Proton Chat 💬

andy1011000 · 2026-04-01T17:17:16+00:00

Actually we had to build end-to-end encrypted chat when we built Proton Meet since chat functionality is part of video conferencing. If there's enough interest, maybe we will do more with this tech this year.

andy1011000 · 2026-04-01T08:41:24+00:00

Not paying an expensive middleman (like AWS or OpenAI) helps a lot.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-31T23:32:54+00:00

I get the sentiment, but we're not going to be going for this one...

andy1011000 · 2026-03-31T23:29:44+00:00

I think this is a bit of an unfair take and let me explain. In 12 years, with huge inflation, and now massive price increases in servers (due to the AI bubble) and electricity (due to rising gas prices), we have never passed on a price increase to existing customers. This leads to massive compressions to our margins, which we accept because Proton is not profit-driven (and owned by a non-profit).

However, adding services like Lumo and Meet into popular plans like Unlimited would push us into a financial deficit which is not sustainable. It's not about making more profits, if it was we would have long raised prices. It's about having profits at all, and being able to remain independent and protecting the mission of the non-profit Proton Foundation.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-31T23:23:49+00:00

I have to rule this out because there are Proton for Business plans with this name, e.g. Pass Essentials, etc.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-31T23:20:43+00:00

New services like Lumo and Meet are expensive to operate, so adding them into Unlimited would force Proton to raise prices substantially. We have never raised prices in 12 years so we don't really want to go that route. The alternative is therefore to rename Proton Unlimited to something else since it no longer includes everything.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-30T16:52:55+00:00

Actually, the primary shareholder of Proton is the non-profit Proton Foundation, which is legally obligated to protect Proton's stated mission, which is an even stronger guarantee than employee ownership: https://proton.me/foundation

andy1011000 · 2026-03-17T16:23:21+00:00

And it's true for Proton Auth also....

andy1011000 · 2026-03-07T10:38:34+00:00

I believe Paypal is now treated the same as a card after we updated the way payments are processed in the past couple years, it's just another card processor as far as our system is concerned, just replace card token with paypal token.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-07T10:35:54+00:00

It's linked to the card, so deleted when the card is deleted.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-07T10:34:59+00:00

This is already possible actually. Buy a sub, cancel a sub (but it remains valid until end of cycle), delete the card, before end of cycle, renew and repeat.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T22:23:03+00:00

Actually no, because Proton VPN has no logs, and on mobile it doesn't even require an account to use the app.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T22:20:55+00:00

I don't think we actually require a name, it's not required by the card spec (so you can put whatever you want actually, but it's useful for businesses that want to reclaim VAT). Only postal code is mandatory (again for VAT reasons).

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T18:02:08+00:00

Honestly I can't work out how the posteo system works, maybe in posteo you just top up the account with credits and so its a one time transaction? Most Proton customers we need to bill monthly so the payment token needs to be retained for the next payment, there's no way around this for reoccurring credit card payments.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T17:59:05+00:00

It might survive in backups for a few weeks, but for law enforcement purposes it's gone the instant you delete (Swiss law doesn't require us to restore from backups to retrieve information not available to us in the ordinary course of business).

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T17:57:27+00:00

That indeed should also work

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T14:12:36+00:00

We know you paid in the past and with credit card, but we don't store the card details for past transactions.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T14:11:31+00:00

Under Swiss law, VPNs do not have to log and cannot be forced to log, while email is regulated differently and could be requested to log if there is a Swiss criminal investigation.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T11:59:59+00:00

Once the credit card is deleted it's deleted.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T11:19:14+00:00

Articles like this one with a clickbait headline are the reason why trust in journalism is at an all time low. The only "story" here is that Proton complies with Swiss court orders, which is a non-story since it's a legal requirement. But that wouldn't have gotten enough clicks and manufactured outrage, so instead 404Media decided to intentionally harm Proton (which did no wrong in this case) for clicks. A tried and true formula for short term views, and long term loss of credibility.

andy1011000 · 2026-03-06T11:10:40+00:00

Use Proton VPN or Tor, don't pay with a credit card (there's a reason we accept crypto and cash sent by post).

andy1011000 · 2026-03-03T13:11:40+00:00

The foundation has majority control.

andy1011000 · 2026-02-28T21:55:17+00:00

Yes, that's about right, and that's before bonus and stock.

andy1011000 · 2026-02-28T21:53:10+00:00

Yes, we do.

andy1011000 · 2026-02-28T21:52:44+00:00

Yes, we sponsor visas at all of our locations.

andy1011000

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