this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2025
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Privacy

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Proton has handed over 32,076 users' data to governments since 2017. Their own transparency report states a 94% compliance rate in 2024. (infosec.pub)
submitted 5 months ago by cm0002@infosec.pub to c/privacy@programming.dev
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[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 61 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I don’t think that’s bad on Proton’s part. They are obeying the law they are obliged to obey.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 25 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, more important is what data was it

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 months ago

Most data is encrypted, so the government wouldn't be able to use it anyway.

There is some metadata though. I believe in the past they used Proton to be able to link a criminal to a back-up e-mail address he entered.

[–] IceFoxX@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)
[–] Cenzorrll@lemmy.world 23 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Privacy is not anonymity. In this case they were required to supply IP addresses of users logging into a certain account in an active investigation.

As usual, the devil is in the details—ProtonMail’s original policy simply said that the service does not keep IP logs “by default.” However, as a Swiss company itself, ProtonMail was obliged to comply with a Swiss court’s injunction demanding that it begin logging IP address and browser fingerprint information for a particular ProtonMail account.

[–] cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 5 months ago

Well I'm certainly not a fan.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If you think all 30k plus were for legitimate reasons and not government control, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I didn’t say that. I said they’re obeying the law they are obliged to obey. In other words, they’re not defying the courts. In a perfect world, they could defy the courts and get away with it in the interest of user privacy, but this is not a perfect world.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

You are right, they can argue that the government does not have sufficient reason. Many companies push back, but Proton is not one of them. I.e. Proton will not fight for you at all and they will follow court orders from other countries that are often questionable at best because "Interpol".

I think my original point stands which should make most people seriously reconsider using them as they are not in the business of protecting their customers. In other words it is bad on their part and hand waving that away is pretty gross.