Proton denied all 47 requests for user data this year, making it 458 rejected since 2019, not a single one fulfilled.
whenever china makes an open source mail provider i’d be interested, because theres zero chance china complies with anything the usa says.
Out of the frying pan straight into another frying pan
What will Chinese police do to my email in the worst case? Send me a strongly worded letter?
Out of the frying pan straight into
another frying pana wok
FYI: Techradar earns affiliate comissions through ProtonVPN.
I know this is vpn not email but seems to be some sort of PR.
https://www.androidpolice.com/privacy-focused-proton-mail-handed-over-protester-data-to-police/
I’m surprised and very disappointed. First time hearing about this. Spread the word! I wonder if privacyguides has updated their recommendations based on this news.
Surprised and disappointed that a Swiss company must comply with Swiss law?
There is no company that will refuse to comply with the authorities of the country they are headquartered in.
Proton and similar privacy focused companies at least do as much as they can to have as little data to share as possible. The emails, for instance, are not data that Proton can share no matter how insistant the law is.
But the metadata of the account? Like the credit card you decide to pay with? That’s not encrypted and it’s absurd to think that a company will refuse to comply with the law of their country.
This is months old and was all over reddit and Lemmy. Basically the days handed over complied with Swiss law, not US iirc. So it was minimal at best.
Actually nvm the article explains it clearly,
Thanks to Proton Mail, they were able to get that information, though it’s fair to note that this was a somewhat convoluted process. In order to get the information, the FBI used a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, or MLAT, to ask the Swiss justice department to request the information from Proton Mail. As Proton is based in Switzerland, it had to give the requested information to the Swiss authorities, who then passed it on to the FBI.
“We want to first clarify that Proton did not provide any information to the FBI, the information was obtained from the Swiss justice department via MLAT,” said Proton AG’s head of communications, Edward Shone. “Proton only provides the limited information that we have when issued with a legally binding order from Swiss authorities, which can only happen after all Swiss legal checks are passed. This is an important distinction because Proton operates exclusively under Swiss law.”
Because the Proton Mail account was paid for by credit card, Proton AG was able to provide the payment identifier, which could then be used to find the card’s holder, leading to an arrest for alleged trespassing. However, 404 Media does not name the person in question as they do not seem to have been charged since.
It can be both PR and also accurate.
“We want to first clarify that Proton did not provide any information to the FBI, the information was obtained from the Swiss justice department via MLAT,” said Proton AG’s head of communications"
Do they think people are stupid?
Why so? Being based in Switzerland, Proton has to comply with Swiss law enforcement. The issue I see is giving any weight to «all Swiss legal checks».
Mail and VPN have different legal requirements in Switzerland
I just saw they did an interview recently with the Verge. Maybe trying to make up for previous bad press.
Honestly, I’m surprised it’s only 47 considering its user base and the fact that we’re already in July.
It’s low because most authorities are smart enough not to ask for something that doesn’t exist, given their no-log policy
47 sounds low for a month, given the US governments aggressive push to identify and punish anyone who voices an opinion not approved by Trump and his cabinet.
I suppose they don’t receive many requests because it’s already known that the answer will be no.
Maybe it’s unusual for any sort of authorities to advance a digital investigation to such a point where the would be able to definitively identify an IP address and a VPN provider.
Few more details here
Yes yes let’s train the public to wait for official confirmation of these things instead of using inductive reasoning based on past disclosures. That would be delightful for you wouldn’t it?
