Proton VPN
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.
CERN-founded Swiss VPN (Proton AG, Geneva), owned by non-profit Proton Foundation; 15,000+ servers, audited no-logs, open-source apps, free tier.
Proton VPN is a European service hosted in Switzerland, with at most minor, transient US exposure under the CLOUD Act. It is listed under VPN.
Assessment notes
Proton VPN, operated by Proton AG in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, is owned primarily by the non-profit Proton Foundation (Swiss-registered, CHE-418.863.304). Founders Andy Yen, Jason Stockman, and Dingchao Lu (CERN alumni) donated their shares in 2024, structurally protecting Proton from US-PE acquisition; account data is encrypted and stored exclusively in Switzerland, Germany, or Norway, Proton owns and operates its Secure Core servers and most Swiss/German nodes, the no-logs policy has been independently audited and published every year since 2022 by Securitum (five consecutive annual audits, most recent 2026), the transparency report is public and current through June 2026, all apps are open-source. Proton deliberately does not run a warrant canary and says so: it states a canary is not meaningful under Swiss law, because Swiss law requires the target of a surveillance or data request to be notified eventually. Swiss-jurisdiction, non-profit-owned, with a public DPA (proton.me/legal/dpa): the US support/payment sub-processors (Zendesk, Stripe, PayPal, Chargebee) are ancillary and off the service-data path, never touching user traffic or encrypted data (Proton runs its own infrastructure); however, Proton's account and API endpoints sit on Proton IP ranges for which the only upstream is Cloudflare's network (AS13335, 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); VPN tunnel traffic itself runs on the VPN server network, not through these ranges. It remains the strongest ownership and transparency signal set in this category.
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
- 7 · 4 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: Yes
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Third-party certification: No
Jump to
About Proton VPN
Proton VPN is part of the Proton privacy-tech group operated by Proton AG (Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland) and is the structurally strongest VPN listing in this directory by procurement-grade criteria. Founded in 2014 by Andy Yen, Jason Stockman, and Dingchao Lu (scientists who met at CERN), Proton has run a privacy-by-default product portfolio (Mail, VPN, Drive, Calendar, Pass) for over a decade. In 2024, the founders and first employee donated their controlling shares to the newly-established Proton Foundation, a non-profit registered in Geneva (CHE-418.863.304) which now serves as the primary shareholder of Proton AG. The foundation structure permanently protects Proton from venture-capital acquisition or US private-equity takeover, a unique ownership architecture in the EU/CH privacy-tech landscape.
Compliance posture is gold-standard. Switzerland holds an EU adequacy decision under Art. 45 GDPR, so transfers between EU and CH require no SCCs. The privacy policy (last updated 30 July 2025) commits that account data is encrypted and stored exclusively in Switzerland, Germany, or Norway; Proton owns and operates its Secure Core servers and most Swiss/German VPN nodes; all servers feature full-disk encryption with no stored logs or user data. The no-logs policy has been independently audited and published (a differentiator vs nearly every other VPN brand that claims no-logs without an audit), and Proton publishes a public transparency report plus a warrant canary documenting law-enforcement requests. All consumer apps are 100% open-source.
The product covers 15,000+ servers across 140+ countries, supports up to 10 simultaneous device connections on paid plans, and offers Secure Core (multi-hop through Swiss / Icelandic / Swedish fortified servers), NetShield ad/tracker/malware blocking, port forwarding, P2P/BitTorrent-friendly servers, streaming-unblock servers, and Tor-over-VPN. The free tier is uncommonly generous: one device, medium speed, servers in 10 randomly-selected countries, no data limits, no artificial speed throttling, no ads, and full privacy guarantees. VPN Plus is the paid entry tier with multi-currency (CHF / EUR / USD); spring-sale 1-year discounts up to 65% have been advertised. Best fit: privacy-maximalist consumers, journalists, activists, EU SMBs, and any organisation needing the strongest possible ownership-and-jurisdiction guarantees in a VPN provider.
Sub-processor map · 7
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Chargebee, Inc. USUnited States
Payment data processing; ancillary
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PayPal group USUnited States
Payment data processing; ancillary (policy now lists US + Singapore)
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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 (policy now lists EU + US + UK as processing locations)
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ProtonLabs DOOEL Skopje non-USNorth Macedonia
Customer support / direct communications (Proton group entity)
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ProtonLabs Taiwan Co., Ltd non-USTaiwan
Customer support / direct communications (Proton group entity)
| Vendor | Country | Purpose | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chargebee, Inc. | United States | Payment data processing; ancillary | US |
| PayPal group | United States | Payment data processing; ancillary (policy now lists US + Singapore) | 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 (policy now lists EU + US + UK as processing locations) | non-US |
| ProtonLabs DOOEL Skopje | North Macedonia | Customer support / direct communications (Proton group entity) | non-US |
| ProtonLabs Taiwan Co., Ltd | Taiwan | Customer support / direct communications (Proton group entity) | non-US |
Source: the vendor’s published sub-processor list, read 26 Aug 2026.
Frameworks & certifications · none listed
Capability matrix
Table 2Capabilities of Proton VPN
Integration & access
Compliance & governance
Pricing & tiers
Public documents
Alternatives in this category
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Italy · €7/moEU-SovereignCLOUD 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 This listing 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 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: No Sub-processors: No Open source: No -
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Sweden · €3.75/moEU-HostedCLOUD 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 A transient US sub-processor (CDN, maps); data at rest stays in the EU.
-
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: No Sub-processors: No Open source: No -
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Romania · €2.19/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: No Sub-processors: Yes Open source: No -
| Product | Sovereignty | CLOUD Act | Signals | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
AirVPN
Italy
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EU-Sovereign | CLOUD Act exposure
How exposed customer data is to US authorities under the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act).
|
Public DPA: No
Sub-processors: No
Open source: No
|
€7/mo |
AzireVPN
Sweden
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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).
|
Public DPA: No
Sub-processors: No
Open source: No
|
€3.75/mo |
CyberGhost
Romania
|
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: No
Sub-processors: Yes
Open source: No
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€2.19/mo |