Proton Drive
A single roll-up of ownership and CLOUD Act exposure.
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EU-Sovereign EU/EEA/Switzerland-owned and -operated, with no identified CLOUD Act exposure.
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EU-Based This listing EU-operated, with at most minor or transient US exposure.
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EU-Hosted EU hosting available, but a US parent or hyperscaler sub-processor creates material exposure.
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US-Linked Operated by a US-incorporated entity, directly subject to US jurisdiction.
Swiss zero-knowledge encrypted cloud (Proton AG, non-profit-foundation-controlled), 11,496 owned servers, ISO 27001 + SOC 2, 5 GB free.
Proton Drive is a European service hosted in Switzerland, with at most minor, transient US exposure under the CLOUD Act. It is listed under File sharing.
Assessment notes
Proton AG (Geneva, Route de la Galaise 32, Plan-les-Ouates; founded 2014 by Andy Yen and a team from CERN) is controlled by the non-profit Proton Foundation (since June 2024) with no venture-capital investors anywhere on the cap table, runs 11,496 owned-and-operated servers across 117 countries with Swiss-jurisdiction primary processing, ISO/IEC 27001:2022 + SOC 2 Type II certifications covering all Proton product lines, and zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption that makes the customer the sole keyholder; Swiss-headquartered and non-profit-foundation-controlled, with a public DPA, disclosed sub-processors, and US sub-processors (Zendesk for support, Stripe / PayPal / Chargebee for billing) that are ancillary and never touch the end-to-end-encrypted file data on Proton's own infrastructure; however, every Proton IP range reaches the internet only through Cloudflare's network (AS13335 as the sole upstream, the pattern of Magic Transit DDoS scrubbing, verified via RIPEstat on 2026-10-03), which carries TLS-encrypted traffic and connection metadata but does not terminate TLS and is not named in Proton's processor lists, so CLOUD Act exposure is recorded as minor (a transient US network layer with no plaintext access and no data at rest).
Findings
- CLOUD Act
- CLOUD Act exposure
How exposed customer data is to US authorities under the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act).
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None EU operator, no US parent, no US sub-processors of note.
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Minor This listing A transient US sub-processor (CDN, maps); data at rest stays in the EU.
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Material US parent, or a core sub-processor is a US-owned hyperscaler.
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Direct The operator itself is US-incorporated.
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- Ownership
- Ownership
Where ultimate control over the operating company sits.
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EU-owned EU-incorporated and EU-controlled; no significant US ownership.
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European This listing Swiss/EEA-owned, with no significant US ownership; treated as European.
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EU HQ, US-funded EU-headquartered but US venture- or PE-controlled.
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EU subsidiary, US parent European operating company owned by a US parent company.
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US-owned The operating company itself is US-headquartered.
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- Sub-processors
- 8 · 5 US
Verified signals
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EU / adequacy hosting: Yes
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EU / adequacy operator: Yes
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No US CLOUD Act exposure: Not assessed
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Card-free payment available: YesAccepts Bitcoin and cash by mail alongside cards.
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Public DPA: Yes
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Sub-processors disclosed: Yes
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Open-source clients: No
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Third-party certification: Yes
Jump to
About Proton Drive
Proton Drive is the encrypted cloud-storage product within the Proton AG ecosystem (Mail, Drive, VPN, Pass, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, SimpleLogin), headquartered at Route de la Galaise 32, 1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 2014 by Andy Yen and a team that originally met at CERN, Proton serves more than 100 million users worldwide and runs the most singular ownership structure in the directory: as of June 2024 the non-profit Proton Foundation (Swiss, Geneva; trustees include Andy Yen, Antonio Gambardella, Carissa Véliz, Tim Berners-Lee, and Dingchao Lu) is the controlling shareholder of Proton AG. The company explicitly takes no venture capital, its non-profit structure is designed to permanently prevent takeover attempts, and there is no path for a US-PE / US-VC investor to influence governance.
Compliance posture is exceptional. Proton holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 with the ISMS scope covering all product lines (Mail, Drive, Pass, VPN, Calendar, SimpleLogin) and SOC 2 Type II. The infrastructure footprint is also unusual: by February 2025 Proton had 11,496 servers across 117 countries, all owned and operated by Proton itself, not rented from hyperscalers. Primary processing is in Switzerland; named US sub-processors are limited to ancillary functions (Zendesk for customer support, Chargebee for billing automation, Stripe and PayPal for card payments, Atlassian for support-data storage) and do not touch zero-knowledge-encrypted customer files. Standard Contractual Clauses, Binding Corporate Rules, and certifications govern any third-country transfers. Switzerland is not in the EU but holds an EU adequacy decision under Art. 45 GDPR, so transfers EU↔CH require no SCCs.
