The Proton company has been a leader in offering highly secure applications. That includes the popular Proton Mail, along with Proton Calendar and other services. Today, it announced the natural next step in its software offerings: a password manager which it calls, of course, Proton Pass.
The company claims that Proton Pass will be different than other well-known password managers like LastPass, which has suffered from some recent security breaches. Proton says:
Proton Pass doesn’t just encrypt the password field but applies end-to-end encryption to all fields, including usernames, web addresses, and all data contained in the encrypted notes section.
This means Proton Pass prevents anyone, including Proton itself, from knowing which online services you subscribe to or have accounts with. This information, much like your emails or your browsing history, can reveal a lot about you and must be protected if you want to maintain your privacy.
The service will not only store things like email addresses, user names, and passwords in a secure virtual vault, but also other things like "license numbers, codes, or simple text notes". It can even generate email addresses for users:
This feature enables you to create randomly generated email addresses that you can use in place of your real email addresses for online accounts. This makes it easy to shut down an alias that’s linked to a service that’s breached or begins sending you spam without affecting your other accounts.
Proton Pass was developed primarily by the former SimpleLogic secure email team that Proton acquired in August 2022. It is launching first as a limited beta for iOS and Android, along with extensions for the Chrome and Brave web browsers. Invites to try out the beta will be sent to Proton"s Lifetime and Visionary users within the next week, and a public launch is scheduled for later in 2023.