Proton AG

Last updated

Proton AG
FormerlyProton Technologies AG
Founded16 May 2014;10 years ago (2014-05-16)
Founders
  • Andy Yen
  • Jason Stockman
  • Wei Sun [1]
HeadquartersRoute de la Galaise 32 1228,
Plan-les-Ouates
,
Switzerland [2]
Key people
Products
OwnerProton Foundation [4] (majority)
Number of employees
500 (2024) [5]
Subsidiaries
Website

Proton AG is a Swiss technology company offering privacy-focused online services. It was founded in 2014 by a group of scientists who met at CERN and created Proton Mail. [6] [7]

Contents

The company's products are Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, Proton Pass, and Proton Wallet. It is also the parent company of SimpleLogin and Standard Notes.

History

Proton Mail was launched in public beta on May 16, 2014, by a group of scientists who met at CERN. [6] [7] The company was initially financed through a community crowdfunding effort and initially incorporated as Proton Technologies AG in July 2014 and subsequently shortened to Proton AG. [8] In June 2017, the company launched its second product, Proton VPN.

On April 8, 2022, Proton acquired French email aliasing startup SimpleLogin. [9] [10]

On April 14, 2022, Proton Technologies AG shortened its name to Proton AG as part of its unifying rebrand. [8]

On May 10, 2022, Proton AG became a World Economic Forum Partner.

On May 25, 2022, Proton AG unified their products under an optional single subscription known as Proton Unlimited for US$9.99. The user interfaces and logos for its services were also revamped to have a more consistent design. [11] [12]

On April 18, 2023, Proton had reached 100 million accounts.

On April 12, 2024, Proton acquired note taking app Standard Notes. [13]

Proton's founder publicly announced on June 17, 2024, that Proton AG is now majority-owned by the Proton Foundation. [14] The current members of the board of trustees are Andy Yen, Antonio Gambardella, Carissa Véliz, Tim Berners-Lee and Dingchao Lu. [15]

Products

Proton Mail

Proton Mail was released as a public beta on 16 May 2014 [16] as an end-to-end encrypted email service after a year of crowdfunding. Proton Mail 2.0 was released 14 August 2015, with open source front-end clients and a rewritten codebase. [17]

Proton VPN

After over a year of crowdfunding, Proton Mail released Proton VPN on 22 May 2017, a secure VPN service provider. [18] 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, [19] 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. [20] [21]

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. [22] [23] By 6 July 2022, the company had a total of 1786 servers, located in 63 countries, with all new and preexisting servers operated and owned by Proton. [24]

Proton Calendar

Released for public beta on 30 December 2019, Proton Calendar is a fully encrypted calendar app. As of 14 April 2021, it is available to all Proton users. [25] [26] [27]

Proton Drive

Released for public beta on 16 November 2020, Proton Drive is a cloud storage solution with end-to-end encryption. As of 22 September 2022, it is available to all Proton users. [28] [29] [30]

SimpleLogin

SimpleLogin logo SimpleLogin logo.svg
SimpleLogin logo

SimpleLogin is an open source service that allows users to use email aliases to protect their privacy online and protect their main inbox from spam and phishing attacks. The service allows users to create and use multiple email aliases to receive email anonymously and send email from their aliases. SimpleLogin also provides additional security features such as PGP encryption and two-factor authentication. The service is fully open source and can be used on a variety of platforms including the web, mobile apps and browser extensions.

SimpleLogin was acquired by Proton in early 2022. [31] [32] 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. Proton has stated SimpleLogin will continue to function as a standalone service and the SimpleLogin team will continue to add new features and functionality. [33]

Proton Pass

Released for public beta on 20 April 2023, [34] 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. [35] It also allows you to generate email aliases via SimpleLogin, however uses its own domains instead of the SimpleLogin ones.

