Proton Launches Privacy-First AI Assistant with Encrypted Chat and Zero-Log Policy

Privacy-first productivity technology company Proton announced its new AI assistant Lumo on Wednesday, highlighting user data protection as its core design philosophy.

The company states that the chatbot does not retain conversation records. Chat content is stored using end-to-end encryption with a Ghost Mode feature that automatically deletes messages upon closing the window.

Lumo is accessible through web clients and mobile apps for both Android and iOS. Users can engage with the chatbot without account registration, upload files for contextual analysis, or link Proton Drive accounts to access cloud-stored documents. While the chatbot has internet connectivity, real-time search results may not always be available.

Proton emphasizes privacy as its primary focus. The company confirms Lumo utilizes open-source models exclusively for future research and development, rejecting user data harvesting for training purposes. The platform employs zero-knowledge encryption - a security methodology shared across other Proton products - enabling users to store and locally decrypt conversation histories.

In its Lumo blog post, Proton highlights its European infrastructure, asserting this provides stronger privacy advantages compared to AI companies in the United States and China.

"Lumo operates on open-source language models within Proton's European data centers, offering greater transparency than any major AI assistant. Unlike Apple Intelligence, Lumo doesn't rely on partnerships with OpenAI or other US/Chinese AI companies - your queries never reach third parties," stated Proton.

This marks Proton's second foray into AI tools after launching an AI-powered writing assistant for its email service last year, which also runs locally on user devices.