Proton Brings Emergency Access to its Accounts

Proton recently announced that customers with paid plans can give up to five contacts emergency access to their account.

“Your digital life is in your apps, whether it’s your account logins, your files and photos, or your emails,” Proton’s Daniel Rivera writes in the announcement post. “In the case of an emergency, it’s critical that the people you trust can access this information in a secure way.”

Proton’s new Emergency Access feature lets you identify up to five trusted contacts who can securely access your Proton account immediately or after a customizable time. These contacts also need a Proton account, though it can be a free account.

When you assign trust contacts in your account settings, you assign each with a wait time. If the contact attempts to access your account, you will be notified, and you can confirm or deny the request. If you don’t respond, they will have to wait until the wait time elapses before they can do so.

“Unlike other platforms that offer emergency access services such as Google, Proton’s Emergency Access doesn’t rely on inactivity to determine whether to grant access to third parties, which can undermine your data security,” Rivera explains. “We also don’t limit emergency access to one product, which creates unnecessary headaches for those who may need urgent access to information stored in various Proton apps.”

This is good timing: I’ve been writing an article called Succession for my Online Accounts (2025) series, and this feature will play a central role in my own succession plans, as I use Proton to manage my account passwords and 2FA codes.

You can learn more about Emergency Access on the Proton Support website.