With Emergency Access, you can choose up to five trusted contacts who can gain access to your account either immediately or after a custom wait time you set in advance, ranging from days to months. Your trusted contacts will also need to have a Proton Account to gain access.
You remain in control: If a trusted contact requests access to your account, during the wait time, you can approve it immediately or deny the request. If you do nothing, the request will automatically be approved after the designated waiting time. You can revoke access or modify your emergency contacts anytime. Once granted, your trusted contacts will be able to securely access your Proton data, including emails, passwords, and files.
To designate emergency contacts, you’ll need to have a paid Proton plan (all paid plans qualify).
I think this is a fantastic idea, but like 1Password’s Emergency access feature, it has some major flaws.
1. YOUR TRUSTEES NEED TO HAVE A PROTON ACCOUNT
IMO, this is stupid.
That is not realistic to real-world situations when you’re in the thick of real tragedies.
The people you trust the most are not necessarily going to have a Proton account. Even if you manage to convince your loved ones to create a Proton address for this purpose, if they are not privacy conscious, there’s a good chance they won’t use their account.
I created Proton addresses for some of my family members years ago, and they don’t use them. If they got an email at their Proton address, it would take them a long time to notice, if they notice at all.
The people I trust shouldn’t have to have a Proton account to access my data.
2. NO SUPPORT FOR MULTI-SUBS OVERCOMPLICATES THE PROCESS
The fact that Proton doesn’t support multiple subscriptions under one Proton account overcomplicates the emergency access process.
For those who don’t know, if you are a paying subscriber to a single Proton product (Proton Mail Plus), Proton will not allow you to pay for another Proton service (Proton Pass Plus) under the same account.
Your only choices are either to upgrade to Proton Unlimited, which is more expensive, or create a 2nd Proton account for Proton Pass Plus, and end up with a subpar user experience.
Because of this very problem, I pay for 3 Proton subscriptions in 3 separate accounts, and it’s very frustrating.
That means that because I have 3ish paid Proton accounts, I have to create 3 emergency access protocols, which is stupid and makes things more complicated for my loved ones.
To me, it’s obvious that Proton does this out of greed. They are deliberately punishing people who don’t want to pay for Proton Unlimited or can’t afford it. I have asked them about it, and they have no plans to allow bundled subscriptions under the same account. It is a marketing decision. To me, it smacks of enshittification and a dark pattern.
Uhm no.
The reason the other person needs a Proton account is that they need a secret stored to be able to unlock your account and data.
Paying 3 subscriptions doesnt make any sense jusr get unlimited… it is just to keep things simple. My biggest complain would that they have too many pricing options.
And that can’t be implemented without the trustees needing a Proton account?
I’m doubtful of that. 1Password has the same policy, and I think it’s stupid. Why would my trustee need a 1Password account, if they already have a password manager and are happy with it? And even if they don’t, there should be a way to make emergency access secure without the trustee needing an account.
That statement is incredibly dismissive and inconsiderate. There are people who simply cannot afford Proton Unlimited. It’s as simple as that. I can’t afford it. It’s way too expensive for me.
Moreover, even if some people can afford it, they don’t want or need it. It’s a common and popular recommendation in the privacy community to compartmentalize your data, and not use the same service for everything. Some people would rather use Mullvad as their VPN provider. Also, some of Proton’s products do not stand strongly on their own, like Proton Drive.
Out of interest. What 3 services are you using that are cheaper combined than Proton Unlimited?
You could do SL premium (3/month), Pass+ (2.99/month), and Drive+ (200GB 3.99/month) for $9.98/month. Just saved you 12 cents. 
Seriously though, the real savings is that its much easier to just make a new account with the same service each year, if each service is tied to a separate account.
This means you can take advantage of the Black Friday deals every year. That’s a ~20%+ saving every year vs 1 year of black Friday savings with an unlimited account. This is mostly because Proton cares more about “new” customers then existing customers.
Technically it can be, but it’d be probably rather complicated, with them holding onto a file or something similar, and also re-acquiring those files when keys are rotated (don’t know if that’s a thing Proton does, but it’d make sense after revoking a trustee for example). You see, your trustees already have your keys regardless of whether they have access, and Proton’s server side is the one limiting access. This way if proton turned evil (or got a subpoena or whatever) they still couldn’t access your data, at most just allow your trustees to access it bypassing your authorization or time limit.
Time-limited encryption that eventually runs out is not possible and will not be possible as far as we know, so this is the best implementation one can make.
Like any normal business.
Proton Mail Plus, Proton Pass Plus, and Standard Notes which has yet to be implemented into the Proton suite, hence the “3ish”.
That doesn’t sound like a good deal. I don’t need nor want to pay for Proton Drive Plus.
I also don’t understand what’s funny about it.
You are completely missing my point, which is that we should be allowed to have multiple Proton subscriptions under the same account. There is no good reason to prevent it. Proton, which is a very successful company, is doing it out of greed.
In both scenarios, the one where I upgrade to Proton Unlimited, and the one where I create and pay for multiple Proton accounts, Proton gets my money. They get my money. So why not let us have 2 subscriptions under the same account if it’s all we need? GREED is the only answer I can think of.
That is stupid. It would mean abandoning every account you create every year and losing data. Also, people don’t know this, but transferring data from one Proton account to another is not a smooth process at all. Some data can’t even be transferred, which means having to abandon it or go through a long, tedious manual process.
