this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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148
Privacy-Focused Proton Mail Aids FBI in Uncovering ‘Stop Cop City’ Protester’s True Identity (www.gadgetreview.com)
submitted 2 days ago by schizoidman@lemmy.zip to c/technology@lemmy.world
52 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/60387297

Proton Mail provided Swiss authorities with payment data for defendtheatlantaforest@protonmail.com — the account linked to Stop Cop City protests in Atlanta. The FBI obtained this information through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty request on January 25, 2024, identifying the activist behind the anonymous account through their credit card identifier.

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[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

They litterally gave information they were legally required to

E2EE stops them from being forced to turn over the emails themselves

Except it doesn't, E2EE in browser is pointless, they send your browser the code that does the dycription, they can just as easily send your browser code that does decyption & uploads the contents to themselves.

Yes doing actual E2EE emails is harder because both ends need to use an email client and configure it to do encryption, but for amost all scenarios protonmail is no more technically secure than any other webmail provider.

Scenario Gmail protonmail
Legally required to hand over your emails can comply can comply the next time you use the account
Datacenter breach emails encrypted at rest emails encrypted at rest
Persistent threat within supplier can read your emails requires code injection capability

I think offering per-user encryption that makes it harder for the company to data mine your emails is good, I just wish people would stop believing companies selling you "secure solutions".

In this case defendtheatlantaforest would have been more secure if they used any free email provider and GPG, yet there's a cult-of-produce around protonmail as if it's offering you a level of security that it can't.

[–] HyperfocusSurfer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 hours ago

Except you don't have to use their browser version and can instead use their apps or their bridge or even a 3rd-party bridge like hydroxide, which makes injections quite a bit harder. They can still get incoming and outgoing plaintext (i.e. not pmail ←→ pmail) emails, tho