Proton wins appeal in Swiss court over surveillance laws
On Friday, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court upheld
Proton’s appeal against the Swiss Post and Telecommunications Surveillance
Service (PTSS) over obligations to store data and monitor email traffic. The
court confirmed that email services can’t be considered telecommunications
providers in Switzerland, and therefore are not subject to data retention
requirements.
Proton founder and CEO Andy Yen said the ruling was an
"important first step" in its campaign to advance privacy and
freedom, reported Reuters.
"We expect there to be further attempts to force tech
companies to undermine privacy in both Switzerland and abroad, and we are
committed to continuing to challenge this through both our encryption
technology and through the courts," he said.
PTSS had decided in September 2020 that Proton could no
longer benefit from limited surveillance obligations but had to store data
necessary for surveillance and be available to answer questions. The court
overturned this and sent it back on appeal.
Last month ProtonMail found itself in the centre of a social
media storm after it emerged that the company shared the IP address of one of
its users as part of a French investigation that led to the arrest of climate
activists. However, the company said that it had to comply with a Swiss court
order to provide data that helped identify the activists.
From its inception, the company has prided itself on strict
user privacy and security. The recording of IP addresses is only allowed in
“extreme criminal cases” according to the company’s transparency report.
ProtonMail was founded in 2013 at the initiative of a group
of scientists from CERN in Geneva and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). Proton says it is the largest secure email provider and uses end-to-end
encryption and state-of-the-art security features.
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