You can repeat that framing, but it’s still inaccurate. Proton didn’t “unmask a user for the FBI.” They complied with a legal order from Swiss authorities for data they already had, and that information was later shared through legal channels.

What identified the user was their own payment data tied to the account. If you pay with a credit card and create the account without anonymity tools, your identity is already linked — no provider has to “break” anything.

That’s the uncomfortable reality: people often de-anonymize themselves by using identifiable payments and normal connections instead of Tor and anonymous methods when creating the account.