other than emails from my bank.

shortwavesurfer

•

My threat model is not LE, its google, facebook, etc. If me using privacy services happens to make LE's job harder well thats just the cherry on top.

ebits21

•

My understanding is that the email is encrypted still so… they hand over the encrypted data which might be useless.

(CEO did a podcast this week for a Linux podcast)

LWD

•

deleted

labbbb

•

ProtonMail was not even against cooperation with the RuSSian terrorist government, and this post was still downvoted, funny.

Have you already decided whether privacy is important to you or not?

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post

Don't promote proprietary software

Try to keep things on topic

If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered

Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience

Be nice :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

[Matrix/Element]Dead

Discord

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)