The privacy-focused email service associated with the 2013 founding of its project is ProtonMail.
ProtonMail was created by scientists who met at CERN and MIT, with the project founded in 2013 and its public beta beginning in 2014. The service was designed around privacy, using end-to-end encryption for messages exchanged between ProtonMail users. Proton cannot normally decrypt those messages because the encryption keys are controlled by users' browsers and devices.
The service is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and operates under Swiss privacy law. ProtonMail later expanded into Proton, a broader privacy ecosystem that includes VPN, Drive, Calendar, and Pass. The company officially changed its name from ProtonMail to Proton in 2022, although Proton Mail remains the name of its email product.
A common mix-up is assuming every message sent to or from any email provider is automatically end-to-end encrypted. Messages between Proton Mail accounts receive the strongest integrated protection; communication with outside recipients may require a password-protected encrypted message or OpenPGP.