Proton introduces Emergency Access, granting trusted contacts access to your account

Proton has announced a brand-new feature called Emergency Access. With it, users can assign up to five trusted contacts with access to their Proton account in case of an emergency.

“Whether you store critical logins in Proton Pass, government and legal correspondence in your Proton Mail, or financial records in Proton Drive, your digital accounts hold invaluable data. An accident, illness, or other unexpected event could leave your data out of reach, and losing access can be a serious inconvenience for your loved ones during a difficult time,” Daniel Rivera, Product Manager at Proton, wrote in a blog post.

That’s why Proton has released Emergency Access, a new feature that allows dependable friends or colleagues to access sensitive information or personal data stored on your Proton account.

You can assign up to five trusted contacts who can gain access to your account. You can set a wait time as well, ranging from days to months. During the wait time, you can grant access immediately or deny the request. If you don’t respond, the access request will automatically be approved after the designated waiting time.

To assign trusted contacts to your Proton account, you’ll need a paid Proton plan like Proton Unlimited, Proton Family, or Proton Business Suite. All paid subscriptions will give you access to Emergency Access. Users can revoke access at any time. Additionally, your emergency contact must have a Proton account.

Trusted contacts are given access to Proton’s services such as Mail, Pass, Drive, and VPN.

To set up Emergency Access, you’ll first have to log in to your account and select Recovery. There you’ll find the button “Add emergency contact.” Next, you’ll have to enter the email address of your emergency contact, set the wait time for access, and fill out your password to confirm.

In the Recovery tab, you’ll find all of your trusted contacts. Here you can add or remove contacts, change the wait time, or revoke access at any given time.

Trusted contacts will receive an email notifying them they’ve been assigned as an emergency contact. They can use the Recovery tab to request access.