ProtonMail has been fraught with problems for a long time, and it's good that serious issues are being brought to light. Their marketing is very good and critics of them have struggled to communicate to users for a while.<p>The most important thing a serious privacy-minded service provider can do is be <i>forthright</i> and <i>honest</i> with users about the limitations of their privacy guarantees, particularly with respect to what hinges on math and what hinges on trust. ProtonMail has failed in this respect. It has always been the case, for example, that they could log these IPs, or that any incoming plaintext emails can be recorded before being encrypted at rest - and the fact that they're encrypted at rest is another thing we have to take on faith. Their proprietary components have always been a problem, and we also trust that they won't silently add key exfiltration to their webmail UI on the demands of a court. They don't explain any of this, they just pose themselves as experts on privacy and let vulnerable users stumble into law enforcement's hands because they care about their money more than their security.<p>Good privacy systems do not rely on trust or faith, they rely on math. Where some trust is required, in the case of a commercial service provider, it is their solemn duty to be honest with users and explain to them what promises they can and cannot make, and to make sure users understand which of these claims are backed up by math, which are backed up by law, and which are backed up with thoughts and prayers, so that these users can make informed decisions about how they use a service they're relying on for <i>their personal liberty</i>.