Proton Mail Stands Ground on User Privacy in the Face of Google's Data-Driven Approach

Proton Mail is an email service built by the same Swiss company behind Proton VPN and Proton Drive. It's been around for nearly a decade, with a pitch that centers on one idea: your email should belong to you, not to an advertising engine.

The service encrypts inboxes using end-to-end encryption between Proton users and zero-access encryption for everything stored on its servers. This means Proton staff can't read stored messages, even under legal request, because they don't hold the decryption keys.

Gmail works differently, using TLS to protect messages in transit but holding decryption keys and having access to content when legally compelled or scanning for security threats.

The free plan offers 500MB to 1GB of storage depending on the source, and a cap of 150 messages per day. Proton Unlimited adds Proton VPN, Proton Drive, Proton Calendar, and Proton Pass into the same subscription.