Proton apps will get new alternative routing as a way to block attempts at censorship, whether it’s by governments, ISPs, or network admins.
Anti-Censorship
The technology would make it harder to bad actors to block Proton services like ProtonMail, ProtonVPN, and future apps ProtonCalendar and ProtonDrive.
Apps (and not its websites) will automatically detect when a network connection might be subject to censorship, and attempt to connect to the server via a different route. The company notes that its services are rarely blocked.
As a caveat, alternative routing means using third-party networks and servers, like Google, which doesn’t have a good privacy record. Connections will still be encrypted so the company can’t see the actual data, but IP addresses could be identified. Because of this, apps will have a setting to turn off alternative routing.
It hasn’t been deployed yet but will be released “in the coming weeks.”
Further Reading
[ProtonMail Launches ProtonCalendar Beta]
[You Can Watch Disney+ Securely, Anywhere, With ProtonVPN]