Proton has launched Meet, a video conferencing platform designed with user privacy in mind, offering an alternative to popular options like Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.

Meet utilizes end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to ensure private conversations and doesn’t require a subscription or even a Proton account to use. Users can host free one-hour meetings for up to 50 people. For longer durations, a “pro” plan is available, starting at $7.99 per month.

Proton explains that Meet was developed in response to the growing demand for EU-based, privacy-focused solutions that simplify compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. It aims to address the challenges arising from laws like the US Cloud Act and the current complex geopolitical landscape.

Beyond legal considerations, Proton emphasizes the common practice of using user conversations to train AI, which can lead to the exposure of private data from large language models (LLMs).

“Proton Meet gives you back control over your data and provides assurance by protecting your calls with end-to-end encryption, preventing eavesdropping or the use of your conversations for advertising, surveillance, or AI training,” Proton states.

Using Meet is simple: just create a meeting link and share it with participants.

The new service seamlessly integrates with Proton Calendar and also allows users to add scheduled meetings to Google and Microsoft calendars.

Proton Meet calls are secured with Messaging Layer Security (MLS), an open-source, independently audited end-to-end encryption protocol built for real-time group communication.

Proton has published a companion article with more in-depth information regarding MLS, stating that all media and chat are encrypted on the user’s device, preventing the company from accessing or processing any unencrypted data.

Proton Meet’s infrastructure uses WebRTC with Selective Forwarding Units (SFU) to distribute media and chat to all participants.

Each meeting link incorporates an ID and a password stored locally on the user’s device, and participants are authenticated using the Secure Remote Password (SRP) protocol, already used for a decade across Proton’s other products.

Regarding MLS, the system establishes a cryptographic group that shares an encryption key which is changed each time someone joins or leaves the meeting.

New participants are unable to access previous messages (forward secrecy), former participants can’t access future messages, and all participants can see everyone on the call, but their names are still end-to-end encrypted.

Email addresses and IP addresses remain private between participants, and Proton doesn’t keep logs of who met with whom.

The company asserts that even if its servers were compromised, traffic would remain unreadable and unmodifiable, and databases only contain meeting IDs, protecting sensitive data from hackers.

The main potential vulnerability is the compromise of the meeting link itself, which can be addressed by locking the meeting once all expected participants have joined, removing any unauthorized participants, or generating a new link.