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Proton AG
Swiss technology company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Proton AG is a Swiss technology company offering privacy-focused online services and software. It is majority owned by the non-profit Proton Foundation.[5]
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Proton Mail was released as a public beta on 16 May 2014[6] as an end-to-end encrypted email service after a year of crowdfunding, by a group of scientists who met at CERN.[7][8] Proton Mail 2.0 was released 14 August 2015, with open source front-end clients and a rewritten codebase.[9]
On 18 July 2024, Proton launched Proton Scribe, a private AI writing assistant for Proton Mail.[citation needed]
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After over a year of crowdfunding, Proton Mail released Proton VPN on 22 May 2017, a secure VPN service provider.[10]
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,[11] 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.[12][13]
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.[10][14]
By 19 February 2025, the company had a total of 11,496 servers, located in 117 countries, with all new and preexisting servers operated and owned by Proton.[10]
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Proton Calendar is an online end-to-end encrypted calendar native app and website.[15] Metadata about the time and date are not encrypted, since it would not function properly with email reminders and push notifications.
Proton Drive is a cloud storage solution with end-to-end encryption, launched in September 2022 after being in beta testing since 2020.[16]
In July 2025, Proton launched Lumo, an AI chatbot based on Nemo, OpenHands 32B, OLMO 2 32B, and Mistral Small 3[17] which uses zero-access encryption. When using Lumo, chats are not used to train AI models.[18] Lumo has the ability to search the web for answers using “privacy-friendly” search engines, as well as analysing uploaded files. The chatbot can also access files from Proton Drive optionally.[19] Lumo is operated from German and Norwegian data centres.[20]
Proton has plans to release image uploads and generation in the upcoming Lumo 1.3 update, scheduled for release in November 2025. [citation needed]
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SimpleLogin is an open source email alias service that allows users to use email aliases to protect their main inbox from spam and phishing attacks.[21] SimpleLogin also provides additional security features such as PGP encryption and two-factor authentication on various platforms including the web, mobile apps and browser extensions.
After being acquired by Proton in early 2022, SimpleLogin functionality was integrated into Proton Mail, Proton Pass, and the rest of the Proton ecosystem.[citation needed]
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Released for public beta on 20 April 2023,[22] 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.[23]
It also allows users to generate email aliases via SimpleLogin, however uses its own domains instead of the SimpleLogin ones.[citation needed]
Standard Notes is an end-to-end encrypted note-taking application, which was announced to be acquired by Proton on April 10, 2024.[24][25]
The team that created Standard Notes worked with Proton and released a fully end-to-end encrypted online word processor service named Proton Docs.[25] Proton Docs is integrated with Proton Drive.
Proton Wallet is an open-source cryptocurrency wallet with end-to-end encryption.[26] Since its inception, it has exclusively functioned as a bitcoin wallet.
Proton Authenticator is an open-source and end-to-end encrypted software-based authenticator.[27] When logging into a website or application that supports multi-factor authentication, the user will be prompted for a six-digit one-time password which changes every thirty seconds. Proton Authenticator is available on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and on Linux (as a .deb and an .rpm executable).[28][29]
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Proton Meet is an end-to-end encrypted video calling application launched on September 4, 2025, was built at LiveKit Meet[a] and is currently in closed beta for Lifetime, Visionary and Enterprise Plan subscribers.[30]
Data centers
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.[31][32][33]
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.[34]
In December 2014, Proton Mail joined the RIPE NCC in an effort to have more direct control over the surrounding Internet infrastructure.[35]
As of December 2024, Proton operates data centers in Switzerland, Germany, and Norway.[36]
Structure
Proton is headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland.[37][38][39]
Ownership
Since June 2024, the controlling shareholder of Proton AG is the non-profit Proton Foundation.[40][41]
The members of the Proton Foundation board of trustees in June 2024 were Andy Yen, Antonio Gambardella, Carissa Véliz, Tim Berners-Lee and Dingchao Lu.[42]
Funding
Proton AG was initially funded through crowdfunding and now is through its paid subscription.[43]
The company has been partially funded by FONGIT[44][38][39][45] (the Fondation Genevoise pour l'Innovation Technologique) and the European Commission.[46]
In March 2021, Proton confirmed that the shares held by Charles Rivers Ventures had been transferred to FONGIT.[47]
Acquisitions
On April 8, 2022, Proton acquired French email aliasing startup SimpleLogin.[48][49][50]
Proton has stated SimpleLogin will continue to function as a standalone service and the SimpleLogin team will continue to add new features and functionality.[49]
On April 12, 2024, Proton acquired note taking app Standard Notes.[51]
Public policy positions
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Proton in 2022 was considered a supporter of the Digital Markets Act.[52] In September 2020, Proton helped found the Coalition for App Fairness, which aims to gain better conditions for the inclusion of their apps in app stores.[53] In 2022, Proton supported the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.[54] In December 2023, Proton's founder publicly vowed to challenge the Australian eSafety Commission in court rather than comply with demands to weaken Proton Mail's privacy features.[55]
In January 2025, Proton was involved in controversy as communications on Proton's social media accounts and Proton's CEO's personal accounts about the Trump administration, as well as the character and policies of the Democratic and Republican parties, were poorly received.[56][57]
In February 2025, in response to Apple's removal of Advanced Data Protection encryption from iCloud in the United Kingdom in response to government demands for a backdoor, Proton published a statement saying that the company would never build an encryption backdoor, and that it wouldn't open a "front door" either by removing end-to-end encryption.[58] In March 2025, the company wrote to the European Commission calling for a "buy European" requirement for public sector procurement in Europe.[59]
In March 2025, the Swiss government considered amending its surveillance law to expand into new types of monitoring and data collection.[60] The amendment could require VPN services, messaging apps, and social networks to collect user data. Proton's CEO, Andy Yen, stated that the company would leave Switzerland were the law to pass.[61][62]
In June 2025, Proton sued Apple Inc. in U.S. federal court, accusing it of "maintaining an illegal stranglehold on iPhone app distribution and charging excessive commissions to app developers."[63][64]
Notes
- WebRTC runs over LiveKit’s Cloud
References
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