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 Swiss-based company said it had received a "legally binding order from the Swiss Federal Ministry of Justice" about a group called Youth for Climate, to which it was "forced to comply", forcing it to provide the IP address and related information. for the device type used by the group to access the ProtonMail account.
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 will have to hand over the ips if the Swiss authorities demand it. She may not be obliged to give information to the police authorities of foreign countries, but ... if they request it through her Europol and therefore through the Swiss authorities should 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 not only has to comply with Swiss government regulations commands, 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 the much-touted anonymity has many asterisks and loopholes. Even if it's advertised in big letters, like in ProtonMail. If nothing else, the users of ProtonMail who are concerned about their IP visibility 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."
