Honest a case of "Well Duh".

Proton is for data privacy, not true anonymity. They'll keep your data safe from data collectors and the like, but they still have to comply with the law if they want to continue being a business.

So ofc if you pay for your Proton account by conventional means tied to your identity, then your details are tied to your account. Proton says as much on their website.

The only way around that is to use a service like Posteo that accepts posted cash or cryptocurrency - where they physically can't know who you are. But even then you're busted if you ever access that account without a VPN... which you would also have to pay for with cash or cryptocurrency, and hope to god they have a robust no-logs policy.

I'm still relatively new to Proton, but I thought I read early on that they would still have to comply with legal requests. I believed that their system was mostly in the realm of two secure accounts being able to hide the messages themselves. I use a card, so I am tied to my account. Does using whatever coin they take (if any) help with this? I remember reading they wanted to open more doors to alternate payment methods. I think it was to help privacy but also in large part so that they could still collect money if they ever get slapped down by other processors for making someone big mad for their privacy setup.

EDIT: I thought I had replied to something like this before. Found it. https://a.lemmy.world/lemmy.world/post/15148279 It seems to me that some just overestimate what the service is.

Bad opsec. Of course Proton will comply with court orders. It's your responsibility to not leave data they can hand over.

protonmail without PGP only has encryption for other protonmail users

I can't read the article because it's behind a paywall, so I'll ask here: What information was handed over specifically? The IP address of when the account was created? The payment details? Unencrypted data? Login information? Device data? Something else?

Proton's response

I can't read the full article because of the paywall, but duh? If you aren't paying physically or in crypto you can assume your government (and probably others!) already has that transaction on record, and to my knowledge those aren't totally secure either.

Everybody seems to confuse privacy with anonymity. If Proton doesn’t comply with the law, Proton will cease to exist.