Swiss privacy-focused technology company offering encrypted email (ProtonMail), VPN, calendar, and cloud storage. Founded at CERN. Controlled by the nonprofit Proton Foundation since 2024.
In 2024-2025, the Proton Foundation announced donations totaling $1.27 million to organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, ACLU, and European Digital Rights (EDRi). Proton restructured as a nonprofit foundation in 2024 to formalize its mission-driven approach.
In 2024, Proton AG transferred its ownership to the Proton Foundation, a Swiss nonprofit entity. This restructuring was designed to ensure that Proton's privacy-first mission could not be compromised by future investors or acquirers, similar to how Mozilla Foundation governs Mozilla Corporation.
In 2023, Proton publicly challenged demands from Australia's eSafety Commissioner for access to user data, arguing that breaking encryption for law enforcement would undermine security for all users. Proton maintained its position that privacy is a fundamental human right.
In September 2021, it was revealed that Proton Mail had complied with a Swiss legal order to log the IP address of a French climate activist associated with Youth for Climate. The Swiss authorities acted on a request from French police via Europol. This contradicted Proton's marketing which previously stated 'we do not log your IP address.' Proton updated their privacy policy afterward.
By 2020, Proton had open-sourced all its client applications (iOS, Android, web, desktop) under GPLv3 and published results of independent security audits by SEC Consult. This enabled community verification of their privacy and encryption claims.