Proton AG

In May 2022, Proton updated the visuals, user interface, and logos of all its products to ensure a consistent design and launched a new subscription plan known as Proton Unlimited that includes all Proton services for US$9.99 per month, while still keeping individual single product plans.{{cite web |last1=Khalili |first1=Joel |date=25 May 2022 |title=Proton Mail rebrands as Proton: VPN, email, calendar, cloud storage and password manager now available under one bundle |url=https://www.techradar.com/news/protonmail-rebrands-as-proton-vpn-email-and-cloud-storage-now-available-under-one-bundle |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623204202/https://www.techradar.com/news/protonmail-rebrands-as-proton-vpn-email-and-cloud-storage-now-available-under-one-bundle |archive-date=June 23, 2022 |access-date=23 June 2022 |website=TechRadar}}

{{Main|Proton Mail}}

Proton Mail was released as a public beta on 16 May 2014{{Cite web |date=17 March 2016 |title=ProtonMail, the Easy-to-Use Encrypted Email Service, Opens Up to the Public |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/protonmail-the-easy-to-use-encrypted-email-service-opens-up-to-the-public/ |website=VICE}} as an end-to-end encrypted email service after a year of crowdfunding, by a group of scientists who met at CERN.{{Cite web |last=O'Luanaigh |first=Cian |date=23 May 2014 |title=CERN inspires entrepreneurs for email encryption |url=https://home.cern/news/news/computing/cern-inspires-entrepreneurs-email-encryption |access-date=22 May 2020 |website=CERN}}{{Cite web |title=About Proton |url=https://proton.me/about |access-date=23 May 2020 |website=Proton |language=en}} Proton Mail 2.0 was released 14 August 2015, with open source front-end clients and a rewritten codebase.{{Cite web |last=Admin |date=13 August 2015 |title=ProtonMail goes Open Source with version 2.0 |url=https://proton.me/blog/protonmail-secure-email-open-source/ |access-date=23 May 2020 |website=ProtonMail Blog |language=en-US}}

On 18 July 2024, Proton launched a private AI writing assistant for Proton Mail. Scribe can help write, proofread, shorten, or formalize emails. Users can run the AI assistant locally on their devices or through Proton's servers.

As of 2024, Proton Scribe is only available for Proton Visionary, Family, Duo and Lifetime subscription plans. Proton business users can add Proton Scribe as a paid add-on to their existing business subscriptions.{{Cite web |date=2024-07-18 |title=Introducing Proton Scribe, a private writing assistant that writes and proofreads emails for you |url=https://proton.me/blog/proton-scribe-writing-assistant |access-date=2024-12-08 |website=Proton |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Get started with the Proton Scribe writing assistant |url=https://proton.me/support/proton-scribe-writing-assistant |access-date=2024-12-08 |website=Proton |language=en}}

{{Main|Proton VPN}}

After over a year of crowdfunding, Proton Mail released Proton VPN on 22 May 2017, a secure VPN service provider.{{Cite web |title=ProtonVPN - About Us |url=https://protonvpn.com/about |access-date=23 May 2020 |website=ProtonVPN |language=en}}

It has a no-logging policy, is located in Switzerland, and has DNS and WebRTC IP address leakage prevention. It is accessible online through Tor,{{Cite web |title=Tor encrypted email, file storage, calendar, and more |url=https://proton.me/tor |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=Proton |language=en}} the clearnet, and its mobile applications.

On 21 January 2020, Proton announced that Proton VPN would now be open source, to allow independent security experts to analyze it, becoming the first VPN service to do so, simultaneously announcing that an independent security audit had been conducted.{{Cite web |last=Osborne |first=Charlie |title=ProtonVPN apps handed to open source community in transparency push |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/protonvpn-apps-handed-to-open-source-community-in-transparency-security-push/ |access-date=23 May 2020 |website=ZDNet |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=21 January 2020 |title=ProtonVPN goes open source to build trust |url=https://betanews.com/2020/01/21/protonvpn-open-source/ |access-date=23 May 2020 |website=BetaNews |language=en}}

On 1 May 2020, Proton VPN reported that they had a total of 809 servers, located in 50 different countries, all owned and operated by itself.{{Cite web |last=May 2020 |first=Mike Williams 21 |title=ProtonVPN review |url=https://www.techradar.com/reviews/protonvpn |access-date=23 May 2020 |website=TechRadar |language=en}}

By 19 February 2025, the company had a total of 11,496 servers, located in 117 countries, with all new and preexisting servers operated and owned by Proton.

