• by Jess Nelson , November 21, 2016

ProtonMail, an end-to-end encrypted email startup, has seen its customer base soar after the results of the Presidential election in the United States.

The volume of new ProtonMail account registrations more than doubled from November 8 to November 9, according to the company.

In a blog post, the company revealed that user sign-ups began ticking upwards as soon as the election results began streaming in. ProtonMail credits this to a concerned public investigating privacy-focused services after the President-elect’s victory.

ProtonMail was originally founded to create a secure email server in light of the Edward Snowden revelations about NSA surveillance in 2013. The company first launched in 2014 with invite-only sign-ups, gaining more than one million active users before opening its service to the general public this past March. 

ProtonMail also released two mobile applications -- one for iOS and one for Android -- at the same time. 

Based in Geneva, ProtonMail is empowered by strict Swiss privacy laws that are outside the jurisdiction of the United States and European Union. ProtonMail safeguards its users from the type of large-scale government surveillance that Yahoo recently admitted to.

“Given Trump’s campaign rhetoric against journalists, political enemies, immigrants, and Muslims, there is concern that Trump could use the new tools at his disposal to target certain groups,” states the ProtonMail team in its blog post. “As the NSA currently operates completely out of the public eye with very little legal oversight, all of this could be done in secret.” 

Both sides of the political spectrum are representing in ProtonMail’s client list, and the company makes a point to remain unbiased in political affairs.

“ProtonMail users have always come from both the left and right side of the political spectrum,” writes the company’s founders . “Today, we are seeing an influx of liberal users, but ProtonMail has also long been popular with the political right, who were truly worried about big government spying, and the Obama administration having access to their communications. Now the tables have turned.”

Potential users can sign up for the encrypted email service online. ProtonMail offers one free email address, and then an increasing pricing structure for more domains, addresses, storage and messages sent per day.