Email providers
Proton Mail privacy rating
End-to-end encrypted email service from Switzerland, with apps for web, Android, iOS and desktop.
Summary
Proton Mail scores 64 out of 100 (grade C) on the email providers criteria. It meets 8 of 19 criteria: no ads or data sales, transparency report, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, end-to-end encryption, encrypted mailbox storage, custom domains and mail transport security. It partly meets open source, no trackers or telemetry, independent audit, security headers, open protocols and sign up without personal data. It does not meet IMAP support, POP3 support, SMTP submission, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It is based in Switzerland: Not in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes; GDPR-style data protection law. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B+.
Score 64 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
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Partial
Open source Weight 3 of 3
Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
Apps are open source under GPL-3.0. The server is not.
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Partial
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
Website analytics are self-hosted. The apps include crash reporting and usage statistics, which are on by default and can be turned off.
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Yes
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
No ads on any plan, including the free plan.
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Partial
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
Proton completed a SOC 2 Type II audit, but the report is not public.
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Yes
Transparency report Weight 2 of 3
Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
Publishes yearly counts of legal orders received, complied with and contested.
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Yes
Tells users about requests Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
Targeted users are notified of data requests, with delays only when Swiss law, a court order or a risk to life requires it.
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Yes
End-to-end encryption Weight 3 of 3
Can mail be end-to-end encrypted so that the provider cannot read message contents?
Always end-to-end encrypted between Proton users. Password-protected messages or PGP for other recipients. Subject lines are not end-to-end encrypted.
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Yes
Encrypted mailbox storage Weight 3 of 3
Is stored mail encrypted with a key the provider does not hold?
Stored mail uses zero-access encryption that Proton cannot read.
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Partial
Open protocols Weight 2 of 3
Can any standard app connect over IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV or CardDAV, without extra software?
IMAP and SMTP need the Proton Mail Bridge app on a paid plan. POP3 is not supported.
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Yes
Custom domains Weight 1 of 3
Can mail be sent and received with your own domain?
From the Mail Plus plan up. Not on the free plan.
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Partial
Sign up without personal data Weight 2 of 3
Can an account be created without a phone number or another email address?
No personal data is needed by default, but some sign-ups must be verified by email or SMS.
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No
Sender Rewriting Scheme Weight 1 of 3
Is the envelope sender rewritten with SRS when mail is forwarded, so forwarded mail keeps passing SPF?
No published documentation on SRS for forwarded mail.
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No
ARC sealing Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider validate and add ARC (RFC 8617) signatures, so authentication results survive forwarding?
No published documentation on ARC signing or validation.
Automated tests
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Yes
TLS configuration Weight 2 of 3
Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
Grade A+
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Partial
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade B+ (80/100+)
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Not tested yet
Modern web standards Weight 1 of 3
Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
Not tested yet.
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Not tested yet
Email security standards Weight 2 of 3
Does the mail domain score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl email test?
Not tested yet.
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No
IMAP support Weight 2 of 3
Does the IMAP server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 993 and advertise IMAP4rev1 or IMAP4rev2 with IDLE push?
Not offered.
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No
POP3 support Weight 1 of 3
Does the POP3 server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 995 and answer CAPA with UIDL?
Not offered.
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No
SMTP submission Weight 2 of 3
Does mail submission work over implicit TLS on port 465 with SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH?
Not offered.
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Yes
Mail transport security Weight 3 of 3
Does the mail domain enforce encrypted, authenticated delivery with MTA-STS, DANE, DNSSEC, TLS-RPT and an enforced DMARC policy?
Passes: SPF, DMARC quarantine, MTA-STS enforce, TLS-RPT, DNSSEC, DANE all.
Email standards
- Yes: Mail serversMXmail.protonmail.ch, mailsec.protonmail.ch
- Yes: RFC 7208 sender policySPFpublished
- Yes: RFC 7489. Quarantine or reject counts as enforcedDMARCp=quarantine
- Yes: RFC 8461 strict transport securityMTA-STSenforce
- Yes: RFC 8460 TLS failure reportsTLS-RPTpublished
- Yes: RFC 4033 signed DNSDNSSECsigned and validated
- Yes: RFC 7672 TLSA records on MX hostsDANEall
- Yes: Brand logo record (not scored)BIMIpublished
- No: RFC 6186 and RFC 8314 service records (not scored)SRVnone
IMAP
Not offered.
POP3
Not offered.
SMTP submission
Not offered.
Capabilities are what each server advertises before login. How these tests work