Proton has long since moved from being a dedicated email service to a suite similar to what Google offers. In addition to email, the company offers a VPN, cloud storage, a password manager, and even a calendar. Today, it’s adding a very interesting service that directly attacks one of Google’s most popular free tools: Proton Docs.

Special texts. Proton Docs’ proposition is simple: Imagine Google Docs without Google. Well, this is it. According to Proton, it’s a completely private text editor. The company ensures that the editor is end-to-end encrypted, so not even the company itself can know what you’re writing. In their own words:

“Even keystrokes and cursor movements are encrypted.”

Real-time collaboration in Proton Docs | Image: Proton

But also collaborative.. Being private and encrypted doesn’t mean that Google Docs doesn’t have one of its greatest virtues: collaboration. If there’s one thing that makes Google Docs and Microsoft 365 popular, it’s sharing a link with a colleague or friend so they can write to us. Proton Docs also offers that functionality, as well as the ability to add comments, add photos, and store files, but encrypted.

Because right now? As Proton explains, “online document editors have become a staple productivity tool, used for everything from custom journals to sensitive business strategies.” The problem for the firm is that the companies that offer these tools are “the same Big Tech companies that collect and monetize your private information.”

They also took the opportunity to add: “When you give your data to these companies, you no longer have control over how it is used. Data that you consider private could even be used to train artificial intelligence in the future.” In this sense, Proton reminded that its headquarters are in Switzerland and that the data is therefore covered by local privacy laws.

Price:sFor those interested, Proton Docs is part of Proton Drive, a service that is available for both free and paid accounts. One thing to keep in mind is that the free version of Proton Drive only includes 5GB of storage.

Image | Proton

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