As much as Proton tries to market itself as a foundation they are no different from a big corporation when it comes to profits and marketing. Let me give you some examples of this:
- They lure paying users with steep introductory discounts available for new customers only and prices surge significantly after the first year. This “bait-and-switch” tactic leaves many users facing renewal rates 2-4x higher.
- Posts in ProtonVPN’s official subreddit are not visible without moderator pre-approval and they frequently remove critical comments under vague pretexts like being off-topic or already posted, this creates an echo chamber where positive experiences dominate.
- Proton pays money to influencers to promote some of their services, the pay for sign up model leads to biased endorsements.
Reference: YouTuber “The Hated One” Exposes Proton’s Shady Tactics: In his November 2025 video, he reveals Proton offered him $70 per signup to shill their services—but after rejecting the deal and requesting a CEO interview instead, Proton ghosted him completely, ignoring all follow-ups.
- ProtonMail has cooperated with law enforcement in several documented cases where they hand over the recovery email address you enter when you open your account with them, Proton is fully aware that the recovery email is not encrypted and handed over when they are subpoenaed, they justify themselves by saying that the user entered it and what not but the fact is that they know about this security hole and do nothing to address it.
Reference: Encrypted services Apple, Proton and Wire helped Spanish police identify activist - Swiss privacy laws are comparable to those of the European Union, you are not safer by Proton being based in Switzerland instead of Germany. As an example in 2021 ProtonMail was forced by a Swiss Court to do real time IP logging of a French climate activist occupying buildings.
Reference: ProtonMail Gives Up Logs on User, Then Scrubs Website of No IP Logging Claims - And finally a politically charged argument: Proton announcing in their X account that they had donated $100,000 to the Palestinian Red Crescent right when Israel was defending itself from Islamic terrorists, as European who stands 100% behind Israel this feels like a betrayal, I want my money to be spent aiding Israeli civilians and not on Gaza under Hamas control, I won´t be supporting any company that gives money to Gaza.
