Proton VPN Rejects All Legal Data Requests: A 2026 Transparency Report

transparency report update underscores a vital distinction that is frequently misunderstood: the operational and legal difference between a virtual private network and an encrypted email service.

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While Proton VPN successfully denied 100% of its 47 legal requests, the record for Proton Mail is notably different. According to historical data and recent disclosures, Proton’s email service complies with thousands of Swiss court orders annually. For instance, in 2025 alone, Proton Mail received 9,301 legal orders and complied with 8,313 of them. More recently, in March 2026, unsealed court documents revealed that Proton Mail had provided Swiss authorities with a bank card identifier associated with an activist’s account under a legally binding Swiss court mandate.

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This divergence is not due to a lack of commitment on Proton’s part, but rather a direct consequence of how Swiss law categorizes different digital services under the Swiss Federal Act on the Surveillance of Post and Telecommunications (SPTA). Under the SPTA:

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• Email Providers: Classified as telecommunications and postal service operators, email providers can be legally compelled by Swiss courts to perform targeted, real-time logging of specific IP addresses or metadata during active domestic criminal investigations. While