Proton, the Swiss developer of encrypted services, including Proton Mail, Proton VPN, and Proton Pass, has announced a new feature to solve he problems of strong encryption access in case of emergency. Starting on August 28, paid Proton users can now avail themselves of Emergency Access, a feature that allows them to provide secure access to their accounts to their trusted contacts if they become incapacitated.
How Emergency Access Works
The Emergency Access option allows the Proton account holders to identify five friends or family members they trust as emergency contacts. These individuals may ask to access the user’s Proton account; there is some protection.
- If the account holder is active, they can approve or deny access requests instantly.
- If the account holder is unresponsive, access can be automatically granted after a custom wait time.
This system ensures that valuable information, such as emails, documents, passwords, and files, is accessible without violation of the end-to-end encryption principles of Proton.
Security and Privacy
According to Proton, no one (including the company itself) has access to encrypted data without the account password. The Emergency Access tool is based on the same strong encryption that Proton operates on the rest of its apps like Mail, Drive, Calendar, and Docs, and Proton Lumo (its AI chatbot).
Daniel Rivera Jäggi, Proton’s senior product manager, said:
“Emergency Access is a safe and easy means to provide entry to the loved ones in case of an emergency. Similar to all products of Proton, it is built so as to be privacy- and security-conscious and brings peace of mind without sacrificing the encryption.”
Availability and Pricing
The new feature will be launched on August 28, and only paid Proton subscribers will have access to it. Free users will have to upgrade to get it. Proton Unlimited starts at $12.99/month with discounts available for annual billing. The company also offers family and business plans.