Standard Notes

Standard Notes is an end-to-end encrypted note-taking application, which was announced to be acquired by Proton on April 10, 2024. [36] [37] The application and service was to be integrated into Proton's offering in the following months. [37]

Proton Wallet

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. [38]

Location and security

Both Proton Mail and Proton VPN are located in Switzerland and Swiss privacy laws apply. [39]

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. [40] While product-related data is usually end-to-end encrypted or not stored, certain account information is able to be passed to authorities with a valid court order, like client IP addresses (if logging is enabled) or recovery email. [41]

Data centers

Architecture of a Proton Mail data center Protonmail system architecture 2014.png
Architecture of a Proton Mail data center

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 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) of granite rock) as a backup. [42] [43] [44]

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. [45] In December 2014, Proton Mail joined the RIPE NCC in an effort to have more direct control over the surrounding Internet infrastructure. [46]

Structure

Proton AG was initially funded through crowdfunding and now is through its paid subscription. [47] The company has been partially funded by FONGIT. [48] [49] [50] [51] (the Fondation Genevoise pour l'Innovation Technologique) and the European Commission. [52]

In March 2021, Proton confirmed that the shares held by Charles Rivers Ventures had been transferred to FONGIT. [53]

Since June 2024, the majority of Proton AG is owned by the Proton Foundation. [54] Proton is headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland. [55] [49] [50]

Related Research Articles

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is an encryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting texts, e-mails, files, directories, and whole disk partitions and to increase the security of e-mail communications. Phil Zimmermann developed PGP in 1991.

Hushmail is an encrypted proprietary web-based email service offering PGP-encrypted e-mail and vanity domain service. Hushmail uses OpenPGP standards. If public encryption keys are available to both recipient and sender, Hushmail can convey authenticated, encrypted messages in both directions. For recipients for whom no public key is available, Hushmail will allow a message to be encrypted by a password and stored for pickup by the recipient, or the message can be sent in cleartext. In July 2016, the company launched an iOS app that offers end-to-end encryption and full integration with the webmail settings. The company is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a private communication system in which only communicating users can participate. As such, no one else, including the communication system provider, telecom providers, Internet providers or malicious actors, can access the cryptographic keys needed to converse. End-to-end encryption is intended to prevent data being read or secretly modified, other than by the true sender and recipient(s). The messages are encrypted by the sender but the third party does not have a means to decrypt them, and stores them encrypted. The recipients retrieve the encrypted data and decrypt it themselves. Because no third parties can decipher the data being communicated or stored, for example, companies that provide end-to-end encryption are unable to hand over texts of their customers' messages to the authorities.

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of notable webmail providers who offer a web interface in English.

Email encryption is encryption of email messages to protect the content from being read by entities other than the intended recipients. Email encryption may also include authentication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outlook.com</span> Microsoft webmail service

Outlook.com, formerly Hotmail, is a free personal email service offered by Microsoft. This includes a webmail interface featuring mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks services. Outlook can also be accessed via email clients using the IMAP or POP protocols.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fastmail</span> Australian email service provider

Fastmail is an email hosting company based in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to its Fastmail-branded services, the company also operates Topicbox, a mailing list service, and Pobox, an email service it acquired in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mega (service)</span> Cloud storage and file hosting service

Mega is a file hosting service offered by Mega Cloud Services Limited, a company based in Auckland, New Zealand and owned by Hong Kong–based Cloud Tech Services Limited. The service is offered through web-based apps. MEGA mobile apps are also available for Android and iOS.

Tresorit is a cloud storage platform that offers functions for administration, storage, synchronization, and transfer of data using end-to-end encryption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kolab Now</span>

Kolab Now is a web-based email and groupware service, based completely on free and open-source software. It is owned and operated by Kolab Systems AG and was formerly known as MyKolab.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proton Mail</span> End-to-end encrypted email service

Proton Mail is a Swiss end-to-end encrypted email service founded in 2013 headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland. Proton Mail is run by Proton AG, which also operates Proton VPN, Proton Drive, Proton Calendar, Proton Pass and Proton Wallet. It uses client-side encryption to protect email content and user data before they are sent to Proton Mail servers, unlike other common email providers such as Gmail and Outlook.com.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Threema</span> Instant messaging smartphone service

Threema is a paid cross-platform encrypted instant messaging app developed by Threema GmbH in Switzerland and launched in 2012. The service operates on a decentralized architecture and offers end-to-end encryption. Users can make voice and video calls, send photos, files, and voice notes, share locations, and make groups. Unlike many other popular secure messaging apps, Threema does not require phone numbers or email addresses for registration, only a one-time purchase that can be paid via an app store or anonymously with Bitcoin or cash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuta (email)</span> Free and open-source end-to-end encrypted email software and host

