Protonmail

These links are in different languages.

They are about the latest on Protonmail, an email provider that advertises itself as a privacy guarantor.

According to Protonmail’s own statement,

“under Swiss law, Proton can be forced to collect information on accounts belonging to users under Swiss criminal investigation”

ProtonMail then can be forced to keep logs. It does not say it is forced to keep logs.

“This is obviously not done by default, but only if Proton gets a legal order for a specific account.”

It implies but does not say if ProtonMail did get a legal order for a specific account.

“We only comply with legally binding orders from Swiss authorities.” The word ‘only’ can be taken off without changing the core meaning of the sentence.

“Under current Swiss law, email and VPN are treated differently, and ProtonVPN cannot be compelled to log user data.” Therefore ProtonMail can. Otherwise it would have to read simply ‘Proton’, like in other paragraphs.

“We only know that the order for data from the Swiss government came through channels typically reserved for serious crimes.”

From these paragraphs it can only be inferred that the Swiss authorities requested email logs and these were granted.

There is a simple way to not have to give logs to the authorities: don’t keep them.

Apparently,

Protonmail has snitched on one of their users, activists who were subsequently arrested by the cops, by providing IP and web browser information, confirming they keep that in their logs.
https://secoursrouge.org/france-suisse-securite-it-protonmail-a-communique-a-la-police-ladresse-ip-de-militant%c2%b7es-anti-gentrification/
https://nitter.42l.fr/andyyen/status/1434592450916589569
https://twitter.com/tenacioustek/status/1434604102676271106
https://protonmail.com/blog/climate-activist-arrest/



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Anonimity and corporate services 

When signing up for an email provider, ask what logs are kept.

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Hello, I work as a private investigator.
Our company received an order to hack into your email, phone, cloud, network and to collect intelligence.
We work with hackers from China for tasks like that, and they are the best. But we do have an ethical protocol in place.
After checking on the person, who ordered the hack and investigation on you, I have decided to come forward and offer you to buy the information about that person.

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What we didn’t anticipate is that so few of the users would answer. Continue reading

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Privacy is not terrorism

On Tuesday 16th December 2014, a large police operation took place in the Spanish State. Fourteen houses and social centres were raided in Barcelona, Sabadell, Manresa and Madrid; books, leaflets and IT material were seized; and eleven people were arrested and sent to the Audiència Nacional, a special court handling issues of “national interest”, in Madrid. Continue reading