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Disclaimer: Paying Protonmail customer

I wanted to test how Protonmail is doing for new users I created an account from scratch just now over Tor.

1. Am asked to verify new account by entering a cell phone (edit: this is horrible. They lie and say account creation is anonymous, as pointed out by the poster below)

2. Upon login, "Basic" logs are selected which do not display IP. You can enable "Advanced" logs to log IP. I would suggest Protonmail make it crystal clear that these "Basic" logs do not store IP. In 2021, lies by omission are not good enough. Get rid of the soft language.

3. Their help page [1] says that "Advanced" (IP stored) logs are enabled by default. However, I created the account and it's just the Basic (no IP) logs. https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/authentication...



> 1. Am asked to verify new account by entering a cell phone (bogus)

Interestingly the sentence on their front page, right before the most commonly quoted snippet in this thread, is:

> No personal information is required to create your secure email account.

A phone number is quite a personal, unique identifier.


That's a great point. This should be better publicized. Protonmail requires a phone number to register through Tor.


This is completely false. I have created accounts (for others) over tor, without ever divulging a number. The exit node is a factor here. Sometimes email is required; if the need is there, throwaway emails work. I hate to tragedy-of-the-commons a good service, though, which is why I have a subscription.


Can you do it now?


Yep- just did. Took two tries to find a temp mail that wasn't blocked. No phone required.

For those concerned about using a temp mail site, it's only used to verify the account; it can never be used to recover it.

But the account is made and I can log into it just fine, perfectly accessible.


Protonmail required me to enter a phone number to create an account.

I just did it yesterday. The text from them says "Your Proton verification code is: ######"


I really appreciate the distinctions you made.

Welp.......Now, please excuse me, I need to go check my Protonmail settings pronto....


Suggest "Disable" on the logs. Setup Brave preferences to default to Onion sites when available. And use Tor: https://protonmailrmez3lotccipshtkleegetolb73fuirgj7r4o4vfu7...




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