this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Don't hate the player. You can't send mail with E2E encrypted headers and you can't leave payment data and expect Proton to violate regulations and delete it.
Signal has to deal with neither of these issues.
Mullvad handles payment data in a much, much better way.
The FBI had the payment data and served Proton with a subpoena, they had no choice but to tell which account it was for. The data is still encrypted, though.
The FBI did not serve the subpoena directly to Proton Mail.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/privacy-focused-proton-mail-handed-protester-data-to-police/ar-AA1XH3R5
Meanwhile, on Proton's homepage:
Proton can do what it likes when it comes to messages being sent between different proton accounts. Use of meta data rich protocols like standard email, instead of, e.g., the signal protocol, is absolutely something they can be blamed for.
As is choosing operate from a jurisdiction that can comple them to collect IP addresses.
Brother...its an email product though...if you can use Signal, use Signal. But it's a different product entirely.
When my bank sends me verification info and banking statements over Signal I'll be elated. Until then, we unfortunately have to continue dealing with email.
There is no such requirement. They collect them necessarily in order to function.
The point is there is no requirement for emails sent between different proton accounts to be as insecure as they are.
This is something where there are known open source solutions that are just flat out better than what proton is using, and proton just can't be bothered. You can't fix the whole Internet, but proton just doesn't care enough to fix itself.
By default proton doesn't log IP addresses. They're just not needed. But when ordered to they do.
https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/06/protonmail-logged-ip-address-of-french-activist-after-order-by-swiss-authorities/
What insecurities are you referring to?
And your suggestion is...refusing to comply with the law?
I explained both these things in the first post you responded to.
And I explained to you that Proton is an email service, not a chat app.
There is nowhere that has better privacy regulations than Switzerland.
I think that when communication is between two users on the same platform, it at least could be more like a chat app. Proton distinguishes the uniqueness of this in its own documentation, so it was actually surprising to me when I heard the actual behavior isn't great. This isn't some marketing description either. It's pretty deep in their website.
Ironically, chat apps running over "email" servers actually look surprisingly private these days.
You can achieve the same level of privacy and security as chatmail by either not paying or paying with crypto.
They are a Mail provider. You can't blame a mail provider for providing a mail service.
You are basically asking for them to make it seem like you send mail, but in reality you send the message via some other protocol when it's send to Proton users. At that point you might as well not send mail at all.
As for their jurisdiction: The data protection laws changed after they were founded. They are also lobbying against them and have in fact threatened to stop investing in or even leave Switzerland.
Yes, I think that a transparent upgrade that improves privacy is an obviously good thing.
And seriously, they should have left. The law allows the Swiss government to force proton to alter the code run on their servers to satisfy requests from foreign governments. That is ridiculous.
The annoying part is them marketing themselves as like operating from Swiss “privacy haven” when swiss privacy laws aren’t that good and the parliament is actively destroying them as we speak.
Switzerland used to be one of the best countries for it, but indeed not anymore. Proton is well aware and has already moved some infrastructure out of Switzerland.
Which jurisdictions can't compel an email provider to log IP addresses? I've never heard of this
Right, so Proton is actually just pop privacy marketing with a side of Trump bootlicking, like everyone with actual cybersecurity credentials have been saying. Got it. There is literally no difference between Proton and Gmail besides ergonomics.