Government to block ProtonMail after bomb threat: Company responds to India | - Times of India
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
The Indian government has decided to block ProtonMail, an end-to-end encrypted email service, after a bomb threat was sent to private schools in Chennai. ProtonMail is working to resolve the situation and cooperate with Indian authorities. However, the company cannot directly answer to foreign law enforcement authorities.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11998237

The IT ministry has reportedly decided to issue an order blocking end-to-end encrypted email service ProtonMail. According to a report in Hindustan Times, the government is planning to block the email service at the request of the Tamil Nadu police over a hoax bomb threat sent to at least thirteen private schools in Chennai on February 8. The report says that the decision to block ProtonMail was taken at a meeting of the 69A blocking committee on Wednesday (February 14).

A Proton spokesperson told the publication that the company has received the request from MeitY “a few days ago”. “We are currently working to resolve this situation and are investigating how we can best work together with the Indian authorities to do so. We understand the urgency of the situation and are completely clear that our services are not to be used for illegal purposes. We routinely remove users who are found to be doing so and are willing to cooperate wherever possible within international cooperation agreements,” the spokesperson said.

  • UnfortunateShort
    73•9 months ago

    Send a bomb threat from all major mail-providers any% speedrun anyone?

    Seriously, as if no one ever send a threat from a throwaway Gmail account. The bullshit governments come up with to dismantle privacy…

    • @Catsrules@lemmy.ml
      11•9 months ago

      Have you tried creating an account recently with any other providers? Almost all of them require a phone number of some kind. This creates a paper trail back to the owner.

        • @Catsrules@lemmy.ml
          3•9 months ago

          Oh well please tell me. Have yet to find a way around creating a Gmail account without a valid phone number.

          • @LoveSausage@lemmy.ml
            10•9 months ago

            Well a few ways . Create it on a pixelphone running GOS thru the sandboxed playstore . I also believe it works on any phone running below android 5.

            Get a fake number. Plenty of options on Google I use a paid service using Monero. Worth it , cost like 3 euro for a few hours, or a few cents for a one-time SMS.

          • UnfortunateShort
            2•9 months ago

            I recently did just that, even via VPN. They simply didn’t ask me to. Maybe a regional thing?

      • UnfortunateShort
        2•9 months ago

        You will find services that provide you with a phone number that can be traced back to no one, if you dig a little… In some countries you can straight up just buy an eSIM with a false identity

    • StewbsOP
      6•9 months ago

      The thing is, google will willingly hand over the data willy-nilly when asked for which proton does not so ofc they are the “bad guys” here. Hurrr, what do you mean that I cannot ask you to access any user’s data at any time?! Also here’s a funny thing, look at the comments in the article I linked lol, they do not understand how Proton operates and how the Swiss law applies to them

          • shootwhatsmynameEnglish
            2•9 months ago

            we should make like a scoring system that (without human involvement) determines what brains are the best and worst behaved, thus more likely to benefit their leaders. we could design our society to keep people so preoccupied on making their score better (through things not beneficial to themselves whatsoever) that they don’t have enough time to think about how completely alone and manipulated they feel (we don’t want them feeling that :). maybe down the road this score could be used for good things like improving the economy (selling access to third parties) and handling food and resource concerns (automated death row enrollment)

  • @aronkvh
    21•9 months ago

    I hope they ban WhatsApp if anyone sends a bomb threath trough WhatsApp

  • StewbsOP
    9•9 months ago

    Btw Internet Freedom Foundation (or the IFF) filed several RTI requests (RTI = Request to information) regarding this situation. If anyone wants to follow their progress then here’s their Mastodon account: https://mastodon.world/@internetfreedom@mas.to

    The IFF is a highly trustworthy and well respected organization that fights for Indians digital rights and democratic freedoms. They’ve done a lot of good work over the years, they even helped VLC to get unblocked when it was banned in India.