ProtonMail hands info to government but says it’s not Google
ProtonMail , a managed email service popular with the crypto community, surrendered a user’s information to Spanish authorities, leading privacy rights advocates to claim it had violated its sworn promise to protect user data. ProtonMail is based in Switzerland and uses privacy and security themes in all of its corporate messaging. Like Switzerland’s once-enviable numbered bank accounts, ProtonMail made allusions to Swiss privacy, pseudonymity, and jurisdictional Legal protections from the power of certain subpoenas. As a result of this marketing campaign, it attracted many crypto users who wanted a private email service. In this instance, the user was a member of Mossos d’Esquadra, a police force in Catalonia. Spanish authorities identified him via subpoenas to ProtonMail and Apple. The secure email service provided police with a recovery email address that revealed the pseudonym ‘Xuxo Rondinaire.’ Alongside information from Apple related to that recovery email and pseudonym, S...