The Vergecast · Wednesday, July 15, 2026
In a discussion on the systems that run the world, Bartlomej 'Bart' Buter, CTO of Proton, stated that creating secure backdoors for governments is impossible. He warned that forcing companies to comply with such measures could lead them to leave certain jurisdictions.
“I'm talking with Bart Buter, the CTO of Proton, the company that makes private and secure productivity software.”
“It's impossible to create a back door that can only be used by the good guys.”
“Often the response is, well, if you change the legal foundation here, we will leave. Yeah. How real is that?”
“It's dead serious.”