How we use Zendesk to support our customers

We’re committed to providing the highest quality support to all of our customers. When you contact Proton, you’ll get a fast, clear answer from someone who understands your problem.

In addition to our headquarters in Switzerland, we have contact centers in Taiwan and North Macedonia. Our global presence allows us to provide a quick and efficient service, 24/7.

In this article, we explain how we use Zendesk to connect with customers who need help, route and prioritize support requests, monitor response quality, and maintain service levels as our user base grows. We also outline alternative contact options for those who would like them.

• How we use Zendesk’s support platform
• How we use Zendesk’s AI assistant
• Privacy and data protection with Zendesk
• Alternative contact methods

How we use Zendesk’s support platform

When you submit a support form from proton.me/support or one of our apps, we use Zendesk’s support platform to direct your query to the Proton advisor best equipped to help with your issue. Once our advisor has seen your request, they’ll reply to you through Zendesk’s communication platform.

To protect your information, all communications made through Zendesk are encrypted in transit via industry-standard TLS (1.2 or higher) and AES-256 at rest.

How we use Zendesk’s AI assistant

In 2026, we launched an AI assistant powered by Zendesk. The AI assistant works with our publicly available support articles and the process documentation our customer support team uses.

When you start a chat with our AI assistant, it will:

• Search its knowledge for relevant answers to your question and respond in natural language.
• Provide sources to any knowledge base articles it used.
• Escalate your request to a human if needed, and ask you for the information our Proton advisors need to investigate the issue.

We’ll always let you know when you’re speaking to an AI. We also understand that AI can make mistakes, and might not be able to solve more complex issues. So if you want to continue your conversation with a real expert from our team, you can request a human advisor at any time.

Why we added AI support

Proton will always provide human support. AI is not a replacement for humans. We have not made, nor do we plan on making, any headcount reductions as a result of the implementation of this new tooling. We’re continuing to expand our support team to make sure that a human expert is available to anyone who needs one.

But as our user base grows, so does the volume of support requests. And often, the answers to those requests are already available on our support sites (proton.me/support and protonvpn.com/support(new window)).

We added an AI-powered assistant to our support options so we can:

• Provide instant answers to common questions. Customers don’t have to manually browse our support library or wait for an advisor to become available.
• Give our customer support advisors more time to work on complex issues.
• Keep offering fast, high-quality customer support to both free and paid users without skyrocketing costs.

Privacy and data protection with Zendesk

Proton will never compromise on privacy. Our partnership with Zendesk is governed by strong privacy contracts. Our legal and security teams have thoroughly reviewed all data protection aspects and security safeguards, including how data is handled in practice.

Internal account data

Neither Zendesk or the AI assistant has access to Proton’s internal systems or customer account data. The AI works with our public knowledge base and process documentation only.

Conversation data

The information you share during a conversation through the Zendesk platform is handled only for support purposes under our contractual and technical safeguards. It cannot be shared with outside parties or used to train AI models.

Learn more

• Proton Terms of Service
• Proton Privacy Policy
• Proton VPN Privacy Policy(new window)

You can find out more about how Zendesk processes customer data on their website:

• Zendesk’s Commitment to International Standards for Information Security(new window)
• Zendesk AI data use policy(new window)
• Generative AI at Zendesk(new window)

Alternative contact methods

If you don’t want to contact us through Zendesk, you can email us at contact@proton.me and contact@protonvpn.com. Your conversation will stay within Proton Mail and use end-to-end encryption (as long as you message us from a Proton Mail address).

Learn more about Proton Mail’s encryption

Our team will get back to you as soon as they can, but it may take us a bit longer to reply. That’s because direct email requests aren’t connected to our support platform, so our team has to check and triage them manually.