![\"<p>Proton](\"\/\/www.iser-br.com\/Themes\/Release\/images\/responsive\/ettelecom-default.jpg\")
When Russia blocked access to independent news sites following its invasion of Ukraine a year ago, the small company which provides virtual private networks (VPNs) saw \"a 9,000 percent increase in sign-ups over just a period of a few days\", company chief executive Andy Yen<\/a> said in an interview last week.
Switzerland-based Proton also saw a huge surge in demand for its VPNs, which are used to skirt online restrictions, in Iran last October as authorities cracked down harder on internet access<\/a> amid flaring protests following Mahsa Amini's death in custody.
\"It was a factor of 10 at least,\" Yen said.
Speaking at Proton's headquarters outside Geneva, the 34-year-old particle physicist, who worked at Europe's physics lab CERN before founding Proton in 2014, said the company had noticed that spikes in sign-ups \"almost match... one-to-one to places where democracy and freedom are under attack.
\"If there is a coup happening in Africa, we see it in our data before it makes the news.\"
Severe consequences
<\/strong>
Proton, perhaps best known for its encrypted email service, sees its mission of ensuring privacy and online access as a vital tool in shoring up democracy in the digital age.
\"Privacy is something that is essential for freedom,\" said Yen.
The Proton chief, who grew up in Taiwan and says the Chinese threat hanging over the democratic island coloured his world view, acknowledged the company's mission had taken on added urgency since Russia's invasion of its neighbour.
\"We all see in Ukraine how important it is to have digital technologies that protect privacy and give people freedom of information so they can see real news sources,\" he said.
There, as inside Russia, in Iran and elsewhere, Yen insisted it was \"essential\" for companies like Proton to stay \"even if there is a financial loss\".
\"If we abandon these markets, actually the consequences are quite severe.\"
Privacy in focus
<\/strong>
Proton, which began nine years ago with 10,000 users crowd-funding 500,000 euros, today counts more than 70 million users worldwide.
The company, Yen said, has pursued a fundamentally different business model than that of big tech companies like Google and Facebook, which offer \"free\" services in exchange for selling users' data to advertisers.
\"If you're a Google user, you're not Google's actual customer. What you actually are is a product,\" he said.
Influenced by former US National Security Agency<\/a> (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden's disclosures of mass digital spying by US government agencies, Yen said he had been even more concerned about \"corporate surveillance, which was much more massive\".
\"If you consider what the NSA might have on you, it's probably only a drop in the bucket compared to what Google and Facebook have.\"
Proton does offer free end-to-end encrypted email and VPN services, but instead of compensating by selling user data, it makes its money by selling monthly subscriptions for under $10 for extra features.
The company says its end-to-end encryption means that it has no access to the data transiting its servers and thus has no data to sell even if it wanted to.
It also means that it cannot turn over email content to governments that might demand it.
'Cat and mouse'<\/strong>
This, along with the VPNs helping skirt censorship, has put Proton's team of around 400 employees in the crosshairs of powerful governments.
\"We have had situations both in Russia and Iran where the entire resources of the state were thrown towards us,\" Yen said, describing how the company has a team of engineers permanently on call to ensure its services \"remain available and accessible\".
\"It's not rockets or missiles flying in the air, but there definitely is a fight for the future of the Russian internet, the Iranian internet and the internet in general.\"
Yen recalled one sleepless Friday night in October when Proton's VPNs came under a massive attack in Iran, and the nail-biting decision to roll out a new stealth VPN technology, aimed at making VPN traffic invisible to sensors.
The technology, which was developed to deal with issues in Russia, had yet to be tested on a large scale, and the engineers did not know for sure if it would hold up.
\"We pulled the trigger, and it worked,\" Yen said. \"But it also could have gone the other way.\"
In Iran, Russia and elsewhere, \"it's a cat and mouse game,\" he said.
