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Climate activist arrested after court order forces ProtonMail to log IP

The challenge with privacy online is that by its very nature, at some point a server has to know who you are or rather what machine it needs to send the requested data to.

There are of course ways to obfuscate your PC’s IP address but these methods require constant use and commitment.

We’re waxing lyrically about this because this week it was revealed that ProtonMail had provided French authorities with the IP address of a climate activist who has since been arrested on criminal charges.

Since the news broke there has been much discussion about whether ProtonMail is as secure as it claims to be. The discussion grew so loud that chief executive of Proton, Andy Yen, published a blog post about the matter.

“In this case, Proton received a legally binding order from Swiss authorities which we are obligated to comply with. There was no possibility to appeal this particular request,” wrote Yen.

Proton, like many other companies around the world, can’t simply choose to ignore an order from authorities and it has in fact complied with orders in the past. Importantly, these orders have to come from the Swiss government. You can read more about Proton’s transparency reports and policies here.

The Proton CEO goes on reiterate that the firm’s encryption can’t be bypassed and that it had no idea the IPs it was asked to log belonged to a climate activist.

“We only know that the order for data from the Swiss government came through channels typically reserved for serious crimes,” Yen added.

So if a service like Proton Mail can be forced to comply with requests from law enforcement in Switzerland, is there any way for users to prevent this? Sort of.

Using a VPN together with the TOR browser and accessing Proton Mail can help to obfuscate your IP address but it requires constant use. Even then, if your device is compromised or you are doing something illegal, you can, and likely will, be identified.

Yen points to a blog post penned by Proton in 2014 we highly recommend giving a read.

“The Internet is generally not anonymous, and if you are breaking Swiss law, a law-abiding company such as ProtonMail can be legally compelled to log your IP address. A powerful state adversary will also be better positioned to launch one of the attacks described above against you, which may negate the privacy protection provided by ProtonMail. While we can offer more protection and security, we cannot guarantee your safety against a powerful adversary,” wrote Proton in the aforementioned blog post.

This incident shouldn’t be seen as ProtonMail being unsecure or not guarding its users’ privacy as the firm’s hands were tied. In fact, the firm says it will continue to campaign against unjust laws and abuses of power. The firm also says it will continue to challenge unjustified government requests as well.

Unfortunately, if you want privacy it requires constant vigilance and while we’d love a solution that gives you absolutely privacy with one click, that’s not a reality.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]

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