ProtonMail gave the French police the address IP of an activist after a European warrant, even though until now it has maintained that it keeps no logs.
The protonMail end-to-end encrypted email service, accepts critics after giving in to a legal request and handing over the activist's IP address at the request of France to the Swiss police.
The Switzerland-based company said it received a "legally binding order from the Swiss Federal Ministry of Justice" regarding a group called Youth for Climate, with which it was "obliged to comply", forcing it to hand over its IP address and related information for the type of device the team is using, for the access at account Proton Mail.
On its website, ProtonMail advertises that: “No personal information is required to create your secure email account. By default, we do not maintain IP logs that can be linked to your anonymous email account. Your privacy comes first ".
Despite the IP non-logging policy, the company acknowledged that it would have to deliver the ips if the Swiss services requested it. It may not be obliged to provide information to police authorities in foreign countries, but… if they request it through Europol and therefore through the Swiss authorities it will have to comply.
"There was no possibility of appealing or combating this specific request because an act contrary to Swiss law was actually carried out", the company said in a long reply posted on Reddit.
Simply put, ProtonMail must not only comply with Swiss government orders, but will be forced to deliver data when people who use its service engage in activities that are considered illegal in their country.
It doesn't really matter what the Youth for Climate group did and the French police are after them. The point of the news is that much-vaunted anonymity has many asterisks and loopholes. Even if it is advertised with big letterthe, as in ProtonMail. If anything, ProtonMail users who are concerned about their IPs being visible should henceforth use a VPN or access their email service via the Tor network for additional anonymity.
Wanting to gild the pill, ProtonMail added: "The prosecution in this case seems quite aggressive. "Unfortunately, this is a pattern that we are seeing more and more in recent years around the world, for example in France where terrorism laws are being used inappropriately."
