Video calls have become a normal part of life. Whether it is work meetings, school sessions, doctor visits, or simply checking in with family, folks increasingly rely on video conferencing to stay connected when they cannot be in the same room. The problem is that many of the services people depend on today come with privacy tradeoffs that are not always obvious.
Privacy-focused company Proton is trying to change that with the launch of Proton Meet, a new video conferencing service designed from the ground up with end-to-end encryption. The company says the goal is simple. Your conversations should remain private, even from the platform hosting them.
Mainstream video meeting platforms have grown enormously over the past several years, but they also collect metadata and other information about meetings. In some cases, the audio, video, chat content, or transcripts may be processed or analyzed. Proton argues that in a world increasingly driven by artificial intelligence, that creates a new risk. Conversations that people assume are private could potentially be used for analytics or even machine learning training depending on how policies evolve.
Proton Meet takes a different approach. The service encrypts calls end to end, meaning that audio, video, screen sharing, and messages are protected so that only the participants in the meeting can access them. Even Proton itself cannot view the content of calls.
The company says Proton Meet relies on Messaging Layer Security, an open-source protocol designed specifically for encrypted group communication. The idea is to provide strong privacy guarantees while still supporting modern collaboration features.
Despite the heavy focus on security, Proton Meet aims to remain simple to use. You do not need to create an account to start a call. Users can generate a meeting link instantly and invite anyone to join, even if those participants have never used Proton before.
The service supports common features people expect from modern meeting platforms, including screen sharing, real-time chat, and high-definition audio and video. Meetings can also be scheduled through Proton Calendar or added to other calendars such as Google or Microsoft.
For casual use, Proton Meet is free. Meetings can include up to 50 participants and last up to one hour. Users who need longer meetings or additional capabilities can upgrade to the Meet Professional plan, which starts at $7.99 per user per month.
Proton says more than 100 million people already rely on its services, which include encrypted email, VPN access, password management, and cloud storage. With Proton Meet now joining that lineup, the company is clearly working toward a full productivity ecosystem built around privacy rather than data collection.
Whether Proton Meet can realistically compete with the massive reach of established platforms remains to be seen. Still, for folks who worry about who might be listening in on their online conversations, the idea of a video meeting platform that cannot access your calls at all will likely be appealing.