Proton Calendar is a fully encrypted calendar app.{{Cite web |last=Schiffer |first=Zoe |date=2020-01-01 |title=ProtonMail just added an encrypted calendar to its encrypted Gmail competitor |url=https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/1/21045836/protonmail-launched-encrypted-protoncalendar-beta-2020 |access-date=2020-05-24 |website=The Verge |language=en}}

{{Main|Proton Drive}}

Proton Drive is a cloud storage solution with end-to-end encryption, launched in September 2022 after being in beta testing since 2020.{{Cite web |last=Vonau |first=Manuel |date=2022-09-23 |title=Proton Drive wants to be your Google Drive alternative with privacy built-in |url=https://www.androidpolice.com/proton-drive-launch-google-drive-alternative-privacy/ |access-date=2022-09-26 |website=Android Police |language=en-US}}

File:SimpleLogin_logo.svg

SimpleLogin is an open source email alias service that allows users to use email aliases to protect their privacy online and protect their main inbox from spam and phishing attacks.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

SimpleLogin also provides additional security features such as PGP encryption and two-factor authentication on a variety of platforms including the web, mobile apps and browser extensions.

After being acquired by Proton in early 2022, SimpleLogin functionality is integrated into Proton Mail, Proton Pass, and subtly in the whole ecosystem, allowing the Proton community to hide their email addresses with SimpleLogin.

{{Main|Proton Pass}}

Released for public beta on 20 April 2023,{{Cite web |date=2023-04-20 |title=Proton Pass is now in beta |url=https://proton.me/blog/proton-pass-beta |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=Proton |language=en}} Proton Pass is a cloud based password manager solution with end-to-end encryption.

As of June 28, 2023, it is available to all Proton users.{{Cite web |date=2023-06-28 |title=Introducing Proton Pass – Protecting your passwords and online identity |url=https://proton.me/blog/proton-pass-launch |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=Proton |language=en}}

It also allows users to generate email aliases via SimpleLogin, however uses its own domains instead of the SimpleLogin ones.

[https://www.standardnotes.com/ Standard Notes] is an end-to-end encrypted note-taking application, which was announced to be acquired by Proton on April 10, 2024.{{Cite web |date=2024-04-12 |title=Standard Notes is Now a Part of Proton Privacy-Focused Offerings: Is it Good or Bad? |url=https://news.itsfoss.com/proton-standard-notes/ |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=It's FOSS News |language=en}}

The team that created Standard Notes worked with Proton and released a document taking service named Proton Docs.{{Cite web |last=Vijay |first=Anant |date=3 July 2024 |title=Introducing Docs in Proton Drive – Collaborative document editing that’s actually private |url=https://proton.me/blog/docs-proton-drive |access-date=28 January 2025 |website=Proton |language=en}}

Proton Wallet is an open-source cryptocurrency wallet with end-to-end encryption to ensure that no one else has access to the wallet encryption keys.{{Cite web |title=Proton Wallet: A secure, self-custodial Bitcoin wallet |url=https://proton.me/wallet |access-date=2024-08-04 |website=Proton |language=en}}

Both Proton Mail and Proton VPN are located in Switzerland and Swiss privacy laws apply.

