Miguel Afonso Caetano<p>"The change comes in response to the planned revision of the Ordinance on the Surveillance of Correspondence by Post and Telecommunications (OSCPT), introduced by the Swiss Federal Council in January 2025. As previously reported by CyberInsider, the proposal would compel telecom and “derived communication service” providers (FSCDs) to impose mandatory user identification once they reach 5,000 users, retain this data for six months after service ends, and, where encryption keys are held, decrypt communications on request. Larger providers with more than one million users or CHF 100 million in annual revenue would face round-the-clock compliance obligations and real-time interception capabilities.</p><p>The proposed rules have drawn sharp criticism from the Swiss privacy sector. Firms like Nym, Threema, and Proton argued the measures threaten to dismantle Switzerland’s carefully cultivated image as a privacy haven, while introducing risks of systemic backdoors. In a recent CyberInsider interview, the decentralized messenger project Session said it was “keeping a close eye” on the ordinance’s progress, but noted that its architecture makes it less directly vulnerable to the proposed rules.</p><p>Proton, which operates services including Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Drive, and Proton Pass, has been headquartered in Geneva since its founding in 2014. The company has long promoted Switzerland’s legal framework as a cornerstone of its security model, alongside its use of end-to-end encryption and no-logs policies. While the infrastructure move is a major operational change, Proton insists its privacy protections remain intact:"</p><p><a href="https://cyberinsider.com/proton-confirms-gradual-exit-from-switzerland-over-surveillance-law-fears/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">cyberinsider.com/proton-confir</span><span class="invisible">ms-gradual-exit-from-switzerland-over-surveillance-law-fears/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Switzerland" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Switzerland</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Proton" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Proton</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Surveillance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Surveillance</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Privacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Privacy</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/CyberSecurity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CyberSecurity</span></a></p>