Egypt started blocking Proton privacy services

In early June 2023, Egypt started blocking access to Proton privacy services.

Proton, headquartered in Switzerland, provides encrypted email, calendar, file storage, and an encrypted password manager, as well as a VPN. OONI data shows that ISPs in Egypt blocked access to the main Proton site (proton.me), as well as to the ProtonVPN website.

The following chart aggregates OONI measurement coverage from the testing of proton.me and protonvpn.com in Egypt between 1st January 2023 to 25th November 2023.

From the above chart we can see that both proton.me and protonvpn.com were previously mostly accessible in Egypt, only starting to present persistent signs of blocking from 1st June 2023 onwards. The fact that the testing of both proton.me and protonvpn.com started to present anomalies in early June 2023 – and that most measurements (for both domains) continued to present anomalies over the next months – provides a strong indication of blocking.

Moreover, we observe anomalous measurements on multiple networks during the same period for both domains, suggesting that the block is implemented by several ISPs in Egypt. A closer look at the anomalous measurements shows that ISPs are implementing the block by means of TLS interference. Specifically, OONI data shows the timing out of the session after the ClientHello message during the TLS handshake. Recent OONI data suggests that the block remains ongoing.

By blocking access to proton.me, ISPs in Egypt may limit internet users’ ability to use privacy-enhancing services, such as Proton Mail and Proton Drive. And by blocking access to protonvpn.com, ISPs limit options for censorship circumvention – particularly in light of the pre-existing blocking of many other circumvention tool websites in Egypt.

If you are in Egypt, you can test Proton services to contribute more measurements by running OONI Probe.