Swiss privacy-focused company Proton has launched its cloud storage service with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for Mac usersfour months after landing on Windows.
Proton was founded about nine years ago, initially focusing on its flagship Gmail alternative called Proton Mail, but the company has expanded its horizons on a VPNa password manager, Calendar and, indeed, cloud storage.
Proton has debuted Proton Drive on the web last Septemberfollowed by native mobile apps in December and Windows in July — so today’s news pretty much means that Proton Drive is now fully cross-platform, with users able to sync everything across all the devices they use.
Proton Drive for Mac Image credits: Proton
Proton Drive is part of Proton’s larger plan to bring secure, privacy-focused alternatives to Google to market. Or, perhaps more accurately in the case of most Mac users, an alternative to Apple’s iCloud.
Indeed, Proton Drive promises full encryption for files and folders by default — although Apple recently introduced end-to-end encryption for certain types of data in iCloud, it must be manually enabled by users. Proton Drive, on the other hand, says it uses full encryption on all data, including metadata and filenames, by default.
Proton Drive ships with 1GB of storage for freewith additional paid plans available starting at $4/month for 200GB of storage plus additional features such as the ability to automatically save previous versions of a file for up to 10 years.
Currently, Proton Drive for Mac will only sync cloud files stored in the Proton Drive folder, but Proton says it works to enable sync for any local folder
Also, while Proton has open sourced most of its apps over the years, allowing third parties like security researchers to inspect the underlying code, the Proton Drive Mac app isn’t open source yet — but the company says that it will happen to you in due time.
And for Linux users, Proton has it was previously stated that it would eventually happenbut it is on his long-term roadmap.
