Proton Mail adds direct Gmail integration, but the traditional migration methods are much better

With 100 million+ users, Proton Mail is the largest privacy-oriented email service. I consider it among the best, especially when used properly and ideally. We’ll come to those details later, but first, I’ll clarify that I have been a happy user of Proton Mail (with my own domain), Proton Calender and other Proton tools since 2023, nine years after its birth. Proton Mail is the largest truly end-to-end encrypted email hosting service since 2014. Proton Mail is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and is owned by the non-profit Proton Foundation through its subsidiary Proton AG. Proton Mail uses true client-side encryption to protect email content and user data before they are sent to Proton Mail servers, unlike other common email providers such as Gmail and Outlook.com (Hotmail.com). Not even Proton has the keys to the encryption. Only the metadata is unencrypted. Of course, encryption is often lost if you communicate with users outside of Proton Mail, but that is not the main focus of this article.

Clarifying the privacy goals by migrating

If you are planning to migrate to Proton Mail, at least one of the reasons is likely to be to get better privacy. This goes beyond the contents of your email messages. It is also to reduce or eliminate Big Tech constantly knowing our exact location. As I covered in my 2024 review Fairphone 4 with /e/OS privacy operating system, standard Android (Google and iOS constantly report the device’s location to either Google or Apple respectively (many times per hour) even when location services are supposedly deactivated by the user. In fact, Google recently settled the lawsuit about this by agreeing to pay U$93 million. Google is the owner of Gmail. By following the preferred traditional migration from Gmail to Proton Mail (as covered ahead), we stop using the Google application in our smarphone, or even connecting to the Gmail server from any other application or browser.

Traditional migration

I have helped several of my clients to migrate through from their existing email (Google or otherwise) to Proton Mail. There are options, depending upon how much historical mail exists, i.e. how many TB, GB or MB —and how much spam the user is currently receiving.

• If there is a low amount of historical email (i.e well below the capacity of the targeted Proton Mail plan), the user can use the Proton’s Easy Switch to replicate all of it. If their is a low amount of spam arriving to the user at the old address, then the entire old email can be forwarded to the new Proton Mail address (with or without a professional domain).
• On the other hand, if there is a high amount of historical email (i.e. much higher than the capacity of the targeted Proton Mail plan), then the user should not use Proton’s Easy Switch to replicate all of it, since it wouldn’t fit. In that case, this historical email can remain with the old provider (Gmail or otherwise) for access only occasional access from a computer, not to be accesed from the smartphone, or it can be downloaded and accessed only locally on a computer. If there is a high amount of daily spam arriving to the old address only very specific return addresses or domains should be set to be forwarded to the new address, i.e. those few for some reason, you can’t inform them of the new address or they are unable to update it. In the case of Gmail this is easily done frome a computer. That’s the best place to do it.

After forwarding, Google only knows that it went to a server in Swizerland, nothing more. With either of the two ways of doing a traditional migration, it is recommended to inform the closest contacts about the new address (family, friends, clients, banks, health services) and to add a note in the signature, suggesting people to update your email address to the new one. By doing this together with using a privacy phone like the one I reviewed in 2024 or my current Murena Fairphone 6 with /e/OS (not stock Android) and by not installing the Gmail app or otherwise connecting to the Gmail server from the smartphone, Google no longer has continuous access to the smartphone’s location.

What is the new Gmail integration in Proton Mail and why to avoid it

Proton has launched a new feature that allows users to seamlessly connect their Gmail accounts directly inside the Proton Mail app. It may sound good at first, but it’s very bad. When you use the Gmail integration within Proton Mail, Google can see your originating IP address and associated location data when your emails connect to and pass through their servers. Because the integration essentially acts as a bridge for your existing Gmail account, several factors apply:

• Email content & routing: Emails sent from or to your Gmail account are routed through Google’s servers, meaning Google can read them and see where the email originated.
• IP and location: Whenever your email program connects to Gmail, your device’s IP address (and therefore your general geographical location) is logged by Google just as it would be if you were using the official Gmail app.
• Proton’s safeguards: While Proton strips tracking pixels and ads from incoming Gmail messages to protect your privacy within your inbox, it cannot prevent Google from logging your connection data on their end.

This is by Google’s own admission! If you want to mask your location from Google entirely, you should avoid connecting your Gmail account to third-party apps like Proton’s Gmail integration (or any other app that connects directly to the Gmail server), as it requires granting access to your Google Account. You should follow one of the two possible traditional migrations covered above, and also use a smartphone made for privacy like my current Murena Fairphone 6 with /e/OS (not stock Android).

Integration of your professional domain with Proton Mail

All clients who host with my TecnoTur.LLC get free assistance to integrate your domain with Proton Mail. This includes the latest requirements for email deliverability: DKIM, DMARC and SPF.

My overall opinion about Proton Mail and Proton Calendar + suggestions

I love everything about Proton Mail and Proton Calendar. There are only two important and pending requests I have, one for each.

1. Please add full IDN support in Proton Mail, so that accented domains will appear the nice way, instead of displaying them in Punycode. Your competition already does it nicely.
2. Please add 4-week upcoming display to Proton Calendar, in addition to Day-Week-Month. Your competition already offers it. The 4-week upcoming display is so much more efficient and productive.

My upcoming book

To be notified of its release, visit GetPhonePrivacy.com or Privacidadtelefónica.com.

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Proton Mail incorpora integración directa con Gmail, pero la migración tradicional es mucho mejor