Proton Mail is encrypted email that normal people finish setting up. Swiss company, apps on every platform, end-to-end encryption when both sides are on Proton, and OpenPGP if you want to write to someone who is not. You can open an account without a phone number.
Mail that leaves Proton for Gmail is ordinary mail on the way out. Proton can encrypt it at rest in your inbox after it arrives, but the sender’s provider already saw it. In 2021 a Swiss court order led Proton to record and hand over an account’s IP address. The contents of Proton-to-Proton messages stay encrypted. Metadata and payment records are a different pile. Free storage and filters are tight so you notice the paid plan.
Use it as the default private inbox. Do not tell people Swiss law means nobody can ever ask Proton a question. proton.me/mail
Proton Mail hides subjects and bodies between Proton users. It does not hide the fact that you emailed someone, from Proton’s side, in the metadata sense courts ask about. Use a separate account for the life you do not want next to your paid identity. Recovery email and a phone number re-link the account. Leave them off if you can survive a lost password, because there is no backdoor into the mailbox.