Proton AG complies with law enforcement requests to help identify Proton users if the request is valid under Swiss law, as in the case of a climate activist sought by French authorities in 2021.{{cite web|access-date=2024-06-22|title=ProtonMail under fire after giving authorities an activist's IP address|url=https://www.engadget.com/protonmail-climate-activist-ip-swiss-french-authorities-233004304.html|date=2021-09-06|website=Engadget}}

Proton AG stated in 2023 to have complied to 5971 requests and contested 407 orders out of 6378 orders for user information.{{Cite web |title=Transparency report |url=https://proton.me/legal/transparency |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=Proton |language=en}}

While product-related data is usually end-to-end encrypted or not stored, certain account information can be passed to authorities with a valid court order, like client IP addresses (if logging is enabled) or recovery email.{{Cite web |title=Privacy policy |url=https://proton.me/legal/privacy |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=Proton |language=en}}

File:Protonmail system architecture 2014.png]]Proton Mail maintains and owns its own server hardware and network in order to avoid utilizing a third party.

It maintains two data centers, one in Lausanne and another in Attinghausen (in the former K7 military bunker under {{convert|1000|m|sp=us||abbr=}} of granite rock) as a backup.{{Cite web|url=https://proton.me/mail/security|title=Proton Mail Security|date=31 January 2016|website=Proton Mail Security|access-date=31 January 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.techrepublic.com/article/exclusive-inside-the-protonmail-siege-how-two-small-companies-fought-off-one-of-europes-largest-ddos/|title=Exclusive: Inside the ProtonMail siege: how two small companies fought off one of Europe's largest DDoS attacks|last=Patterson|first=Dan|date=13 November 2015|website=TechRepublic|access-date=31 January 2016}}{{Cite web|url = http://www.srf.ch/play/tv/schweiz-aktuell/video/im-geheimen-datenbunker-von-attinghausen?id=ef62ec6f-7916-44d6-a3db-4926c28be8ca|title = Im geheimen Datenbunker von Attinghausen |date = 5 September 2012|access-date = 20 February 2017|publisher= SRF |work=Schweiz aktuell (video)|language=de}}

Each data center uses load balancing across web, mail, and SQL servers, redundant power supply, hard drives with full disk encryption, and exclusive use of Linux and other open-source software.{{Cite web|url=https://proton.me/news/infrastructure-upgrades|title=Infrastructure Upgrades|last=Yen|first=Andy|date=17 December 2014|website=Proton Blog|access-date=19 October 2015}}

In December 2014, Proton Mail joined the RIPE NCC in an effort to have more direct control over the surrounding Internet infrastructure.{{Cite web|url=https://proton.me/news/protonmail-joins-reseaux-ip-europeens-ripe-ncc|title=ProtonMail joins Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE NCC)|last=Yen|first=Andy|date=17 December 2014|website=Proton Blog|access-date=19 October 2015}}

As of December 2024, Proton operates data centers in Switzerland, Germany, and Norway.{{Cite web |date= |title=Proton Mail’s world-class reliability is now backed by a 99.95% service level agreement (SLA) |url=https://proton.me/blog/protonmail-reliability-sla |access-date= |website=Proton |language=en}}

Proton is headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland.{{Cite web |date=19 May 2014 |title=Why Protonmail is in Switzerland? An Analysis of Swiss Privacy Laws |url=https://proton.me/news/switzerland |access-date=28 May 2022 |website=Proton Blog |language=en-US}}{{Cite magazine |date=17 May 2022 |title=Proton's CEO Wanted to Fight Dictatorships. Now He's Fighting Big Tech Too |url=https://time.com/6176214/proton-ceo-andy-yen-profile/ |access-date=28 May 2022 |magazine=Time |language=en-US}}

Since June 2024, the controlling shareholder of Proton AG is the non-profit Proton Foundation.{{Cite web |last=Sawers |first=Paul |date=2024-06-17 |title=Privacy app maker Proton transitions to nonprofit foundation structure |url=https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/17/privacy-app-maker-proton-transitions-to-non-profit-foundation-structure/ |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=published |first=Andy Sansom |date=2024-06-18 |title=Leading privacy firm launches foundation and goes non-profit |url=https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/vpns/leading-privacy-firm-launches-foundation-and-goes-non-profit |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Tom's Guide |language=en}}

