There is no doubt that privacy is very important in today's times. If we were to talk about it, we would have to refer to technology and its mechanisms that manage to turn our information into something private and inaccessible to others.
It's not for nothing but the world follows a course in which everything evolves, the good and the bad, and the adaptation process could reside in important applications that help us improve our freedom in order to increase our security and privacy so that we are the owners of the information we want or do not want to communicate.
This is where we can mention Proton; a leading worldwide company that manages to focus precisely on privacy through various products that create a much safer experience for every required use. But we must review its origins to have an idea of who we are presenting today.
Proton originated in 2014 in Switzerland after CERN scientists agreed that creating a better internet was essential to respect the privacy of users who use it. Considering the growth of information, it was possible that a very large amount of data, including personal information, could end up in the hands of companies that would only seek to make profits and where the government could interfere in people's decisions. The key idea of Proton, in this context, is to increase a person's capacity to be digitally free, preventing their data from being sold, and above all, acquiring enhanced protection against cybercrime.
The technology that seems to stand out the most in each of their products is end-to-end encryption. With this in mind, each block of information is treated in such a way that said information can only be read by a chosen sender and receiver, for example in the case of Proton Mail. Nobody else can interfere in a communication, making it very promising for sharing or keeping highly valuable information.
As a technology, peer-to-peer is something that has been applied in a large number of messaging systems, such as WhatsApp, which ensures chats where only two participants exist as previously mentioned. Making this the main focus ensures its total security and therefore a greater confidence in using each of the given products. It is worth mentioning that Proton's headquarters are in Switzerland, which adapts to very strict laws regarding a person's privacy, providing additional protection on how someone uses their own information.
In my opinion, the use of these tools enhances a person's freedom to choose how they want to use their data in order to keep it safe. This doesn't mean that person is hiding something for other purposes, because if we look at it sensibly, the data that becomes more valuable over time is often the data we try to protect the most. Different scenarios can arise here, such as a journalist researching who fears their work being exposed, a lawyer holding client information, or perhaps a company with highly confidential financial or commercial data.
In my particular experience, I have not used a Proton application, but I have managed to use one that allowed me to send and receive emails using a blockchain network. The difference was drastic because I didn't get the typical spam messages and I also didn't run the risk of coming across messages that could lead me into a scam. What I did notice is that in traditional messaging systems, one tends to be much more exposed to data exchanges. It feels as if our activity is controlled by a large and enormous system, and then you receive something related to a previous search made with profit-making intentions.
Standard Notes is an application that was founded in 2017, and coincidentally, it holds the same privacy ideals that Proton aligns with. For this reason, Proton decided to acquire the company and it now becomes another option for users to enhance their security.
What's interesting about all this is how the community takes center stage. Being open-source, it is possible to sustain and improve every aspect, which I believe is crucial for the health of every constantly growing project. One thing that is certain is that its community is growing significantly, as it was announced a year ago that it had surpassed 100 million users, showing where everything is heading; towards an unprecedented expansion.
The idea now is for both applications to seamlessly integrate. While there is an important issue of having different encryption models, Andy Yen, the founder and CEO of Proton, argues that as separate applications, there would be no major issues. He also added that business models are starting to move towards privacy respect, although there are competitors going in the opposite direction, posing a significant challenge at a business level. Fortunately, there are laws balancing this trend, but achieving success in this won't happen in the short or medium term.
