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Proton Mail helped FBI unmask anonymous ‘Stop Cop City’ protester
(www.404media.co)
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this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2026
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The thing turned over was payment data. IE receipt that just says "yes there is a record of this identity purchasing a full account."
So not really Proton snitching but the activist having poor opsec in how they purchase digitally (namely you should not. Even Mulvad VPN advises that since for tax reasons purchase activities have to be recorded)
If you had already purchased in the past before you learned good opsec when it comes to purchases, are you just fucked then?
Depends how far back we are talking. But a safer solution is assume whatever you purchase via card is unsecure
Paying with a credit card means there is a payment trail back to your identity there.
Proton does allow you to pay with anonymous methods, a credit card is by no means required
Poor OpSec for sure here.
You can buy a Visa card with cash from the grocery store. Or better yet, have someone in another state buy it and send it to you so if that card can be traced to a location, it’s not yours.
I see credit card, pay pal and Google pay? Which is anonymous?
Edit I see, seems to be available after account creation, described on its payments page