Proton Mail "Protected Postal Client" provided to the Spanish authorities the Catalan activist, allowing him to identify

Spain authorities were able to identify activist of the Catalonia independence movement due to the data obtained from the Proton Mail. Spain suspected that the user with the pseudonym Xuxo Rondinaire , being a policeman, uses his position to help the movement of Catalan activists Tsunami DemocràTIC (“democratic tsunami”), which organizes protests for the independence of the region. In order to identify the user, the Spanish Civil Guard requested Proton Mail and the Wire confidential messenger data on the user under the pretext of laws on the fight against terrorism, although the main activity of the “democratic tsunami” included protests and blocking roads.

Proton Mail, which positions itself as a “standard for email confidentiality,” the user’s reserve mail address told the civil guard, after which Apple has transferred the police to the owner of this reserve address. Thus, the Spanish law enforcement agencies found that the XUXO Rondinaire is really a police officer who informed insider information to the organizers of protests. RestorePrivacy edition paid attention to this.

The representative of the Proton Mail, based in Switzerland, said that the company provides confidentiality of correspondence, but not anonymity of users.

“We know about the case of Spanish terrorism associated with the alleged threats to the king of Spain, but, as a rule, we do not comment on specific cases. Proton has the minimum user information, as evidenced by the fact that in this case the data obtained from Apple was used to identify the suspect in terrorism. Proton by default provides confidentiality, not anonymity, since anonymity requires certain actions of the user to ensure proper safety OPSEC , for example, refusing to add your Apple account as an additional recovery method. Please note: Proton does not require adding an address, since this information can theoretically be transmitted by the decision of the Swiss court, since terrorism in Switzerland is illegal. ”

At the same time, RestorePrivacy notes that users really can not add a reserve ICIL, but other recovery options are SMS and donat, which can also be identified by the user.

OPSEC (from Operations Security, “Operational Security”) - a set of actions to determine and protect the most important information.

Subordinate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Spain is a police militarized formation.

Screenshot from the official website of Proton Mail

In 2021, Proton Mail complied with a legal request, which led to the arrest of the French activist to combat climate change. According to Swiss legislation, Proton Mail was obliged to collect and provide information about the IP address of a person to the Swiss authorities, which then transferred it to the French police.

According to the Proton report , last year the company fulfilled the requirements of the Switzerland authorities (since the company is in force in Swiss jurisdiction, through Europol, requests for data disclosure are received there) by 5971 court orders. In 2022, there were 5957 such cases. At the same time, the company notes that it does not provide data to the authorities of the countries in which human rights violations were observed.

“From time to time, Proton may be by law, must disclose certain information about the user Swiss authorities. This can happen if Swiss legislation is violated. As indicated in our confidentiality policy, all emails, files and invitations are encrypted, and we do not have the opportunity to decipher them.

In accordance with Article 271 of the Switzerland Criminal Code, Proton cannot transfer any data directly to the foreign authorities, and therefore we reject all their requests. The Swiss authorities can from time to time help foreign authorities with requests, provided that they are valid in accordance with international legal assistance and comply with Swiss legislation. In these cases, the legality standard is again based on Swiss legislation. In general, the Swiss authorities do not assist foreign authorities from countries in which human rights violations were previously observed. ”

OPSEC (from Operations Security, “Operational Security”) - a set of actions to determine and protect the most important information.

Subordinate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Spain is a police militarized formation.

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