Tuta, formerly Tutanota, is an end-to-end encrypted email app and a freemium secure email service. The service is advertisement-free; it relies on donations and premium subscriptions. As of June 2023, Tutanota's owners claimed to have over 10 million users of the product. The company announced a transition to 100% renewable electricity in March 2019. This decision coincided with employee participation in Fridays for Future protests. On 1st October 2024, Tuta launched its standalone encrypted calendar app. Tuta Mail has recently integrated post-quantum cryptography features through its new protocol - TutaCrypt replacing standard encryption methods like RSA-2048 and AES-256 for its newly created accounts after March 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mailfence</span> Encrypted email service

Mailfence is secure encrypted email service that offers OpenPGP based end-to-end encryption and digital signatures. It was launched in November 2013 by Belgium-based company ContactOffice Group that has been operating an online collaboration suite since 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proton VPN</span> Virtual private network provider

Proton VPN is a VPN service launched in 2017 and operated by the Swiss company Proton AG, the company behind the email service Proton Mail. According to its official website, Proton VPN and Proton Mail share the same management team, offices, and technical resources, and are operated from Proton's headquarters in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland. On June 17, 2024 the company announced that it will be transitioning to a non-profit structure under the Proton Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitwarden</span> Open-source password manager


Bitwarden is a freemium open-source password management service that is used to store sensitive information, such as website credentials, in an encrypted vault. The platform hosts multiple client applications, including a web interface, desktop applications, browser extensions, mobile apps, and a command-line interface. The platform offers a free US or European cloud-hosted service as well as the ability to self-host.

NordLocker is a file encryption software integrated with end-to-end encrypted cloud storage. It is available on Windows and macOS. NordLocker is developed by Nord Security, the Lithuania-based company behind the NordVPN virtual private network.

A virtual private network (VPN) service provides a proxy server to help users bypass Internet censorship such as geo-blocking and users who want to protect their communications against data profiling or MitM attacks on hostile networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skiff (email service)</span> Email service and collaboration suite

Skiff was an email service startup company and collaboration tool, that provides privacy-friendly end-to-end encrypted Email and Cloud services. The company's commercial strategy is focused in offering to its clients a Source-Available or Open-Source, transparent and audited Email, Calendar, and Cloud Storage services without trackers or advertisements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proton Pass</span> Password management software

Proton Pass is a password manager developed by the Swiss software company Proton AG. It stores login credentials, email aliases, credit card data, passkeys, 2FA secret keys, and notes in virtual vaults that are encrypted using 256-bit AES-GCM.

