Proton is a company founded by scientists from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland in 2014. Its best-known email service, Proton Mail, focuses on end-to-end encryption, security and privacy protection. Proton is led by scientists, including Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.
The company had announced a new open source password manager, Proton Pass, in April , but it was in closed beta at the time and only available to users with Proton Lifetime and Visionary plans. Now they're announcing the global availability of Proton Pass, available as a browser extension on most major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, etc.) as well as on iPhone/iPad and Android.
" Proton Pass is not just a password manager, it's an identity manager, which is a much stronger concept."
Proton Pass uses end-to-end encryption to securely store user data. The biggest difference from some password managers is that it not only encrypts the password field, but also encrypts data such as username, phone, URL, and even the data contained in the comment section.
Proton Pass also allows users to create "hide my email aliases". According to the introduction, an email alias is a randomly generated email address that sits between a third party (such as Amazon, Facebook, or Netflix) and the user's real email account. This not only prevents third parties from identifying the user, but also filters out trackers and other marketing tools before the message is forwarded to the user's primary inbox.
These email aliases also limit the impact of data breaches, when a website registered by a user using a "hide my email" alias is hacked, only the alias is exposed and the real email address remains safe. "If this happens and you start receiving phishing emails or spam through that alias, just disable it".
The free version of Proton Pass supports unlimited logins, unlimited encrypted notes, and a limited number of hide my email aliases and 2FA logins. Paid subscriptions get additional vaults for organizational logins, unlimited email aliases, and unlimited 2FA logins.
More details can be found on the official blog .