- Proton said that the company had started to move part of its physical infrastructure outside Switzerland for fear of the new supervisory law proposed
- Lumo, the cat of the newly launched company of the company, the AI cat, is the first product to move
- A modification of the current surveillance law would oblige VPNs and messaging applications to identify and keep user data
Proton confirmed that the company had started to leave Switzerland due to “legal uncertainty” on the newly proposed supervisory law.
The Proton privacy cat, first in terms of privacy, Lumo, became the first product to change at home, “investing in Europe does not equivalent to the leaving Switzerland,” said a company spokesperson in Techradar, in the midst of rumors that she leaves the country for good.
The company behind one of the best VPNs and encrypted email services was very critical of the amendment proposed by the Swiss government of its surveillance law from the start, already sharing plans to leave Switzerland in May.
If it passes, the order on monitoring of correspondence by Post and Telecommunications (OSCPT) will present new obligations for virtual private networks (VPN), messaging applications and social networks. These measures include compulsory user identification and data retention of up to six months for all services with at least 5,000 users. Providers will also be required to decipher communication at the request of the authorities if they have encryption keys.
LUMO – The first from
Proton launched its competitor Chatgpt, Lumo, in July 2025, to give its users an alternative to large technological solutions that really protect their privacy.
In a blog article on the launch, the proton chief of anti-abuse and account security, Eamonn Maguire, explains that the company has decided to invest outside Switzerland for fear of imminent legal changes.
He wrote: “Due to the legal uncertainty concerning the Swiss government’s proposals to introduce mass monitoring – proposals that have been prohibited in the EU – Proton moves most of its physical infrastructure from Switzerland. Lumo will be the first product to move.”
Speaking of a Swiss publication after the launch, the CEO of Proton, Andy Yen, confirmed that the modifications proposed to the Swiss surveillance law made the company opt for the company to accommodate the servers of Lumo. Proton also confirmed that it also developed installations in Norway.
Although the company did not specify that Germany would become the new house of the majority of its infrastructure, Proton confirmed to Techradar that the investment in Europe does not equivalent to the left Switzerland.
However, it should be noted that being based in the EU could make proton, and similar companies, vulnerable to wider data retention or digitization obligations if proposals like the so-called protection or chat control had to pass.
We have approached Proton to clarify this point, but we are still waiting for an answer at the time of publication.
What is the next step for the privacy industry of Switzerland technology?
Proton is not the only supplier who was expressed against what criticisms have judged the “war against anonymity” on online Switzerland.
Another VPN supplier, NYMVPN, confirmed in May its intention to leave Switzerland if the new surveillance rules are applied.
Speaking to Techradar, the co-founder and chief of NYM, Alexis Roussel, shares the support of Proton’s decision to find a new house for his private AI chatbot.
He said: “Proton is able to develop, so it makes sense. You cannot invest in privacy in Switzerland at the moment.”
Roussel has also confirmed to Techradar that the company had already developed a strategy to move its VPN activities outside of Switzerland and the EU. However, this remains the last resort.
He also explains that the fact that NYM works on a decentralized infrastructure means that it will not be affected by the encryption provision, because the company has no encryption key.
“Depending on the way they change things within the law, this will affect our decision to move. But we would like to resist the order until the end and go to court,” said Roussel.
As Cyberinsider reported, the secure and private messaging application session also said that “while keeping a careful eye on the situation”, its decentralized structure means that its services are less vulnerable to changes.
