XPost: alt.privacy.anon-server   
   From: nobody@dizum.com   
      
   Encrypted mail service Proton hands suspect's personal info to local   
   cops   
      
   Infosec in brief Encrypted email service Proton Mail is in hot water   
   again from some quarters, and for the same thing that earned it flak   
   before: Handing user data over to law enforcement.   
      
   Proton, which offers several services it touts as being secure and   
   safe, includes an end-to-end encrypted email product. Ostensibly   
   designed for the privacy conscious, Proton say it is unable to read   
   the content of email and attachments, be free of trackers and ads,   
   and have the "highest standards of privacy."   
      
   Be as that may, there is still user info Proton has access to and can   
   be pressured to divulge. In 2021, the Switzerland-based vendor   
   provided local police with the IP address and device details of a   
   netizen the cops were trying to identify. That individual – a French   
   climate activist who was already known to police – was later arrested.   
      
   Shortly after that kerfuffle, Proton removed the claim that it didn't   
   track user IP addresses from its website. Proton has also previously   
   been accused of offering real-time surveillance of users to   
   authorities.   
      
   In this latest instance, Proton handed over an account's recovery   
   email address information to Swiss police concerning a suspect   
   believed to be supporting Catalonian separatists. Spanish cops handed   
   the recovery address to Apple, which was reportedly able to identify   
   the individual associated with the account.   
      
   Proton told advocacy outfit Restore Privacy it was well aware of the   
   case, but its hands were tied under Swiss laws against terrorism.   
      
   "Proton has minimal user information, as illustrated by the fact that   
   in this case data obtained from Apple was used to identify the   
   terrorism suspect," a Proton spokesperson protested. "Proton provides   
   privacy by default and not anonymity by default because anonymity   
   requires certain user actions to ensure proper OpSec, such as not   
   adding your Apple account as an optional recovery method."   
      
   When we reached out to Proton it directed us to a Twitter thread from   
   its CEO Andy Yen, in which he says much the same.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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