The members of the Proton Foundation board of trustees in June 2024 were Andy Yen, Antonio Gambardella, Carissa Véliz, Tim Berners-Lee and Dingchao Lu.{{cite web |title=The Proton Foundation |url=https://proton.me/foundation}}

Proton AG was initially funded through crowdfunding and now is through its paid subscription.{{Cite web|last=Andy Yen|date=2019-03-08|title=We have been awarded €2 million from the EU to further develop the Proton ecosystem|url=https://proton.me/news/eu-funding|access-date=2020-12-21|website=ProtonMail Blog|language=en-US}}

The company has been partially funded by FONGIT{{Cite web|last=Team|first=Proton|date=2015-03-18|title=ProtonMail Raises $2M USD to Take Encrypted Communications Mainstream|url=https://proton.me/news/protonmail-raises-2m-usd-to-take-encrypted-communications-mainstream|access-date=2020-12-21|website=ProtonMail Blog|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=About Us|url=https://fongit.ch/about-us/|access-date=2020-12-21|website=Fongit|language=en-US}} (the Fondation Genevoise pour l'Innovation Technologique) and the European Commission.{{cite web|url=https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/791727/it|title=CORDIS European Commission|author=European Commission|work=ProtonSuite Project H2020}}

In March 2021, Proton confirmed that the shares held by Charles Rivers Ventures had been transferred to FONGIT.{{Cite web|date=2021-03-26|title=CRV divestment and partnering with the community|url=https://proton.me/news/crv-investment-other-news|access-date=2021-05-18|website=ProtonMail|language=en-US}}

On April 8, 2022, Proton acquired French email aliasing startup SimpleLogin.{{Cite web |last=Lomas |first=Natasha |date=2022-04-08 |title=ProtonMail buys email alias startup SimpleLogin |url=https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/08/proton-buys-simplelogin/ |access-date=2022-05-26 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=8 April 2022 |title=Proton and SimpleLogin are joining forces |url=https://proton.me/news/proton-and-simplelogin-join-forces |access-date=2022-07-06 |website=Proton}}{{cite web |date=2023-01-01 |title=SimpleLogin {{!}} About |url=https://simplelogin.io/about/ |language=en}}

Proton has stated SimpleLogin will continue to function as a standalone service and the SimpleLogin team will continue to add new features and functionality.

On April 12, 2024, Proton acquired note taking app Standard Notes.{{Cite web |date=2024-04-12 |title=Standard Notes is Now a Part of Proton Privacy-Focused Offerings: Is it Good or Bad? |url=https://news.itsfoss.com/proton-standard-notes/ |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=It's FOSS News |language=en}}

Proton in 2022 was considered a supporter of the Digital Markets Act.{{Cite news |last=Espinoza |first=Javier |date=2022-03-21 |title=How Big Tech lost the antitrust battle with Europe |url=https://www.ft.com/content/cbb1fe40-860d-4013-bfcf-b75ee6e30206 |access-date=2025-02-27 |work=Financial Times}} In September 2020, Proton helped found the Coalition for App Fairness, which aims to gain better conditions for the inclusion of their apps in app stores.{{Cite web |last=Amadeo |first=Ron |date=2020-09-24 |title=Epic, Spotify, and others take on Apple with "Coalition for App Fairness" |url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/epic-spotify-and-others-take-on-apple-with-coalition-for-app-fairness/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924195429/https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/epic-spotify-and-others-take-on-apple-with-coalition-for-app-fairness/ |archive-date=September 24, 2020 |access-date=2020-09-26 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-us}} In 2022, Proton supported the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.{{Cite web |last=Kelly |first=Makena |date=2022-09-13 |title=Proton and DuckDuckGo want Congress to approve tech antitrust reform “as soon as possible” |url=https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/13/23351036/proton-mail-duckduckgo-mozilla-schumer-aico-antitrust-amazon-google |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=The Verge |language=en-US}} In December 2023, Proton's founder publicly vowed to challenge the Australian eSafety Commission in court rather than comply with demands to weaken Proton Mail's privacy features.{{cite news |date=15 December 2023 |title=Proton Mail founder vows to fight Australia's eSafety regulator in court rather than spy on users |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/15/proton-mail-founder-vows-to-fight-australias-esafety-regulator-in-court-rather-than-spy-on-users |access-date=2024-12-23 |work=The Guardian|quote=The founder of encrypted email service Proton has said the company would fight the Australian online safety regulator in court if forced to weaken encryption under proposed standards. [...] Andy Yen, the founder and chief executive of Proton, told Guardian Australia the proposed standards “would force online services, no matter whether they are end-to-end encrypted or not, to access, collect, and read their users’ private conversations”.}}

