this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023
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Proton is end-to-end encrypted - they don't have the keys themselves. With TLS, encryption is between you and the server, but the information can be decrypted on the server side.
At least that's my understanding of it. If you want Proton's own words, they wrote an explanation on their website. :)
I fail to see how the mails being encrypted stops them from using IMAP(s) like everyone else. IMAP doesn't care what the contents of the email it's sending/fetching are, and is perfectly compatible with other E2EE solutions like PGP/GPG which they say their solution is based on.
If IMAP is enabled on a provider, that provider can access your emails, unless you've encrypted the content of the email itself (with something like pgp or gpg). Proton only has access to emails in transit and after that, it can no longer access your email as it's entirely encrypted. Since Proton doesn't save the emails in transit, it has zero ability to provide those emails even if given an enforceable subpoena. Other providers that use IMAP can and do have access to your emails and can give them to a government authority if given an enforceable request.
The difference is the data at rest protocols on different providers. Proton has zero access encryption for data at rest. It only has access for data in transit and its ephemeral in that once it's done with that transaction, it no longer has that data.