Drive pricing in EUR: Free includes 5 GB encrypted storage plus Docs and Sheets; Drive Plus is from approximately €4/month for 200 GB and file-version recovery; Proton Unlimited at ~€10/month adds 500 GB, Mail with 15 custom addresses, VPN, Pass, and Proton Sentinel advanced account protection; Duo (2 TB, 2 users), Family (3 TB, 6 users), and Drive Professional (1 TB/user for business). Best fit: every EU and Swiss procurement-grade buyer requiring zero-knowledge encrypted file sharing with the strongest sovereignty story in the directory; particularly compelling for journalists, NGOs, regulated industries, and any organisation needing genuine "no one outside the customer can access this data" guarantees.
Sub-processor map · 8
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Chargebee, Inc. USUnited States
Payment data processing (billing automation); ancillary
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HubSpot, Inc. USUnited States
Business sales inquiries and contact requests; ancillary (added to the privacy policy between the 31 Mar 2026 and 12 May 2026 revisions)
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PayPal USUnited States
Payment data processing; ancillary
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Stripe, Inc. USUnited States
Payment data processing; ancillary
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Zendesk, Inc. USUnited States
Customer support data processing; ancillary
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Atlassian Pty Ltd non-USAustralia
Customer support data storage (EU/US/UK processing locations)
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ProtonLabs DOOEL Skopje non-USNorth Macedonia
Customer support and direct communications (Proton group company)
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ProtonLabs Taiwan Co., Ltd non-USTaiwan
Customer support and direct communications (Proton group company)
| Vendor | Country | Purpose | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chargebee, Inc. | United States | Payment data processing (billing automation); ancillary | US |
| HubSpot, Inc. | United States | Business sales inquiries and contact requests; ancillary (added to the privacy policy between the 31 Mar 2026 and 12 May 2026 revisions) | US |
| PayPal | United States | Payment data processing; ancillary | US |
| Stripe, Inc. | United States | Payment data processing; ancillary | US |
| Zendesk, Inc. | United States | Customer support data processing; ancillary | US |
| Atlassian Pty Ltd | Australia | Customer support data storage (EU/US/UK processing locations) | non-US |
| ProtonLabs DOOEL Skopje | North Macedonia | Customer support and direct communications (Proton group company) | non-US |
| ProtonLabs Taiwan Co., Ltd | Taiwan | Customer support and direct communications (Proton group company) | non-US |
Source: the vendor’s published sub-processor list, read 26 Aug 2026.
Frameworks & certifications
Capability matrix
Table 2Capabilities of Proton Drive
Integration & access
Compliance & governance
Pricing & tiers
Public documents
Alternatives in this category
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Switzerland · €10/moEU-HostedCLOUD Act exposure
How exposed customer data is to US authorities under the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act).
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None EU operator, no US parent, no US sub-processors of note.
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Minor A transient US sub-processor (CDN, maps); data at rest stays in the EU.
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Material This listing US parent, or a core sub-processor is a US-owned hyperscaler.
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Direct The operator itself is US-incorporated.
Public DPA: Yes Sub-processors: Yes Open source: No -
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Switzerland · €4/moEU-SovereignCLOUD Act exposure
How exposed customer data is to US authorities under the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act).
-
None This listing EU operator, no US parent, no US sub-processors of note.
-
Minor A transient US sub-processor (CDN, maps); data at rest stays in the EU.
-
Material US parent, or a core sub-processor is a US-owned hyperscaler.
-
Direct The operator itself is US-incorporated.
Public DPA: Yes Sub-processors: No Open source: No -
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Spain · €10/moEU-BasedCLOUD Act exposure
How exposed customer data is to US authorities under the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act).
-
None EU operator, no US parent, no US sub-processors of note.
-
Minor This listing A transient US sub-processor (CDN, maps); data at rest stays in the EU.
-
Material US parent, or a core sub-processor is a US-owned hyperscaler.
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Direct The operator itself is US-incorporated.
Public DPA: Yes Sub-processors: Yes Open source: Yes -
| Product | Sovereignty | CLOUD Act | Signals | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Tresorit
Switzerland
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EU-Hosted | CLOUD Act exposure
How exposed customer data is to US authorities under the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act).
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Public DPA: Yes
Sub-processors: Yes
Open source: No
|
€10/mo |
kDrive (Infomaniak)
Switzerland
|
EU-Sovereign | CLOUD Act exposure
How exposed customer data is to US authorities under the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act).
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Public DPA: Yes
Sub-processors: No
Open source: No
|
€4/mo |
Internxt
Spain
|
EU-Based | CLOUD Act exposure
How exposed customer data is to US authorities under the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act).
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Public DPA: Yes
Sub-processors: Yes
Open source: Yes
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€10/mo |