Google Docs, watch out: There’s a new private alternative in town
Say goodbye to the days of having to choose between privacy and online productivity: there’s finally an encrypted document tool available on Proton Drive.
Helping you cut ties with data-hungry big tech apps has been at the heart of Proton’s mission since the beginning to create a better internet where privacy is the default. In addition to secure cloud storage, the Switzerland-based privacy company offers homonymously secure email integrated with encrypted calendaring and one of the best VPN services on the market.
Proton Docs is a way to ensure that document creation and collaboration is both secure and user-friendly. As with all of its products, Docs is completely free to use. It is worth noting that at the time of writing, you can only use the tool on the web.
How does Proton Docs work?
“In a world where big tech companies are continually violating privacy and mishandling data, Docs provides a seamless and reliable solution for document editing and collaboration,” said Anant Vijay Singh, Product Lead for Proton Drive. “Our users can confidently create and share documents knowing their information is protected.”
Docs promises to be powered by the same level of encryption as Proton Drive. Simply put, all documents you create or collaborate on are protected by end-to-end encryption. This means that only the sender and recipient can access the content. The company told me that even changes and keystrokes are encrypted, as are file names and paths.
Thanks to the recent acquisition of encrypted note-taking app Standard Notes, the team has been able to integrate Docs with all the popular features you need for professional use, ranging from markdown and rich text support to code blocks and checklists. Additionally, Docs also supports several document formats, including Microsoft .docx, to ensure seamless integration.
“It was very difficult to create collaborative documents that maintain E2EE. We have never seen anyone else in the market do this,” a Proton spokesperson told me.
The biggest challenges appear to be in the exchange of keys and synchronization of key information, the ability to invite people to collaborate, revoke those permissions, and share documents privately.
What helped the team, the company said, was that Proton Drive was already built with the prospect of adding these capabilities later. In fact, a few weeks before Docs launched, Proton Drive was upgraded with new sharing features in preparation for the integration of the new collaborative tool.
While the new addition will undoubtedly be welcomed by privacy-conscious users looking for a reliable alternative to Google Docs, Proton promises that this is just the first step in making document editing and collaboration more private.
Docs is expected to be upgraded soon with many new features that will improve user experience and productivity, so stay tuned for updates.
In the meantime, both free and paid Proton users can use the Docs tool on the web. Just remember that you’ll need to upgrade to a premium subscription if 5GB of storage isn’t enough for your needs.
For more information, you can visit Proton’s official blog post here.