Everything you need to know about email privacy and making the switch.
Yes. Google's systems automatically scan your Gmail messages for spam filtering, smart features, and AI suggestions. While Google stopped scanning emails for ad targeting in 2017, automated processing still occurs for features like Smart Reply, email categorization, and calendar event detection.
Your emails, receipts, travel plans, and private conversations are processed by Google's servers—and that data can be accessed by Google employees in certain circumstances or handed over to authorities if requested.
Gmail uses TLS encryption to protect emails in transit, which prevents interception while your email travels across the internet. However, Gmail is not end-to-end encrypted—Google holds the keys to decrypt and read your messages on their servers.
For truly private communication, you need a service like Proton Mail that uses end-to-end encryption, where only you and your recipient can read the messages.
Gmail collects extensive data including the content of your emails, attachments, contacts, calendar events, purchase history from receipts, travel itineraries, and your communication patterns. This data is used to power smart features and may be used to build a profile about you across Google's services.
Proton Mail is a secure email service based in Switzerland that uses end-to-end encryption and zero-access encryption to protect your emails. This means no one can read your emails except you and your intended recipients—not hackers, not governments, and not even Proton.
Founded by scientists who met at CERN, Proton Mail is now the world's largest encrypted email provider with over 100 million users.
Yes, Proton Mail offers a free tier with core privacy features. The free plan includes 1 GB of storage and up to 150 messages per day. Paid plans start at around $4/month and offer more storage, custom domains, multiple email addresses, and additional features.
Switzerland has some of the strongest privacy laws in the world and is outside US and EU jurisdiction. Swiss law protects end-to-end encryption and requires a Swiss court order for any data requests. Switzerland is also not part of any intelligence-sharing alliances like the Five Eyes.
No. Proton Mail uses zero-access encryption, which means your emails are encrypted with your own keys before being stored on their servers. Proton cannot decrypt or read your emails, even if they wanted to or were legally compelled to do so.
Yes. Proton Mail uses industry-standard encryption (AES-256, RSA, OpenPGP) and has been independently audited. All their apps are open source, meaning the code can be inspected by security researchers. Proton also operates their own servers in secure facilities in Switzerland.
Yes. Proton Mail offers an Easy Switch feature that lets you import your emails, contacts, and calendars from Gmail. You can also set up automatic forwarding from Gmail to Proton Mail so you don't miss any messages during the transition.
Setting up a basic Proton Mail account takes about 10 minutes. Importing your existing Gmail messages and setting up forwarding may take longer depending on how many emails you have, but you can continue using both services during the migration.
No. Many people keep their Gmail address for accounts that require it while using Proton Mail as their primary inbox. You can forward Gmail to Proton Mail automatically, so all your messages arrive in one private inbox.
Yes. You can send regular emails to any email address. Emails between Proton Mail users are automatically end-to-end encrypted. For non-Proton recipients, you can use password-protected emails for sensitive messages, or send regular emails that are still protected by zero-access encryption in your inbox.
Yes. Proton Mail has apps for iOS and Android, as well as a web interface that works on any device. You can also use Proton Mail with desktop email clients through their Bridge application.
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