\"I like to think that we're a pretty fast mouse, but it's also a pretty good cat sometimes.\"
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- Telecom乐动扑克News
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互联网接入、隐私“基本自由”:质子首席
当俄罗斯屏蔽了独立新闻网站入侵后乌克兰一年前,小公司提供虚拟私有网络(vpn)看到“乐动扑克增加9000%注册只是几天的时期”,公司首席执行官安迪日圆在上周的一次采访中说。
读到
当俄罗斯屏蔽了独立新闻网站入侵后乌克兰一年前,小公司提供虚拟私有网络(vpn)看到“乐动扑克增加9000%注册只是几天的时期”,公司首席执行官安迪日元在上周的一次采访中说。
瑞士的质子也看到一个巨大的需求激增的vpn,用于裙网络限制,去年10月在伊朗当局加紧镇压互联网接入Mahsa Amini逝世后的抗议声中被拘留。
“这是一个至少10倍,“日元说。
在质子的总部在日内瓦之外,这位34岁的粒子物理学家,曾在欧洲的物理实验室CERN在2014年创始质子之前,表示,该公司已经注意到峰值在注册“几乎匹配……一对一的地方民主和自由受到攻击。
“如果有一个政变发生在非洲,我们看到它在我们的数据之前,让这个消息。”乐动扑克
严重的后果
质子,最出名的加密的电子邮件服务,将确保隐私和网络访问的任务视为一个重要的工具在支持民主国家在数字时代。
“隐私是必不可少的自由,”说日元。
质子首席,在台湾长大,说中国威胁笼罩着民主岛的世界观,承认公司的任务显得更加急迫。由于俄罗斯入侵邻国。
“我们都看到在乌克兰是多么重要的数字技术,保护隐私和给人们的信息自由,这样他们就可以看到真正的新闻来源,”他说。乐动扑克
在俄罗斯,在伊朗和其他地方,日圆坚称这是质子等公司保持“基本”“即使有经济损失”。
“如果我们放弃这些市场,实际后果是相当严重的。”
隐私的关注
质子,9年前开始与10000用户集体融资500000欧元,今天全世界有超过7000万的用户。
日元说,该公司一直在追求一种完全不同的商业模式的大型科技公司像谷歌和Facebook,提供“免费”服务,以换取用户数据出售给广告商。
“如果你是一个谷歌用户,你不是谷歌的实际客户。你实际上是一个产品,”他说。
受前美国国家安全局斯诺登的(NSA)承包商披露质量数字间谍的美国政府机构,日圆表示,他一直更关心“企业监测,更大规模”。
“如果你考虑什么国家安全局可能对你,可能只是沧海一粟相比谷歌和Facebook。”
质子并提供免费的端到端加密的电子邮件和VPN服务,而是通过出售用户数据补偿,使其资金通过出售月度订阅10美元以下额外的功能。
该公司表示,它的端到端加密意味着它没有访问数据通过数据服务器,因此没有出售,即使它想。
这也意味着它不能把邮件内容移交给政府,可能会需要它。
“猫捉老鼠”
随着vpn帮助裙子审查,这使得质子的团队约400名员工纷繁复杂的强大的政府。
“我们曾经遇到过这样的情况:在俄罗斯和伊朗,整个国家的资源被扔向我们,“日元说,描述该公司一个工程师团队如何永久待命,以确保其服务“保持可用和可访问”。
“这并不是火箭或导弹在空中飞行,但绝对是一个争取俄罗斯互联网的未来,伊朗互联网和互联网。”
日元回忆当质子的10月的一个星期五晚上失眠的VPN受到大规模攻击伊朗,和紧张决定推出一个新的隐形VPN技术,旨在使VPN交通无形的传感器。
发达的技术,处理问题在俄罗斯,尚未大规模测试,和工程师们并不知道他们将中止。
“我们扣动了扳机,它工作,“日元说。“但它也可以走了。”
在伊朗,俄罗斯和其他地方,“这是一个猫捉老鼠的游戏,”他说。
“我想,我们很快鼠标,但有时也是一个不错的猫。”
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