Proton terms: deletion warnings for inactive free accounts are now 'a mere courtesy' (Oct 2026)

What changed

Proton edited the inactive-accounts section of its Terms of Service, and the page still says "Last modified: October 09, 2026." Free accounts inactive for 12 months or more can have the account and some or all of its data deleted, including Proton Mail emails, Proton Drive files, Proton Calendar entries and Proton Pass passwords. Until yesterday the terms promised: "You will receive notices 30, 15 and 7 days in advance before such action is taken on the recovery email associated with your Account."

As of October 20, 2026 that sentence reads: "As a mere courtesy, the Company will aim to send notice to the recovery email associated with your Account 30, 15 and 7 days in advance before such action is taken." The warnings went from a promise to a best effort. Paid accounts are still always treated as active, and logging in on the web, desktop or mobile apps at least once every 12 months still counts as activity.

Who it affects

Anyone with a free Proton Mail, Drive, Calendar or Pass account they rarely use, especially backup or secondary accounts, and anyone whose recovery email is missing or out of date

Source

Detected on the Proton terms page: https://proton.me/legal/terms. Always check the source; this summary is not legal or financial advice.

· · ·12 months or more, access to your Account and all or part of the data associated with your Account (including but not limited to emails stored in Proton Mail, files stored on Proton Drive, calendar entries in Proton Calendar and passwords in Proton Pass) may be deleted. You will receive notices 30, 15 and 7 days in advance before such action is taken on the recovery email associated with your Account., access to your Account and all or part of the data associated with your Account (including but not limited to emails stored in Proton Mail, files stored on Proton Drive, calendar entries in Proton Calendar and passwords in Proton Pass) may be deleted. As a mere courtesy, the Company will aim to send notice to the recovery email associated with your Account 30, 15 and 7 days in advance before such action is taken.Accounts under an active paid subscription are always considered active and no action will be taken against your paid Account under this section. Terminating your active paid subscription (or being downgraded to free due to a failure to pay for the subscription) will make your Account subject to this section again.

Provenance: detected in our Oct 20 snapshot of the Proton terms page, compared against Oct 19.