Proton slowly withdraws from Switzerland

Privacy-first service provider pulls back as government prepares surveillance legislation

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Image: Proton

Proton, a provider of encrypted communication services, plans to withdraw its IT infrastructure from Switzerland due to legislation that would put the company’s privacy by design ethos at risk.

The company’s chatbot Lumo, introduced in July and said to excel in more data privacy than ChatGPT, is the first product to have its infrastructure relocated.

Proton is best known for its e-mail service but it also provides a VPN, password manager, wallet and cloud storage.

In a blog about the chatbot’s launch, Eamonn Maguire, head of account security at Proton, explained the decision to pull out of Switzerland was informed by government plans to introduce mass surveillance and associated impending legislative changes.

According to a Swiss regulation, services with more than 5,000 users must be able to identify customers.

The Lumo servers will be moved to Germany as sites will be built in Norway. However, the company does not want to completely cut ties with Switzerland.

“Investing in Europe does not mean leaving Switzerland completely,” a spokesperson told TechRadar.

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