De-googled phones exist, but they’re rooted or using a custom firmware. Usually, these phones spoof Google Play Services, replacing that layer with something called MicroG.

So root and flash your phone today!

Did they in this case?

You can create an access the inbox through Tor at protonmailrmez3lotccipshtkleegetolb73fuirgj7r4o4vfu7ozyd.onion

That’s just such an easy link to memorise, isn’t it? Just like the New Emergency Number

infosec.pub appears to be in Hetzner Online GmbH’s Falkenstein hosting. They probably also own the hardware.

I’m sceptical. Name me a server and I’ll show you a company involved.

For sure, I know this, but privacy does not come first for any of them and it was wrong of Proton ever to say it did. To them, their survival comes before yours, so they will betray you to the Swiss courts if needed.

Here you go: https://proton.me/mail

Just scroll down. Each selling point is marked with title case text, followed by their reasoning.

I don’t find your earlier quote on that page anywhere.

Can you find me a way back machine link to their website where they told you that they aren’t subject to or otherwise do not comply with Swiss law?

Why would I do that? My claim is not that they ever said that explicitly, but that their marketing claimed ‘your privacy came first’ without any similar-size mention how it would be limited by Swiss law. It was not in their interest to explain that the Swiss courts can order them to track and shop French climate activists.

Run your own? Great, but you’ll almost certainly be getting a company to connect it up.

Publicly available from whom? Companies!

I may sometimes wish community-owned internet became the norm, but it didn’t, so companies are involved almost everywhere.

How do you even get a non-company-hosted server now? Public bodies don’t host services for outsiders much any more and aren’t really safe places for privacy in this type of case anyway.

Please show any Wayback Machine link for that quote on Proton’s site. I can find ‘your privacy comes first’. I didn’t find ‘up to the extent of Swiss law’ yet.

Explain how you’d use Delta Chat without a server, please? I may have misunderstood its need for a mailserver when I tried it.

Nothing in their marketing says they’ll refuse to comply with lawful orders.

Maybe not now, but it used to say ‘your privacy comes first’ which certainly gave the impression privacy would be more important than blindly believing and obeying courts.

Thanks for the link to their report.

Most of those still rely on some company to host a server, except Briar, and in practice most Briar users are still relying on companies to access Tor to connect.

They are more robust, not perfect.

I don’t know about ‘should’ but wasn’t that the impression their marketing tried to give? Or at least that they would fight to defend user privacy for noble activists? But when challenged, its owners seem to have folded quicker than a strapontin.

And yet, legal entities are often found guilty of not complying with the law. I think people were expecting Proton to at least try to fight a morally-questionable court order.

There are hundreds of truly-private alternatives, many with no company involved at all.

Such as…? I bet some ISPs or hardware maker companies are involved at some point.

Do Swiss courts not allow any defence to be presented?

The popular myth is that Swiss privacy law is so strong that banks can hide gold and profits for major criminals. It wasn’t to Proton’s benefit to correct that.

There seems to be no suggestion yet that any crime was committed on/using ProtonMail itself. Just that it was a tool to track someone accused of offline crimes. So this comment feels like misdirection because there are probably options between being liable and effectively telling the cops where users are.

They said things that led the unwary to trust they wouldn’t. Remember, this isn’t some terrorist mass-murderer they handed over, but apparently an anti-gentrification youth activist linked to Greta Thunberg’s campaign groups.

Edit to add: in particular, Proton used to claim ‘your privacy comes first’ but this case suggests in reality, the Swiss government’s help for French police comes first.