836 karma · joined October 23, 2017
In the case you shared, the name/address of the terrorism suspect was actually given to police by Apple, not Proton. The terror suspect added their real-life Apple email as an optional recovery address in Proton Mail. Proton can't decrypt data, but in terror cases Swiss courts can obtain recovery email. Moreover, the case concerns Proton Mail not Proton VPN, and Proton VPN's no-logs policy has been proven in both independent audits (https://protonvpn.com/blog/no-logs-audit) and in court (https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report).
Once account creation is successful, they will receive another email with the link that allows them to access the file.
To learn more about our transition to the non-profit structure, check this article: https://proton.me/blog/proton-non-profit-foundation
Under Swiss law, Proton cannot be compelled to do this. Nor is this "easy" to execute if you are using the open source mobile or desktop apps.
Proton does not claim no logs and has never claimed no logs. We do not retain logs by default, but our privacy policy has always been clear that we are legally obligated to follow Swiss court orders, which can ask for IP logging on specific accounts.
Recovery emails are, on the other hand, only stored as long as the users themselves need them - as soon as you delete your recovery email from your account, it's deleted from our systems too.
Recovery address (which is what this case is about), on the other hand, is completely optional, and it's not the only option we offer for account recovery: https://proton.me/support/set-account-recovery-methods. Also, it is removed from our systems as soon as you remove it from your account.