Is Proton moving somewhere? What is this person talking about?

[u/HorrorsPersistSoDoI]

[u/Numar19]

The federal council of Switzerland proposed some stupid changes that would have harmed smaller companies. If I remember correctly not a single party was in favor of it during the Vernehmlassung. I don't think it went anywhere afterwards.

[u/The_Duke28 → u/Numar19]

You are correct, it was a dead-on-arrival idea by the BÜPF that got blown out of proportion on reddit and cheap click-bait press. As you said, no party was in favor of this idea, no interest-groups nor lobbies. Everyone hated this idea but people acted like it's game over for everyone... 🤷

[u/Benke01 → u/Numar19]

They considered Germany if I remember it correctly. But didn't need to do any changes.

[u/Mixels → u/Benke01]

Why Germany? They've been a Five Eyes country since 2018.

[u/HelloPeopleOfEarth → u/Mixels]

You can be a member of the Five Eyes whilst still protecting privacy. Mullvad in Sweden is a good example. The government can't compel providers to log traffic, data, metadata.

[u/Mixels → u/HelloPeopleOfEarth]

I mean, that's kind of contrary to the nature of the Five Eyes mission. It's not so much that the government can compel national providers to do anything so much as it is that the government can monitor wires and access data at rest, presumably including decryption keys. I can envision Proton's data being unsafe from government prying if hosted in any Five Eyes country.

[u/ouilsen → u/Mixels]

So the six eyes.

[u/Naisby_Janisch → u/Numar19]

yeah that sounds about right, pretty sure it got dropped after the consultation phase

[u/Elegabal]

The news are more than one year old and are therefore not related to any current events. Proton made a plan B to move infrastructure to Germany and other countries if Switzerland would install stricter digital surveillance rules. Didn't happen.

[u/GNUr000t → u/Elegabal]

I'm not sure Germany would be a much better option because then all sorts of hate speech laws apply.

[u/shaun330]

Where could they possibly move to??

[u/EasyTradition9843 → u/shaun330]

Iceland.

[u/Regular_Bat8162 → u/EasyTradition9843]

Or Norway

But they would only move if the Swiss government signs the anti privacy law

That was the reason and it was loud in media I don’t remember the name or essence of it but it’d be bad

[u/Zvaart → u/shaun330]

Germany

[u/Ilthy_]

It might be related to this news from a year ago: https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/is-proton-leaving-switzerland-legal-uncertainty-of-proposed-surveillance-laws-is-pushing-them-to-make-several-changes

Proton was investing in infrastructure outside of Switzerland due to a proposed Swiss law.

The important quite from that article, in my opinion:

While the company did not specify that Germany would become the new home of the majority of its infrastructure, Proton confirmed to TechRadar that investing in Europe doesn't equate to leaving Switzerland.

I have not heard anything about it since

[u/SirGrinchy]

There had been plans of Proton to move their servers to Germany and Norway(? IIRC). Reason was that they introduced a new law in Switzerland which effectively cuts down on privacy, making it worse than the EU privacy laws, which now seem to be better (in terms of more private and secure) - thus Proton was thinking about moving their stuff into the EU while keeping their HQ in Switzerland. But I haven’t heard any update on this, I don’t know if the process has started or if any of this even still is on their plan.

[u/atuarre → u/SirGrinchy]

And what happens when the laws change in Norway and Germany?

[u/Fear_The_Creeper → u/atuarre]

They move again. Plenty of countries that don't have any laws about how you run your server. Or, as happened in this case, the Swiss backed down.

[u/Cerenas]

Seeing he's mentioning US and EU privacy battle, maybe he's referring to this news and worrying that might happen to Proton if they move to EU countries? https://nltimes.nl/2026/10/14/amsterdam-server-seized-request-us-authorities-antifa-allegations

[u/block6791 → u/Cerenas]

Yes, I think so too. I think it's a first that the US authorities directed the police to physically retrieve a server from a 'sovereign' hosting provider.

[u/ChocolateFormal8123]

Well even if where to? There aren’t a great many places that offer regulation and security.

Scandinavia is great but it’s unstructured and pricing is too high for the same quality in places like Germany. Selected SEA countries have stability.

Maybe Antarctica or Greenland farming is next

[u/Regular_Bat8162 → u/ChocolateFormal8123]

Iceland or Norway

But they’re not leaving (yet)

[u/huranol]

Game theory suggest,

The eyes on Proton will lead to more restrictions. Between DPI, Sanctions, And Privacy Revokations,

Migration is an option.

Its important to look ahead interms of security and privacy.

Waiting for the "hit" to happen without preparation or after it happens is fair too late.

Take precautions and prepare.

[u/Rekka_Mie]

I've heard that they are planning to move their servers or smth to Norway