ProtonMail Complied With 336 Government Requests in 2018

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Encrypted email service Protonmail updated its transparency report today. It reveals that the company complied with 336 government requests for assistance. This is an increase from 23 requests in 2017.

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Government Requests

262 of those requests came from Swiss authorities, while 76 were requests that were approved by Swiss authorities. In Europe, Germany made the most requests at 19 last year. The United States made 10 requests last year.

Recent Requests

  • January 2018: Two requests came from U.S. law enforcement who were responding to bomb threats made with ProtonMail. The company gave assistance to Swiss law enforcement who were involved in the case.
  • March 2018: ProtonMail got a police request from Austria involving a politician accused of sexual harassment. Although the request was approved by a Swiss court, ProtonMail rejected it and requested more information.
chart of government requests to protonmail
Government requests
  • May 2018: ProtonMail disabled a user’s account who was linked to terrorism with an imminent threat after law enforcement from an EU country requested this. The company will attend the court hearing to learn more details and to ensure all applicable due process was followed.
  • January 2019: ProtonMail found evidence that a data request from an EU country in Eastern Europe may have been improperly targeting a whistleblower who exposed corruption involving a high-ranking politician. The company is rejecting the request for assistance from the Swiss prosecutor’s office.

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