References

  1. ↑ Slade, Hollie (19 May 2014). "The Only Email System The NSA Can't Access". Forbes.
  2. ↑ "Privacy policy". Proton. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  3. ↑ "Proton Team".
  4. ↑ "Proton is transitioning towards a non-profit structure". 17 June 2024.
  5. ↑ "Proton is transitioning towards a non-profit structure". 17 June 2024.
  6. 1 2 O'Luanaigh, Cian (23 May 2014). "CERN inspires entrepreneurs for email encryption". CERN . Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  7. 1 2 "About Proton". Proton. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  8. 1 2 "Evolving privacy for the future". Proton Blog. 14 April 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  9. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (8 April 2022). "Proton acquires SimpleLogin". TechCrunch. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  10. ↑ "Proton and SimpleLogin are joining forces | Proton Mail". Proton. 8 April 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  11. ↑ Yen, Andy (25 May 2022). "Updated Proton, unified protection". Proton. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  12. ↑ Das, Ankush (25 May 2022). "ProtonMail is Now Just 'Proton' Offering a Privacy Ecosystem". It's FOSS News. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  13. ↑ "Standard Notes is Now a Part of Proton Privacy-Focused Offerings: Is it Good or Bad?". It's FOSS News. 12 April 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  14. ↑ "Proton is transitioning towards a non-profit structure". 17 June 2024.
  15. ↑ "The Proton Foundation".
  16. ↑ "ProtonMail, the Easy-to-Use Encrypted Email Service, Opens Up to the Public". VICE. 17 March 2016.
  17. ↑ Admin (13 August 2015). "ProtonMail goes Open Source with version 2.0". ProtonMail Blog. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  18. ↑ "ProtonVPN - About Us". ProtonVPN. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  19. ↑ "Tor encrypted email, file storage, calendar, and more". Proton. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  20. ↑ Osborne, Charlie. "ProtonVPN apps handed to open source community in transparency push". ZDNet. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  21. ↑ "ProtonVPN goes open source to build trust". BetaNews. 21 January 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  22. ↑ "ProtonVPN - Stats". ProtonVPN. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  23. ↑ May 2020, Mike Williams 21. "ProtonVPN review". TechRadar. Retrieved 23 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  24. ↑ "Proton VPN - About Us". Proton VPN. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  25. ↑ "The ProtonCalendar beta is available now!". ProtonMail Blog. 30 December 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  26. ↑ Schiffer, Zoe (1 January 2020). "ProtonMail just added an encrypted calendar to its encrypted Gmail competitor". The Verge. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  27. ↑ "Everyone can stay on top of their schedule with Proton Calendar beta". ProtonMail Blog. 14 April 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  28. ↑ "Proton Drive encrypted cloud storage is available in beta". ProtonMail Blog. 16 November 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  29. ↑ Vonau, Manuel (23 September 2022). "Proton Drive wants to be your Google Drive alternative with privacy built-in". Android Police. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  30. ↑ "We're launching Proton Drive, the encrypted cloud storage for everyone". Proton Blog. 22 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  31. ↑ "ProtonMail buys email alias startup SimpleLogin". TechCrunch. 8 April 2022.
  32. ↑ "SimpleLogin | About". 1 January 2023.
  33. ↑ "Proton and SimpleLogin are joining forces". 8 April 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  34. ↑ "Proton Pass is now in beta". Proton. 20 April 2023. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  35. ↑ "Introducing Proton Pass – Protecting your passwords and online identity". Proton. 28 June 2023. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  36. ↑ "Standard Notes is Now a Part of Proton Privacy-Focused Offerings: Is it Good or Bad?". It's FOSS News. 12 April 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  37. 1 2 "Proton and Standard Notes are joining forces". Proton. 10 April 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  38. ↑ "Proton Wallet: A secure, self-custodial Bitcoin wallet". Proton. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  39. ↑ ProtonVPN. "About Us". About ProtonVPN.
  40. ↑ "ProtonMail under fire after giving authorities an activist's IP address". Engadget. 6 September 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2024.
  41. ↑ "Privacy policy". Proton. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  42. ↑ "Proton Mail Security". Proton Mail Security. 31 January 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  43. ↑ Patterson, Dan (13 November 2015). "Exclusive: Inside the ProtonMail siege: how two small companies fought off one of Europe's largest DDoS attacks". TechRepublic . Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  44. ↑ "Im geheimen Datenbunker von Attinghausen". Schweiz aktuell (video) (in German). SRF. 5 September 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  45. ↑ Yen, Andy (17 December 2014). "Infrastructure Upgrades". Proton Blog. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  46. ↑ Yen, Andy (17 December 2014). "ProtonMail joins Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE NCC)". Proton Blog. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  47. ↑ Andy Yen (8 March 2019). "We have been awarded €2 million from the EU to further develop the Proton ecosystem". ProtonMail Blog. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  48. ↑ Team, Proton (18 March 2015). "ProtonMail Raises $2M USD to Take Encrypted Communications Mainstream". ProtonMail Blog. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  49. 1 2 "Why Protonmail is in Switzerland? An Analysis of Swiss Privacy Laws". Proton Blog. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  50. 1 2 "Proton's CEO Wanted to Fight Dictatorships. Now He's Fighting Big Tech Too". Time. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  51. ↑ "About Us". Fongit. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  52. ↑ European Commission. "CORDIS European Commission". ProtonSuite Project H2020.
  53. ↑ "CRV divestment and partnering with the community". ProtonMail. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  54. ↑ "Proton is transitioning towards a non-profit structure". 17 June 2024.
  55. ↑ "Privacy policy".
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