A potential compromise I thought of is one where your trustee wouldn’t need a Proton account to verify themselves. They could verify themself with any non-Proton account, like a Gmail address, however, upon verification, they would need to create a Proton account to access the data.
That being said, this could easily be too complicated for some trustees. It puts a lot of pressure on them to remember their new Proton account details, and if they don’t have a password manager, they could easily make mistakes. Never forget that the people you leave behind could be seniors (your parents) if you’re single and/or childless. This is an important factor to consider.
Really stop bullshitting and complaining pfff.
Standard Notes is still its own company so that definitely won’t fly.
Why would a non profit be greedy?? If anything this is a sensible business model.
Seniors can use a proton account and if they don’t have a password manager perhaps you should help them to get one.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. As I’ve explained in my comment on a different post, Proton relies heavily on the privacy community to attract new customers inside and outside their current user base.
How exactly am I BSing?
I don’t get your point. Is Standard Notes not a Proton product, despite it not being integrated? Am I not paying for 2 other Proton products that I can’t manage under the same account?
Because non-profits have never been shown to be corrupted in the history of humanity? Right. Proton is still a business. The Mozilla Foundation is also a non-profit and we still criticize many of their decisions. I really don’t understand your aggression.
Explain to me why it’s a bad idea to not allow users to pay for multiple Proton services under one account. As I pointed out, in both scenarios, Proton is getting my money.
You do realize that some people don’t live in the same city or country as their parents, or whoever their trustee might be, right?
Also, suppose your trustee creates a free Proton account, just for the purpose of being your trustee. They don’t use their account, and it remains inactive for over a year, which means Proton will automatically delete it. They miss the warnings, the account is gone, years go by, and something happens to you. Now what?
@ph00lt0 Sure but it also incentivizes breaking the TOS and avoiding the package they are obviously trying to get people to buy.
You could easily transfer the data each time.
Incorrect. This is the type of assumption made when you have not tried but want to argue anyway.
I do think the utility is limited if your contacts are not established in the privacy/proton ecosystem, regardless there are plenty of other recovery methods. Proton has also (per the reddit thread) not ruled out expanding this option beyond Proton in the future if they can find a workable method.
It’s not an assumption. I’ve investigated it and asked about it. Aliases cannot be transferred from one Proton account to another. If I upgraded to Proton Unlimited, which I have no desire to, and cannot afford, I would not be able to automatically transfer all my aliases from my Proton Pass account. The rest of my Proton data can be transferred, but not my aliases.
I’m still waiting for an explanation of how exactly I am BSing.
Thank you.
What are you talking about? You just login to your SL account and switch which mailbox it forwards the emails too.
You can even change which proton account (unlink old account and then link new one) is associated with your SL account, which means you can easily connect a new pass sub to your old alias’
25 posts were split to a new topic: Proton Pass and SimpleLogin are separate services
I think it should have been if either participant is a paid subscription. For example, if a parent has a free account and I have a paid - the parent should be allowed to give me emergency access despite their account being free. This also solves the billing problem, since this feature is often used after the owner is incapacitated.
Proton’s current suggested solution is to just make sure a credit card is added so the credit card can be auto-charged after death as “usually isn’t cancelled immediately”, but this is at minimum an odd solution. In some jurisdictions this could even be considered fraudulent behavior by the estate as the contractual agreement between bank and cardholder does terminate on cardholders’ expiration.
u/Proton_Team:
EDIT: Whoever gets emergency access can continue paying for your account if they wish to do so. If that person takes too long to renew the payment method, your account may be downgraded. You can also avoid this problem by leaving a credit card on file as that usually isn’t cancelled immediately
Discover:
Stop all use of the credit card(s). Credit cards are no longer valid when the sole primary cardmember has passed away. No one should use the card, even the executor of the estate, even if it’s for what seems like a legitimate purpose (like paying for funeral costs).
What Happens to Credit Card Debt When You Die? | Discover
This is a better solution, but it still requires the trustee to be on Proton, which, IMO, is an unnecessary obstacle.
It seems to me that you’re better off writing your Proton credentials down in a secret physical document and tell your trustees where and how to access that document if anything happens to you. You could potentially give it to a lawyer.
That, or have practice drills one or twice a year with your trustees, which should also prevent free Proton accounts from expiring.
It’s still tricky if your trustees don’t live in the same city or country as you.
Using the emergency access feature for this sounds like an incredibly ill-advised thing to do. There are already legal processes that bypass the probate process (declaring beneficiaries). Where the same beneficiary process largely bypasses claims from creditors. Doing this could be an incredibly costly move for the estate and open family members up to lawsuits from those same creditors.
Having accessing to a loved ones email/pw manager can be great for learning who to contact on death. I can understand accessing Proton to export beloved and cherished photos in drive, or heartfelt emails between family that need to be remembered, but in my opinion:
If a loved one dies, you should not use their PW manager to access financial accounts beyond downloading the most recent statement.
Edit: If this is something parents (US) would like to do then a joint bank account would achieve the same result.
Using a password manager’s emergency access feature to access and transfer money out of a financial account when you do not have the legal authority to do so does not strike me as wise. If the individual dies you could lose many legal protections. In the case of death it’s not just about “trusting siblings” - there could be creditors who now can make a claim against that amount.
If parents want to achieve the end goal you describe there are thoughtful ways to go about that that don’t involve fraud, such as the aforementioned joint account or POD.
My point is that while this feature is great to gain access to important information. Those with emergency access should be very thoughtful about using the access to masquerade as the account holder.