In January 2025, Proton expressed support for the Republican Party through Proton's social media accounts and Proton's CEO's personal accounts. The company later deleted some posts and stated that it is "politically neutral", and "official accounts cannot be used to express personal political opinions".{{Cite web |last=Mazurov |first=Nikita |date=2025-01-28 |title=Proton Mail Says It’s “Politically Neutral” While Praising Republican Party |url=https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/ |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=The Intercept |language=en-US|quote=Proton CEO Andy Yen praised the Republican Party in a post on X, declaring that “10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys, but today the tables have completely turned.” When the tweet went viral, Proton’s official Reddit account posted a now-deleted comment stating that “Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.” Within hours, Proton deleted its response across social media accounts, stating that the post — which started with the words “Here is our official response” — was in fact “removed because it was not actually an official statement.” [...] Yen further claimed that the post had been an “internal miscommunication,” later also writing that Proton is “politically neutral.”}} The matter was covered by national media in Switzerland.{{Cite news |date=2025-02-18 |title=Sur les réseaux sociaux, l’entreprise genevoise Proton accusée de soutenir Donald Trump - Le Temps |url=https://www.letemps.ch/articles/sur-les-reseaux-sociaux-l-entreprise-genevoise-proton-accusee-de-soutenir-donald-trump/gifts/ybn6gho5JTnuet2bcoda4jDMR573NaKyC9cKGuFh |access-date=2025-03-19 |language=fr |issn=1423-3967|newspaper=Le Temps|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250318235233/https://www.letemps.ch/articles/sur-les-reseaux-sociaux-l-entreprise-genevoise-proton-accusee-de-soutenir-donald-trump/gifts/ybn6gho5JTnuet2bcoda4jDMR573NaKyC9cKGuFh|archive-date=2025-03-18|url-status=unfit|quote=«Je pense que la polarisation de la société, alimentée par les bulles de filtres des médias sociaux, a contribué à créer un environnement où les discussions nuancées sur les questions importantes sont impossibles», regrette le patron de Proton, contacté par Le Temps. [...] Sur Reddit, le patron de Proton a d’ailleurs reconnu que sa publication était maladroite, dans la mesure où elle pouvait être interprétée comme une prise de position politique, ce qui n’était pas son intention. Andy Yen y affirme qu’il se montrera d’autant plus prudent à l’avenir.}}

In February 2025, in response to Apple's removal of Advanced Data Protection encryption from iCloud in the United Kingdom in response to government demands for a backdoor, Proton published a statement saying that the company would never build an encryption backdoor, and that it wouldn't open a "front door" either by removing end-to-end encryption.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-27 |title=The UK government’s war on encryption is a global threat |url=https://proton.me/blog/apple-ends-adp-in-uk |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Proton |language=en}} In March 2025, the company wrote to the European Commission calling for a "buy European" requirement for public sector procurement in Europe.{{Cite web |title=Airbus, Dassault, others set out EuroStack demands in letter to EU {{!}} MLex {{!}} Specialist news and analysis on legal risk and regulation |url=https://www.mlex.com/mlex/technology/articles/2311286/airbus-dassault-others-set-out-eurostack-demands-in-letter-to-eu |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=www.mlex.com |language=en}}

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Category:Companies based in Geneva

Category:Software companies established in 2014

Category:Software companies of Switzerland

Category:Swiss companies established in 2014