Proton (technology company)

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Proton AG
FormerlyProton Technologies
Founded16 May 2014; 9 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
Number of employees
400 (2022)[4]
SubsidiariesSimpleLogin
Websiteproton.me
protonmailrmez3lotccipshtkleegetolb73fuirgj7r4o4vfu7ozyd.onion Tor network(Accessing link help)

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.[5][6] Proton is headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland.[7][8][9] It is supported by FONGIT (the Fondation Genevoise pour l'Innovation Technologique) and the European Commission.[10]

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

History[edit]

Proton Mail was launched in public beta on 16 May 2014 by a group of scientists who met at CERN.[5][6] 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.[11] In June 2017, the company launched its second product, Proton VPN.

On 8 April 2022, Proton acquired French email aliasing startup SimpleLogin.[12][13]

On 14 April 2022, Proton Technologies AG shortened its name to Proton AG as part of its unifying rebrand.[11]

On 25 May 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.[14][15]

On 12 April 2024, Proton acquired note taking app Standard Notes.[16]

Products[edit]

Proton Mail[edit]

Main article: Proton Mail

Proton Mail was released as a public beta on 16 May 2014[17] 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.[18]

Proton VPN[edit]

Main article: Proton VPN

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

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.[23][24] 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.[25]

Proton Calendar[edit]

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.[26][27][28]

Proton Drive[edit]

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.[29][30][31]

SimpleLogin[edit]

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.[32][33] 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.[34]

Proton Pass[edit]

Released for public beta on 20 April 2023,[35] 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.[36] It also allows you to generate email aliases via SimpleLogin, however uses its own domains instead of the SimpleLogin ones.

Standard Notes[edit]

Standard Notes is an E2E encrypted note-taking app, which was announced to be acquired by Proton on April 10, 2024.[37][38] The application and service was to be integrated into Proton's offering in the following months.[38]

Location and security[edit]

Both Proton Mail and Proton VPN are located in Switzerland to avoid any surveillance[39][failed verification] or information requests from countries under the Fourteen Eyes, and/or under government surveillance laws like the USA PATRIOT Act or outside the bounds of law.[citation needed]

They are also located in Switzerland because of its strict privacy laws.[40]

Data centers[edit]

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.[41][42][43] Since the data centers are located in Switzerland, they are legally outside of US and EU jurisdiction. Under Swiss law, all surveillance requests from foreign countries must go through a Swiss court and are subject to international treaties. Prospective surveillance targets are promptly notified and can appeal the request in court.[citation needed][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]

Funding[edit]

Proton AG was initially funded through crowdfunding and now is through its paid subscription.[47] However, the company has been partially funded by FONGIT.[48][8][9][49]

In March 2021, Proton confirmed that the shares held by Charles Rivers Ventures had been transferred to FONGIT.[50]

References[edit]

  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. ^ Edelman, Gilad. "Proton is Trying to Become Google—Without Your Data". Wired.
  5. ^ a b O'Luanaigh, Cian (23 May 2014). "CERN inspires entrepreneurs for email encryption". CERN. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  6. ^ a b "About Proton". Proton. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  7. ^ https://proton.me/legal/privacy
  8. ^ a b "Why Protonmail is in Switzerland? An Analysis of Swiss Privacy Laws". Proton Blog. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  9. ^ a b "Proton's CEO Wanted to Fight Dictatorships. Now He's Fighting Big Tech Too". Time. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  10. ^ European Commission. "CORDIS European Commission". ProtonSuite Project H2020.
  11. ^ a b "Evolving privacy for the future". Proton Blog. 14 April 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  12. ^ Lomas, Natasha (8 April 2022). "Proton acquires SimpleLogin". TechCrunch. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  13. ^ "Proton and SimpleLogin are joining forces | Proton Mail". Proton. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  14. ^ Yen, Andy (25 May 2022). "Updated Proton, unified protection". Proton. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  15. ^ Das, Ankush. "ProtonMail is Now Just 'Proton' Offering a Privacy Ecosystem". It's FOSS News. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  16. ^ "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.
  17. ^ "ProtonMail, the Easy-to-Use Encrypted Email Service, Opens Up to the Public". VICE. 17 March 2016.
  18. ^ Admin (13 August 2015). "ProtonMail goes Open Source with version 2.0". ProtonMail Blog. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  19. ^ "ProtonVPN - About Us". ProtonVPN. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  20. ^ "Tor encrypted email, file storage, calendar, and more". Proton. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  21. ^ Osborne, Charlie. "ProtonVPN apps handed to open source community in transparency push". ZDNet. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  22. ^ "ProtonVPN goes open source to build trust". BetaNews. 21 January 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  23. ^ "ProtonVPN - Stats". ProtonVPN. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  24. ^ May 2020, Mike Williams 21. "ProtonVPN review". TechRadar. Retrieved 23 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ "Proton VPN - About Us". Proton VPN. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  26. ^ "The ProtonCalendar beta is available now!". ProtonMail Blog. 30 December 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  27. ^ Schiffer, Zoe (1 January 2020). "ProtonMail just added an encrypted calendar to its encrypted Gmail competitor". The Verge. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  28. ^ "Everyone can stay on top of their schedule with Proton Calendar beta". ProtonMail Blog. 14 April 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  29. ^ "Proton Drive encrypted cloud storage is available in beta". ProtonMail Blog. 16 November 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  30. ^ Vonau, Manuel (23 September 2022). "Proton Drive wants to be your Google Drive alternative with privacy built-in". Android Police. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  31. ^ "We're launching Proton Drive, the encrypted cloud storage for everyone". Proton Blog. 22 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  32. ^ "ProtonMail buys email alias startup SimpleLogin". TechCrunch. 8 April 2022.
  33. ^ "SimpleLogin | About". 1 January 2023.
  34. ^ "Proton and SimpleLogin are joining forces". 8 April 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  35. ^ "Proton Pass is now in beta". Proton. 20 April 2023. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  36. ^ "Introducing Proton Pass – Protecting your passwords and online identity". Proton. 28 June 2023. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  37. ^ "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.
  38. ^ a b "Proton and Standard Notes are joining forces". Proton. 10 April 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  39. ^ "ProtonMail launched ProtonVPN as a secure and free VPN service". ProtonVPN Blog. 20 June 2017. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  40. ^ ProtonVPN. "About Us". About ProtonVPN.
  41. ^ "Proton Mail Security". Proton Mail Security. 31 January 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  42. ^ 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.
  43. ^ "Im geheimen Datenbunker von Attinghausen". Schweiz aktuell (video) (in German). SRF. 5 September 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  44. ^ "Extradition: Switzerland".
  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. ^ "About Us". Fongit. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  50. ^ "CRV divestment and partnering with the community". ProtonMail. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
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