- Infomaniak threw proton’s attitude toward a Controversial revision of the Swiss surveillance law
- The change requires VPNs and Messaging -Apps to identify and store user data
- Proton and Nymvpn are ready to leave Switzerland instead of undermining their privacy and security
Update: June 6, 2025, after publication, Infomaniak confirmed to Techradar that the company is actually against the audit in its current form, despite being against total anonymity online. We edit the article to reflect this.
A Swiss Sky Service, Infomaniak, has publicly slammed the privacy company Proton to promote online anonymity and criticize the company’s position on a controversial revision of the country’s surveillance law.
The change requires all VPN services, messaging apps and social networks to identify and maintain user data -a commitment that is now limited to mobile networks and ISPs.
So far, tech providers have been vocal in sharing their concerns against this revision that they say they could pose a risk of ensuring encryption and online anonymity in Switzerland. The regulation was allegedly met with a strong setback across political benches.
CEO of Proton, one of the best VPN and secure E email providers in the market, even compared these new rules to those in place in Russia, and promised to end Switzerland if the new ordinance adopts. Another Swiss-based provider, NymVPN, also confirmed to Techradar that it is ready to do the same.
What did infomaniak say?
Infomaniak is a cloud computing company that claims to offer ethical and privacy-focused online tools such as web hosting, cloud storage and now encrypted email services.
In a speech during a debate about RadioTelesuisse (RTS), Infomaniak’s communications manager, Thomas Jacobsen, has been particularly critical of Proton’s attitude, accusation of Proton and similar tech -privat life companies that advocate online anonymity to “prevent justice from performing his job”, as reported by the Swiss publication Cublic.
Jacobsen also criticized Proton for offering free VPN and E email services and argued that this enables anyone to stay out of the scope of law enforcement. According to him, the criticism that comes from proton and similar companies is because the new rules can potentially end their business model.
In fact, obligations on new data storage could lead to the end of the No-Log VPN and other services in Switzerland, such as Proton VPN, Proton Mail, Nymvpn and Threema.
In Switzerland, the new version of the Monitoring Act aims to make it impossible for Proton, Threema and@NymProject to operate from Switzerland. We are in the consultation phase. We will fight. https://t.co/bcmbxzipfcMarch 25, 2025
Jacobsen also pointed out that “the problem is not so much encryption but anonymity.”
Contrary to similar legislative efforts in Europe that promote the idea of legal encryption back door in citizens’ communication, Switzerland has actually taken a different approach and instead targeted modata tracking.
Metadata includes all the details that are not the content, such as IP addresses, location data, time stamps, data package size, phone numbers, who you have talked to and when. As Jacobsen expressed it during another interview with RTS, “is the outside of the package enough to bring justice.”
However, technologists have long argued that metadata can constitute significant privacy because of its ability to reveal users’ sensitive information. With progress in AI-driven data analysis, protection of metadata-private life has become crucial across the industry, leading to the creation of tools such as Nymvpn and Mullvad’s Daita to protect against these threats.
When he was contacted by Techradar, Jacobsen said that Infomaniak is actually against the Swiss audit in his current form, despite being against total anonymity online.
He said, “We are also against this revision as it stands. We believe it should be better regulated, better explained, and above all, transparent to be discussed to avoid a shift against widespread monitoring under the guise of security. In particular, data access requests must always undergo a judge.”
When he comments on questions about metadata collection, Jacobsen agrees that metadata can in some cases make it possible to reconstruct behavioral patterns or communication patterns. “That’s why we insist on a strict legal framework, with mandatory legal views and measures that are targeted, restricted, transparent and traceable,” he added.
How did the Swiss privacy industry react?
NYM’s co-founder and COO, Alexis Roussel, was one of the online commentators who challenged the company’s acquisition of the case, especially with regard to metadata collection.
When he spoke to Techradar, Roussel said, “They claim that the definition of privacy encrypts the message and the metadata are not important, but it is outdated. They disturb the whole community here.”
Roussel also contested the idea of getting rid of online anonymity to facilitate work on law enforcement and argued that enforcement of preventive measurements of surveillance could undermine democratic values in Switzerland.
He said, “Online anonymity is at the heart of the balance of power of a democracy. When the government has access to all your metadata, it is completely reversed.”
According to the current system, Roussel explains, the government has to conduct a specific study to force online services to register all their data. However, if the new regulation goes, however, this data collection will become mandatory and preventative for any illegal activities.
“A commitment to store the data in case of, maybe one day a judge will ask for it – it’s not ok,” Roussel said. “It’s a war against anonymity that happens in Switzerland at the federal level.”
When public consultations ended on May 6, 2025, we now have to wait and see what the Swiss government decides.
Nevertheless, Roussel confirmed to Techradar that there has been significant push-back from both political parties and Swiss companies.
Some cantons, including Geneva, have even called on the right to digital integrity as an argument against these rules. Roussel was the most important author of the initiative that introduced this new right to protect citizens’ online privacy and data – in Geneva in 2023 and Neuchâtel in 2024 – with over 90% consensus.
“The chances of the regulation being overturned either in parliament or even in the courts are pretty high, but they can still push it,” Roussel told Techradar.
Nevertheless, “that is already a big problem because it creates a bad precedent. Nobody wants to invest in privacy right now in Switzerland,” he added.
