Proton Chief wants 'everybody to have access to the internet' and "everyone to be protected."

By monitoring its services' demand, Proton can spot threats to democracy before they hit the headlines, the company's chief told AFP.

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The company providing virtual private networks (VPNs) saw an increase of 9,000 percent in sign-ups after Russia blocked access to independent news sites after its invasion of Ukraine a year ago. Chief executive Andy Yen told the press last week that the company's sign-ups had increased by 9,000 percent in just a few days.

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A huge surge in sales of Proton's VPNs, which are used to circumvent online restrictions, was also experienced last October in Iran, where authorities clamped down harder on internet access in the wake of Mahsa Amini's death in custody, as protests erupted across the country.

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"The factor was at least ten," Yen said in response to the question.

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The 34-year-old particle physicist, who had worked at Europe's physics lab CERN for years before founding Proton in 2014, was speaking at Proton's headquarters outside Geneva. He said the company noticed that the spikes in sign-ups almost matched one-to-one to places where democracy and freedom are under attack.

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"If there is a coup taking place in Africa, we can see about it in our data before it makes it to the news."

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Known most for its encrypted email service, Proton views its role in ensuring online privacy and access as a vital tool in the fight against the erosion of democracy in the age of the digital revolution.

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"The right to privacy is one of the most fundamental freedoms," explained Yen.

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After the Russian invasion of its neighbor, the Proton chief admitted that the mission of the company had taken on an added urgency since the Chinese threat hung over the democratic island and influenced his worldview growing up in Taiwan.

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"As we all know, Ukraine has demonstrated how important it is to have a digital technology that protects the privacy and gives people the freedom to discover real sources of news," he said.

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It is Yen’s belief that, whether it is in Russia, Iran, or anywhere else, it is "essential" that companies such as Proton remain in the country "even if it means a financial loss".

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"The consequences of abandoning these markets would actually be quite severe if we were to abandon them."

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Founded nine years ago, Proton began with 10,000 users crowd-funding 500,000 euros and today reaches more than 70 million people around the world.

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There is a fundamental difference between the kind of business model pursued by the company, says Yen, and the type of business model pursued by big tech companies like Google and Facebook, which provide free services in exchange for the data they collect about their users.

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“It's important to understand that if you're a Google user, you're not the company's actual customer. Rather, you're a product,” according to him.

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After Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the US National Security Agency (NSA), aired his revelations about the massive digital spying conducted by US government agencies, Yen said that he had been even more concerned about "corporate surveillance, which was much more widespread".

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"When you consider how much information the National Security Agency might have on you, it's probably only a drop in the bucket compared to how much information Google and Facebook have."

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While Proton does offer end-to-end encrypted email and VPN services for free, the company's revenue is derived from selling subscriptions to its services for under $10 per month for extra features instead of compensating by selling user data.

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Because of its end-to-end encryption, the company says it has no access to the data transiting its servers and as a result, even if it wanted to sell the data, it would be unable to do so.

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Furthermore, it means that it will not be able to turn over email content to governments that might require it in the future.

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Proton's 400 employees have been targeted by powerful governments due to this, as well as VPNs helping to skirt censorship.

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"Both in Russia and Iran, we have had situations where the entire resources of the state have been thrown at us," Yen said, describing how the company has a team of engineers on call at all times to ensure that its services "remain available and accessible".

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"Well, it's not rockets or missiles flying in the air, but this is definitely a fight for the future of the Russian internet, the Iranian internet, and the internet in general."

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Yen recalled one sleepless Friday night when Proton's VPNs were the target of a massive attack in Iran and the nail-biting decision that had to be made to deploy a new stealth VPN technology in order to make VPN traffic invisible to sensors.

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As the technology was developed to deal with issues in Russia, it had not yet been tested on a large scale, and as a result, the engineers were not sure whether it would hold up on a large scale.

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As Yen put it, "We pulled the trigger, and it worked.". However, it is also possible that things could have turned out differently."

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“There is a cat-and-mouse game going on in Iran, Russia, and other countries,” he said.

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"We like to think of ourselves as a pretty fast mouse, but I also think that it is a pretty good cat sometimes."

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